YAYA TOURE WANTS TO STAY AT MANCHESTER CITY

Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure declared he wants to stay at the club for "as long as possible".

Yaya Toure wants to remain at Manchester City

There are speculations this summer suggesting that the 31-year-old Ivory Coast international was unhappy at Etihad Stadium.

The player's agent, Dimitry Seluk, had claimed Toure felt "disrespected" by the Premier League champions' owners.

A poor World Cup with the Ivory Coast and the death of his younger brother Ibrahim to cancer saw further doubt cast on Toure's City future, but the former Barcelona midfielder insists he is going nowhere.

"It was not a case of leaving the club. It was difficult because my situation was quite difficult," he told the club's official website.

"For me I was always quiet and my decision, if you want to say it like that, is that I will stay at Manchester City for as long as possible."

Toure, who scored 24 goals and contributed 12 assists from 49 appearances for City last season, hopes the club reinforce the squad in the coming weeks in order to challenge on multiple fronts.

"I hope a couple of players sign in because we need to try to build a massive club because if we want to be the best we need to win every trophy possible," he added.

"We are looking for the Champions League - that is an important title this year and the Premier League is going to be a battle as well between Chelsea, United, Arsenal, Tottenham and Liverpool too.

"I think it's going to be very open. We know we are the team to beat but we have the confidence and we have the fantastic players coming and I hope this year's going to be the same."