Toure to stay at City ‘as long as possible’

Yaya Toure has reaffirmed his commitment to Manchester City and said he wants to stay at the club for "as long as possible".

The Ivory Coast international has been persistently linked with a move away from Eastlands this summerafter his agent Dimitry Seluksuggested the 31-year-old felt he had been treated disrespectfully by the club.

Toure then suffered the heartache of losing his younger brother Ibrahim to cancer, while his country’s World Cup campaign floundered, but the former Barcelona midfielder now feels composed and ready to focus on City again.

“It was not a case of leaving the club. It was difficult because my situation was quite difficult,” he told the club’s official website.

“For me I was always quiet and my decision, if you want to say it like that, is that I will stay at Manchester City for as long as possible.”

Toure, who signed a new four-year deal last season, is also targeting more trophies and wants to see reinforcements arrive in the next few weeks to make it easier to fight on multiple fronts.