Yaya Toure has reaffirmed his commitment to Manchester City and said he wants to stay at the club for "as long as possible".
The Ivory Coast international has been persistently linked with a move away from Eastlands this summer after his agent Dimitry Seluk suggested the 31-year-old felt he had been treated disrespectfully by the club.
Toure then suffered the heartache of losing his younger brother Ibrahim to cancer, while his country's World Cup campaign floundered, but the former Barcelona midfielder now feels composed and ready to focus on City again.
"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."
Given he was the linchpin in City's title winning midfield last year that will be music to the ears of their fans who are hoping they can do it all again and also push on in Europe.
Toure, who signed a new four-year deal last season, is also targeting more trophies and wants to see reinforcements arrive in the next few weeks to make it easier to fight 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."
Source: PA
