Toure happy at City says Pellegrini

Yaya Toure is still happy at Manchester City despite reports the Ivory Coast midfielder is keen to leave at the end of the season, manager Manuel Pellegrini insisted on Friday.

Toure sparked a fresh round of speculation over his future this week when he said he was open to “new challenges”.

That has been interpreted as a hint he could look to move on, with Paris Saint Germain and Inter Milan believed to be interested, while the Ivorian’s agent Dimitri Seluk has also made critical comments about City.

But both Toure and Seluk have criticised City over the past two seasons, with the player still remaining in Manchester once the controversy died down.

And Pellegrini sees no reason why that shouldn’t be the case again this time.

“Maybe the new challenge is at City also,” he said. “There are lot of different places you can have it but City also is a challenge and I am sure Yaya is very happy here.

“We have a project here, every year we are trying to improve.

“Maybe you cannot win titles every year but I think the project of the club is to improve the squad, to improve as a club so there are a lot of important things and I think it is an important challenge.”

Toure’s agent last week described Pellegrini as “a good coach, but a weak manager” while also criticising other people at the club.

But Pellegrini refused to be drawn into a row, saying: “You already asked me at the last press conference the same question. I say the same answer. I don’t talk about Yaya’s agent. Everyone can talk what he wants.”