The Fans Football Blog3

Asked about the rumours linking Barcelona defensive midfielder and Ivory Coast international Yaya Touré (25) with a move away from Barcelona (read more here), the player's agent Dimitri Seluk has said in an interview with Catalan radio station RAC 1 that the key element could be the renewal negotiations on the player's salary:

"It's one hundred per cent certain that the player will stay with Barcelona until the end of the season because he wants to stay here. But in June anything can happen because Touré has important offers and I'm sure the club will also receive bids for the player. Touré is playing well and we should take into account that despite having performed at a good level since he joined Barcelona, he still keeps earning the same as when he played with Monaco."

Madrid sports tabloid Marca claims that Touré would at this moment being paid little more than 2 million euro a year while Manchester City could now have offered the Ivorian midfielder a year salary of 6,5 million euro gross.

Barcelona and Touré agreed in 2007 that the player would receive the same salary as he was getting at Monaco but that if things were going well, he would be offered a better contract for this season. But last summer the club argued that a rise wasn't an option because the club didn't win any trophies, while Touré thought he deserved it based on his individual performances. With both Touré and his agent losing money, the player would now be open to listen to offers from foreign clubs.

Despite Touré being happy at the club, Touré will start talking with other clubs if no renewal negotiations are started this year. The tabloid claims that Barcelona manager Josep Guardiola considers Touré to be a decent player but isn't a big fan of the midefielder. Taking into consideration the breakthrough of Busquets, it's uncertain if Barcelona is willing to offer Touré a better contract.

Read more:
Toure leaves all future options open
Bid from Manchester City for Toure
Toure is again an option for Arsenal