Yaya Touré has created confusion over whether he is happy at Manchester City by dismissing but then endorsing some extraordinary claims from his agent.
The influential midfielder first brushed off suggestions from his representative that he could quit City because he felt disrespected and strongly reinforced his commitment to the club.
But around an hour later, Touré issued statements in support of Dimitry Seluk, whose most remarkable complaint was that City failed to sufficiently acknowledge the player's birthday.
Touré tweeted: “Everything dimitry said is true. He speaks for me. I will give an interview after world cup to explain.”
Seluk said Touré was "very upset" and there was a "big possibility" he could leave the club this summer because he felt under-appreciated. He said the player found it particularly hurtful that no one from the club wished him a happy birthday when he turned 31 during last week's post-season trip to Abu Dhabi.
This grievance was soon exposed as untrue as media quickly picked up on a video published by the club last week, in which Touré was presented a birthday cake.
City also tweeted a birthday message at the time.
That prompted Seluk to attempt to clarify his remarks by insisting those measures did not go far enough. Seluk told BBC Sport: “None of them shook his hand on his birthday. It’s really sick you know.
“He got a cake but when it was Roberto Carlos’s birthday, the president of Anzhi gave him a Bugatti.
“I don’t expect City to present Yaya with a Bugatti, we only asked that they shook his hand and said, ‘we congratulate you’. It is the minimum they must do when it is his birthday and the squad is all together.
“It is an important human relationship to shake hands and say ‘happy birthday’ but nobody did it to Yaya. It shows they don’t care about him.
“I hear one newspaper has written that City congratulated him from Twitter but this is a joke.”
City did not respond to these remarks but, given that Touré signed a new four-year contract last season, there was a feeling they may not have been particularly concerned.
In fact, Seluk does have a history of threatening his client’s exit, having done so in each of the last two years at City and during his time at Barcelona.
Last year, he demanded that a new contract be agreed by a certain deadline only for that to pass and Touré, with little apparent complaint, to sign a new four-year deal a month later.
Seluk, however, insisted he was not trying to engineer talks over another new contract. He said in The Sun: “He’s very upset and he started thinking of leaving the club. And he will leave if things carry on like this.
“It’s not a question of money or contract, believe me. He has everything he needs. For Yaya what is the most important thing is human relationships.”
Both the agent and player were starting to come in for ridicule on social media as the story gathered momentum when Touré weighed in.
Initially it seemed he had put an end to the matter as he tweeted: “Thanks for all the birthday messages today. Card from City just arrived... Must have got lost in the post. Haha.
“Jokes aside. Please do not take words that do not come out of MY mouth seriously. Judge my commitment to MCFC by my performances.”
Yet soon after, Touré appeared to perform a volte-face, changing his position.
“My agent was trying to make a point here on my behalf, joke aside. It seems important for me to make a statement..i am going to do so,” he tweeted, before going on to back Seluk. City have not commented but the speculation that could be created over his future may not be welcomed.
Touré was outstanding in City’s latest Barclays Premier League title success, scoring 20 goals. He added four more in other competitions, including a spectacular strike in the Capital One Cup final win.
