Ta-ta Yaya? Sorry the hardest word for Toure as Etihad legend looks set to sink without trace

There are, as even some close to Yaya Toure accept, only three ways out of his current predicament. Either he sacks Dimitri Seluk as his agent, apologises to Pep Guardiola or he does not play for Manchester City again.

If the first alternative would be the most logical and enjoyable for most of us, to presume that will happen is to underestimate the often inexplicable faith the Ivorian has in his long-term representative. A man who was regarded as one of the most laidback and likeable at the Etihad Stadium has a stubborn streak which may make the second choice unlikely.

And so it feels a probability that the last sighting of Toure in a City shirt came against Steaua Bucharest on 24 August, a match with the feel of a dead rubber that he ended ambling around in attack, a sedate, slow-motion antidote to Guardiola’s high-speed pressing game.

If so, it will be an anti-climactic conclusion to what has been the most significant Manchester City career of modern times. Toure had declined in the previous two seasons and he has been downgraded and demoted by Guardiola, but that should not obscure his importance in the grander scheme of things. There is a case for anointing David Silva, the artist and aesthete, as City’s greatest player: certainly in the 21^st century and perhaps even when legends of bygone days such as Bert Trautmann, Colin Bell and Francis Lee are considered.

Sergio Aguero has been the most dynamic and destructive, the finest striker of his generation in the Premier League and a forward destined to end his career as City’s record scorer. Vincent Kompany and Pablo Zabaleta are the imports who arrived as outsiders and became adopted Mancunians, men who forged an emotional connection with the club and its fans.

Yet none had quite the transformational effect Toure did. He made a colossal contribution in the winning of each of the five big pieces of silverware City have secured in the Sheikh Mansour era. He joined a club that had not lifted a major trophy since 1976: Oxford, Wimbledon and Luton had tasted glory more recently. Rewind to 2010, when he swapped Barcelona for City, and a banner hung from the upper tier of the Stretford End at Old Trafford.

It was a permanent taunt from Manchester United. It had ticked over to 35, one for each year since 1976, when Toure ensured it had to be removed. He cleared a psychological hurdle. He scored City’s FA Cup semi-final winner against United at Wembley in 2011. For good measure, he added the only goal in the final against Stoke. Roberto Mancini spent much of his time talking about mentality; Toure, more than anyone else, gave City a winning mentality.

The sense that he was the man who swung the balance of power in Manchester was underlined the following year. United went to the Etihad Stadium with three games to go and a three-point lead. Kompany got the only goal, but Toure ran the game. Sir Alex Ferguson changed tactics to try and halt him. He recalled his resident big-match destroyer, Ji-sung Park. Toure effectively ended the South Korean’s United career. He was at his rampaging best. Park was subdued and substituted.

Six days later, City went to Newcastle. After three-quarters of the game, they were drawing 0-0. Toure duly struck twice. Immortality followed for Aguero with his extraordinary injury-time winner against QPR in the final seconds of the season, but Toure laid the groundwork in the preceding two matches.

Come the 2013-14 campaign and he was the personification of the ultra-attacking approach Manuel Pellegrini adopted. City scored 156 goals in all competitions. Toure, who had never previously topped 12 in a season, struck 24 times. Most remarkably, 20 came in the Premier League. He joined Frank Lampard in a select group of two midfielders to reach that milestone in a season. At times, he was, as he seemed at his best, unstoppable.

Factor in two League Cup finals, one with a stunning equaliser against Sunderland, the other with the decisive penalty in the shootout against Liverpool, and he was the big man for the big occasion, a formidable physical force with enviable technical expertise, a player who arrived as a supposed defensive midfielder and who proved himself to be a hugely accomplished attacking one. He was not the first superstar City signed when they joined the ranks of the super-rich, but he was the first who turned spenders into serial winners.

It is why he should not be remembered for rows about birthday cakes or for his agent’s verbal assaults on Guardiola. They are Seluk’s fault, ways in which he tarnishes his client’s image and which mean he could spent the next nine months as a highly-paid spectator. But Toure’s legacy should be safe. It is apparent in the trophy cabinet at the Etihad Stadium.