Manchester City midfielder Yaya Touré. (Photo : Getty Images)
Manchester City midfielder Yaya Touré is resolved to stay at the Etihad this summer despite reports of a £577,000 weekly wage offer from an unnamed Chinese Super League club.
SB Nation reported that the 33-year-old Ivory Coast international "is still one of the top players in the Premier League" even while he was limited to only six goals in 29 appearances in the recently concluded English top flight season.
Speculations have emerged that Touré will again be sold by incoming head coach Pep Guardiola this summer, who did it the first time when the two are still together with FC Barcelona in La Liga back in the summer of 2010. Guardiola, then the Blaugrana manager, had intended to make an overhaul of his midfield options and sold Touré to City for £24 million in August of that year.
It was initially reported that the Ivorian central midfielder is worried that he may suffer the same fate again this time around and so he was allegedly searching for a way out of the Etihad at the end of the season.
However, recent reports are out that the 6-foot-2 Bouaké, Ivory Coast native changed his mind and now wants to continue to be with City for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile, Daily Mail Online noted that Touré would have been the world's third highest-paid footballer behind Barça's Lionel Messi and Real Madrid's Cristiano Ronaldo if he had accepted the £577,000 a week salary offered by the Chinese club.
The report also said that Jiangsu Suning FC is one of three CSL teams that are rumored to be the generous buyer of Touré, but the deal fell through after he rejected the offer.
It was also said that aside from wanting to stay playing in the Premier League, Touré is concerned about his family, who is now already established in Cheshire, North West England near Manchester, and would be reluctant to make a relocation.
Nevertheless, Touré loyalty toward City may not be rewarded as he is allegedly not in the future plans of the other Manchester club. There were even speculated suggestions that "the player could buy himself out of the final year of his contract".
Touré was said to be keen on moving to another Premier League squad if City does not want him at the Etihad anymore next season.
