That's sort of what I was getting at. Yaya was a big player in his head and in the head of many for Barcelona. Despite playing all those games for them, Pep outright told him that there was no longer a place in the squad for him because Biscuits was the better player and for him to move along which resulted in the move to us.
The bigger thing for me though is that I just don't see how he fits into the Pep system especially if the rumours of Xhaka and Gundogan are true (and they seem to be). There's also the point that he's not a homegrown player which is something we're going to have to think about again if we sign one or two new centre mids.
There just seems to be many reasons pointing for him to go and very few pointing to him staying. The Chinese have a summer transfer window in June and with our connections there, we might get a really top price for him and he'll still be earning absolute top dollar without any ill feelings. Makes a lot of sense for all parties for me.