The arrival of Sevilla’s Seydou Keita at Barcelona this summer was supposed to significantly limit Yaya Toure’s appearances this campaign and thus pave the way for a move to a Premier League side.

Yaya, 25, though has found himself in the starting line-up for the majority of La Blaugrana’s games, and even recently scored a fantastic effort against Real Mallorca in the Primera Division on the first weekend of 2009.

With speculation accelerating in England linking Manchester City and Yaya’s brother – Arsenal’s Kolo Toure – it would not have been far fetched to assume that City’s board believed that the capture of Kolo may have made their attempts to sign Yaya seem less futile. This especially holds as one of Yaya’s long-term ambitions is to play on the same club side as his older brother.
After Barca’s 3-1 first leg win over Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey last night, Yaya is reported to have said: “When a big club calls you it is very a good thing.

“I am an African player and when a large club like Arsenal or Manchester City call you, it makes you happy because all the African players want to play with a big club.”

He continued: “But right now I play for Barcelona and I want to make everything work and then after I will see.”

“If I went there [Arsenal] I could play with my brother and that is something I have thought about for a long time,” he concluded.

Yaya Toure is regarded as one of the hottest defensive midfielders on the continent, and would likely fetch a transfer fee in excess of €20 million.

goal.com