OPINION
Manuel Pellegrini has revealed that he had the chance to bring free agent Yaya Toure to the London Stadium, but he decided against signing the Ivory Coast international.
The Chilean could have linked up with his former Manchester City charge once again, but the Hammers boss felt that his team was well covered in central midfield.
“I spoke with Yaya, I know how I appreciate him as a person, as a player. I think he is a very good player,” he told the London Evening Standard. “In the moment that we were doing our squad list, that position was covered by other players.”
Pellegrini was absolutely correct to abandon a nostalgic move for a man who is past his best. Toure may still be a useful midfielder off the bench, but he is no longer good enough to be a regular player for a club like West Ham.
He would, however, demand a star player’s salary, something which made his switch to the Hammers an impossibility. Everybody knows how much Toure was on at City, and it’s unlikely he will have dropped his wage demands too much despite his increased age.
Couple that with the fact that Pellegrini regards his midfield as well stocked, and it means that a glamorous move for the former Premier League winner was never going to get off the ground.
He is simply not needed at the London Stadium. Jack Wilshere, despite his slow start, must be given time to become the player he can be, while Mark Noble, Carlos Sanchez and Pedro Obiang give Pellegrini other options. Add in Declan Rice, who can operate in the centre of midfield, and you begin to see why the Toure move was abandoned.
An expensive move for an overpriced, past his best player is the sort of thing that bad teams do. West Ham don’t want to be a bad team, they want to compete near the top of the table. For all his pedigree, the 2018 edition of Yaya Toure wouldn’t help them do that.
From both a financial and a sporting point of view, this deal was a lame duck. Pellegrini likely only entertained it for as long as he did because he knows and likes Toure, while his agent Dimitry Seluk’s tweet about a medical in London was pure mischief.
The Hammers did the right thing in passing up on Toure. The club has moved passed misguided moves like this, and their refusal to deal here proves it.
