MANCHESTER — Yaya Toure has compared Manchester City teammate David Silva with Barcelona legends Xavi and Andres Iniesta after he played his 300th game for the club in Saturday’s 3-1 victory over Hull City.
The pair have been together at the Etihad for six seasons — winning an assortment of trophies including two Premier League titles.
Many City fans see them as two of the greatest players in the club’s history and Toure says he is one of the best he has ever played alongside.
“I’ve played alongside players like Xavi and Iniesta, he’s such a similar type of player,” Toure told reporters. “Sometimes when we need a player like him at home, just to be in this space and use the ball well. He’s been brilliant for this club and I’m delighted for him to reach 300 games played.
“We appreciate him here. We are all delighted with him and happy to play with him. He’s a player with full confidence and great experience.
“He knows how this league works. When we play, we need this kind of player just to control the games and be clever.”
Silva joined City from Valencia in 2010 for £24 million and Pep Guardiola said that he would have taken him to the Nou Camp when he was in charge at Barcelona had he not been so expensive.
The City boss said that Valencia coach Unai Emery, who is now in charge at Paris Saint-Germain, told him that Silva would be a perfect fit for his team.
“[Emery] told me: ‘David Silva is the player for you, for Barcelona. Believe me, that is a player for Barcelona by far,'” Guardiola told a news conference. “And he was so right. He’s a special player.
“Always I said he had to score goals because if Silva scored goals he would have been … you cannot imagine, because he has absolutely everything. The mentality, and a competitor, and everything.
“Hopefully we can make him become a better player. Still I would like to feel that what he has done is not enough, and he can believe he can do better for his own career.
“But big congratulations for what he has achieved here in England with his own quality. It’s not easy, that’s why he has to be so happy with that.”
Silva, who has also won the European Championship twice and the World Cup with Spain, has been overlooked for individual honours during his time in England. But Guardiola says his contribution is appreciated more by his colleagues.
“He has something more special than awards — the awards are to put in the wardrobe,” the City boss added.
“He has respect for his profession, all of his teammates, and his trainers. That is the most important thing.
“The opinion we will have in the future about what he has done in his career will not be about how many individual prizes he has won. It will be about the opinion of his teammates and his managers.”
