Manchester United and Arsenal are rumored to be interested in acquiring out-of-place Manchester City midfielder Yaya Touré, but his agent said that such a move would be "impossible" at this time.
Dimitri Seluk, Touré's agent, disclosed that his client attracted the interest of Man United and Arsenal after the 33-year-old Ivory Coast international had been left on the bench by new City head coach Pep Guardiola in the first three games of the current season.
SkySports reported that Touré had become a "surplus to requirements" at the Etihad under the new regime of Guardiola and was even "left out of their 21-man Champions League squad".
Guardiola and Touré has a shaky history between them since they last worked together in Barcelona from 2008 to 2010. The Spanish manager was responsible for selling him to City in the summer of 2010 despite his objections about the move.
However, Seluk claimed that a move to United or Arsenal "would be impossible" as he also revealed that the 6-foot-2 Bouaké, Ivory Coast native has offers coming from "China, Turkey, Italy, and the United States" and that he will "look to sign a pre-contract agreement with another club in January" when the new transfer window opens.
"Yaya in January can sign a pre-contract agreement with clubs abroad," said Seluk. "He will have many offers from clubs. China and America of course they want him but we will have a lot of offers from England and Europe."
Touré's contract with City is set to expire at the end of the season. He had won two Premier League trophies in six years with the Citizens, appearing in a total of 266 games in all competitions and scoring 75 times mainly in a defensive role.
There were speculations that the Ivorian is out of shape and not in top physical fitness, which is why Guardiola is not utilizing him. But the agent rebuffed it.
"He (Touré) is in very good shape, very good condition, I think he lost seven kilograms," Seluk said, via Caught Offside. "Maybe that's not good enough for Guardiola, but then Zlatan Ibrahimović wasn't good enough for him (at Barcelona)."
Seluk then issued a warning that Guardiola and City is set to lose a lot of African fans because of the way he treats Touré.
"They will lose a lot of millions of supporters from Africa because of this decision from Guardiola," the agent said, ahead of the Manchester derby this Saturday. "Now they will support Manchester United. A lot of people in Africa say they will never see any more matches of City on TV."
