Yaya Toure threatens to quit Manchester City over birthday snub

To mark his 31st, City congratulated him on Twitter:

They also bought him a cake and sang to him (at 2:40, though he doesn’t take his headphones off):

But it wasn’t enough. His agent Dimitry Seluk explained to the BBC:

He got a cake but when it was Roberto Carlos’s birthday, the president of Anzhi gave him a Bugatti. I don’t expect City to present Yaya with a Bugatti, we only asked that they shook his hand and said ‘we congratulate you’. It is the minimum they must do when it is his birthday and the squad is all together.

I hear one newspaper has written that City congratulated him from Twitter but this is a joke. It is better they don’t put anything on Twitter if they are not saying anything to him. The club’s owners ate a 100kg cake after winning the Premier League this season but when they and the players were all together, none of them shook his hand on his birthday. It shows they don’t care about him.

Some of you may recall last season, when around this time Seluk again complained that Toure wasn’t getting enough respect. On that occasion, Toure was so angry he signed a new four-year contract on improved wages shortly afterwards. But Seluk was quick to dismiss any suggestions that something similar could be going on:

No. Money is not important. He has enough money. The most important thing is a human relationship and maybe this is his opportunity for Yaya to find that. If City don’t respect him, then easy - Yaya will leave. No problem. It is more important he plays for a club that respects him more than having a few thousand pounds added to his salary. I have spoken to him about leaving and we will see what happens, but, at the moment, Yaya is really upset.

Poor Yaya. And poor City. Imagine losing your best player because nobody could be bothered to shake his hand.

Update: Oh my.