Mancini will not budge on Toure

Roberto Mancini will not allow Kolo Toure to leave Manchester City until at least the summer despite complaining about a lack of game time.

Toure was banned for six months for a failed drugs test which he blamed on taking his wife’s slimming pills, but since his return has been unable to displace Vincent Kompany and Joleon Lescott in the team.

He has recently voiced his frustration at finding it hard to get on the pitch and said he could be open to a move to Paris Saint-Germain should he not receive more opportunities.

But Mancini insisted that Toure was not going to be leaving in January although he left the door open for a move in the summer should the defender ask him for a transfer.

“Kolo is part of our plans for the year, he is a good player and a good guy – he cannot go, because we have injuries and we need his experience,” Mancini said.

“If, in the summer, he says, ‘Boss, I want to leave because I want to play’, I will respect him as a man and we will talk.”

Toure caused controversy with comments published in a French magazine where he was quoted as saying he was being discriminated against for wanting to play for Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup of Nations.

Mancini, though, said he had spoken to Toure, who made a public denial on the club’s website, and that he had reassured him his quotes had been taken out of context, with City reportedly thinking about suing the magazine over the article.

“I spoke with Kolo and he told me he didn’t say anything like this, so we have no problem. It is finished, because he is a good man and I believe him,” Mancini said.

“Before training he said, ‘Boss, sorry. It will say I said this, but I didn’t’, so it is okay.”