Yes, this season may barely be a month old, but that’s not stopping people from making bold predictions about Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City side.
With five Premier League matches played and three in Europe (two qualifiers), Guardiola boasts a 100% record for his new club.
It’s already caused people to speculate whether City can be the next Invincibles and, much to to the annoyance of their manager, whether they can compete for trophies on four different fronts.
Although Pep may be keen to play down suggestions of a quadruple, if they are to even get close to it, City’s players know they’ll be playing lots of football from now until the end of the season.
Yaya Toure is yet to feature this year, but doesn’t appear to have given up hope of playing a part in his club’s quest for success this season.
The Ivorian has announced that he has retired from international football, although made a point of stressing that the decision to call time on playing for his country had nothing to do with ‘the intensity of training and the multitude of games’.
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Toure, who has won the African Footballer of the Year four times and was part of the Ivory Coast team that won the Africa Cup of Nations last year, said in a statement:
‘Football is everything to me and it gave me so much in my career that I no longer feel able to set myself new goals as a player with the Elephants of Ivory Coast.
‘This decision I have made has come gradually, it has slowly matured in my head. I definitely thought it necessary wait until the qualifying stages for the next AFCON were over.
‘It was also important for me that I do not disturb the dynamics of the national team.’
Read it in full here.
