Report: Yaya Toure rejects £430K-a-week switch to China
It seems Yaya Toure has bought into the Pep Guardiola regime.
The bulky Ivorian, ushered back into the Manchester City midfield in November after being out of favour under the Spanish tactician, has spurned wages of £430,000 a week from an unnamed Chinese Super League outfit to remain in Eastlands, reports BBC Sport's Simon Stone.
The 33-year-old was apparently subject to interest from the spendthrift East Asian league last summer, with Sky Sports News HQ reporting a £520,000-a-week offer from Jiangsu Suning during that period, but he decided against a move on that occasion.
This latest reported refusal to cash in in China leaves Toure's contract precariously nearing its expiration in June.
Stones believes that Toure still enjoys the English game, hence he hasn't signed with another club despite being open to discuss terms overseas since Jan. 1. However, he's yet to receive assurances from Guardiola that his future beyond the summer lies at the Etihad Campus.
Jiangsu Suning, the summer's alleged interested party, was the destination for Ramires when he made a £21-million move to China in January 2016. If Jiangsu was on the Toure hunt again, it would necessitate plenty of squad rotation from head coach Choi Yong-soo due to recent rules limiting the fielding of foreign players.
Shu Yuhui, the owner of Tianjin Quanjian, revealed that these new stipulations have prevented his newly promoted outfit from acquiring Chelsea's Diego Costa, along with a legion of big-name strikers including Paris Saint-Germain's Edinson Cavani and Real Madrid's Karim Benzema.
Related - Tianjin Quanjian owner: Rule changes scuppered Costa, Benzema moves
Toure's value at City has risen exponentially in recent months, and this interest could prompt the club to try extending his stay in Manchester into its eighth season. Until the start of November, Toure was excluded from first-team matters following a war of words between his agent, Dimitri Seluk, and Guardiola.
The ex-Barcelona and Bayern Munich handler vowed to not deploy Toure until he issued an apology, and shortly after hearing the midfielder's remorse, he was given an unexpected starting berth against Crystal Palace on Nov. 19 and scored a brace. Following the recent suspension to Fernandinho and the long-term injury to Ilkay Gundogan, Toure's position in the senior setup has strengthened.
Excepting Gabriel Jesus' eventual arrival, City has yet to sign somebody in the January transfer window ahead of Saturday's visit from in-form Tottenham Hotspur.