Tuesday 17 May 2016 11:08, UK
If this is the end of Yaya Toure at Manchester City, it does not befit his importance to the club, writes Adam Bate.
It was the 92nd minute before Yaya Toure got onto the pitch at Swansea on Sunday. He didn't touch the ball. There was only time for 250 metres of jogging before the whistle blew on Manchester City's season - and perhaps Toure's career at the club.
The player's keener critics could well feel that was appropriate enough given his reputation for strolling through games. But while Manuel Pellegrini was afforded a farewell, it would represent a sad finale for one of the finest footballers in the club's history.
And yet, Toure has long been a curious character. There have been the sulks over birthday cakes and player of the year awards. "Maybe it's more the image, the body language," wondered Pellegrini. For some, it's succeeded in masking just how brilliant he has been.
"There isn't another Yaya," former City boss Roberto Mancini once said. "Yaya is fantastic because he has everything - he is strong, quick, has good technique, and can play in different positions. He is like Ruud Gullit for me - a player of that kind." A big-game player, too.
Mario Balotelli got the man of the match award for the 2011 FA Cup final, but it was Toure who scored the goal. He scored again at Wembley in the 2014 Capital One Cup final against Sunderland - a brilliant curling equaliser to change the course of the contest.
Sergio Aguero scored the most famous City goal of them all against Queens Park Rangers in 2012, but Toure's brace in a 2-0 win at St James' Park a week earlier - against a Newcastle side that had won six of their previous seven - shouldn't be forgotten either.
And while it was Liverpool's Luis Suarez who walked away with the individual awards for his efforts in the 2013/14 season, Toure's 20 goals from midfield delivered his team the title. It was an extraordinary campaign for the Ivorian.
There were the free-kicks. Against Newcastle, Hull, Norwich and Fulham. The nerveless penalties too. But perhaps most evocative of the Toure of that time were the driving runs - powering from the halfway line to score against Cardiff, Crystal Palace and Aston Villa.
Toure scored seven in his last eight games that season as City edged out Liverpool. Twenty goals from only 64 shots. His conversion rate from outside the box was better than the average Premier League conversion rate for shots inside the box. It was some performance.
If that year highlighted his importance to City, the team's reliance on him brought criticism when things did not go his way. That's been particularly apparent when used in a midfield two as his lack of obvious defensive work proved problematic.
When he does well, the team does well.
Pellegrini once stated "I want him to be free" - but it meant so much onus was on him. "When he does well, the team does well," said skipper Vincent Kompany. As a result, in a trophyless 2014/15, Toure's culpability was more pronounced. Consistency never returned.
Pellegrini has defended his man many times, even willing to wade into the debate about Toure's running stats, but it was not the most convincing of arguments and the evidence did not support him.
In fact, Pellegrini was rather more accurate in admitting late last year that he hoped to "see the return of the Yaya of one season ago, not last season when he had so many problems". It was a forlorn hope and theories abound as to why.
The tragic death of brother Ibrahim in June 2014 should not be overlooked, of course, and Toure's accusation that the club denied the two time together offers an insight into the mind of a man who might have been demotivated to scale such professional heights again.
Perhaps it's merely that age has taken its toll on the now 33-year-old midfielder. After all, it's 15 summers since he arrived in Europe full of hopes and dreams. But just about all of those dreams have since come true.
Toure is a two-time Premier League champion. He has won everything there is to win in England. With Barcelona, he won everything there is to win in Europe - collecting six trophies in a single year in 2009.
That the man with whom those prizes were won appears to be hastening Toure's exit seems to sum it up. The opportunity to drop back and become the ball-playing defender Pep Guardiola craves might still be there. Instead, there appears little appetite for compromise.
If that's the case, Toure's last start for City was the insipid display at Real Madrid and his final game will forever be that brief appearance at Swansea. But, in time, City supporters will content themselves to remember better times. "He's done so much for this club," said Kompany. Few have done more.
