Former Manchester City midfielder Stephen Ireland has revealed that Yaya Toure asked him not to leave the club back in 2010.
Ask any City fan who there favourite player of the mid-to-late 2000s was, and there's a good chance they'll say Ireland. The Irish midfielder established himself in City's first team in the 2007/08 season after rising up through the club's youth ranks, and quickly set about thrilling supporters long-starved of quality football.
Ireland continued to impress the following season with City under the ownership of Sheikh Mansour, but in 2009/10 his role in the side diminished and he left for Aston Villa at the end of the season as part of a deal that saw James Milner move to the Etihad Stadium.
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With Ireland there's a feeling that perhaps he was slightly ahead of his time, and that he was an unfortunate victim of the start of a new era at City. Former City defender Nedum Onuoha has previously labelled Ireland as one of the best players he ever played with, but when Roberto Mancini became City boss the midfielder was deemed surplus to requirements.
Ireland claims that Mancini just didn't fancy him, but that Toure, one of the most important players in the club's history, wanted him to stay.
"When Mark Hughes left, and Roberto Mancini came in, I did start to feel a bit of imposter syndrome kicking in, to be honest with you," Ireland exclusively told Ladbrokes: Fanzone. "I felt like things were moving a bit too fast, the whole project was outgrowing me.
"It didn't matter what I did between Monday and Friday, it was completely irrelevant because by the time game day came around, those £30m players on 200 or 300 grand a week were going to play. I genuinely thought - and still think - that I was as good, if not better, than some of the guys that were coming in.
"I can remember during pre-season in New York, Yaya Toure came and spoke to me. I'd only been training with him for a couple of weeks, but he just said to me 'do not leave.' He really didn't want me to go, but in the end I was forced out, I had to train on my own and ended up leaving as part of a deal to bring James Milner in.
"I should've dug my heels in a bit more, but at the same time, when you know you're not wanted somewhere, it's very hard to respond that way. A lot of people would've sat back and smoked a cigar for a few years and relaxed, but that just wasn't in my nature."
Between 2005 and 2010 Ireland made 175 appearances in all competitions for City, scoring 23 goals and providing 25 assists.
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