After all,
Jose Mourinho is looking to replace Michael Carrick this summer.
“Yeah he just left,” Toure tells MEN Sport. “Let’s see, let’s see.”
Seriously?
“I don’t rule big teams out. The big teams are very important for me. What they want to achieve, the way they want to go, for me is very important.
“I want to go somewhere I can win and achieve.
“It’s going to be hard one day to play against City, but I have to do that. It is part of my job.
“I’ve been playing football for such a long time, I’m no good in the office or something else. I am good in football.
“To see myself at a different club is going to be difficult. I have been such a big part of City for such a long time now. I just want to say that definitely I will continue to play at a high level - Champions League or Europa League.
“I want to play two more years. They have to be in the higher level and then I can do something else.”
If Toure is looking to the future, so is Pep Guardiola, who has made replacing the 35-year-old his priority this summer.
Napoli midfielder Jorginho is among the Catalan’s top candidates to fill that berth.
But asked if he could hand pick his own replacement, Toure returns the theme to United.
“I love Paul Pogba,” he says. “I love Kevin (de Bruyne) as well and I love (David) Silva. Silva was my player.
“It is difficult because you have to be good on all things. Silva is short and strong.
“Pogba - it’s difficult because of the way the media has treated him. We don’t have the same characteristics because for me I was involved in all the ball, I ran everywhere.
“I liked that. I was prepared for that. I was working for that for a long time.
“When I was in the academy in Africa I had to run everywhere, get box to box in 50 seconds. It’s something I’ve been loving to do.
“Pogba is the same size, power - but different in the way he wants to go. Technically as well, the ability to score goals as well. It is a player I want to play with, to be honest, just to teach him some things.”
It is a measure of his success at the Etihad - winning three Premier League titles, the FA Cup and three League Cups - that talk of his astronomical wages soon dissipated.
Pogba - who faces an uncertain future at Old Trafford after being dropped by Mourinho this season - could do worse than listen to ‘Uncle Yaya’ - as he was known among his City teammates.
“Pogba is a great player,” he says. “He’s a fantastic player. He’s a little bit young at the moment.
“Criticism is a part of life. If they criticise you it’s because they want you to be good or be better.
“I’ve been criticised and I love to be criticised. I like it. I don’t mind if people talk about me - it’s good. It means I have to achieve, I have to be better.
“Even if you continue to be at the peak of your game, sometimes they are going to find something to tell you. It’s part of life. We have to deal with that.”
No way
we might as well sign Peter Crouch while we're at it.
