View: Tottenham Academy coach Yaya Toure departs the club in another blow
Yaya Toure will be leaving Tottenham after he spent last season managing the Under-16s.
The former Manchester City midfielder posted to his official Twitter page on 20 June to announce that he would be joining Belgian side Standard De Liege next season.
Toure will take up the position of assistant coach and work alongside the club’s head coach Carl Hoefkens.
He then followed up with a separate tweet to thank everyone at Tottenham and express his gratitude for the time he spent with the club.
“I would like to thank everyone at the Tottenham Hotspur academy for their support in the 18 months I spent with the club,” Toure wrote (20 June).
“A special mention to Dean Rastrick, Chris Powell and all the young players. Thank you.”
It is the latest club on the 40-year-old’s coaching CV since retiring from professional football, after spending time with Ukrainian side Olimpik Donetsk and Russian team Akhmat Grozny.
The news will come as a blow to the club amid a period of so much transition with yet another spot now needing to be filled. It is clear that Toure will have a bright future in coaching as he aims to one day follow in the footsteps of former teammate Vincent Kompany and become a manager.
In fact, the Daily Mail even reported on 18 November that Wigan had approached Toure for their vacant managerial position but he turned it down, which led to the appointment of his older brother, Kolo Toure.
It would have been a fantastic experience for some of Spurs’ young stars to learn under a legend of the game, however, it comes as no surprise that Toure is making the switch with his ambitions clearly well beyond an academy role.
And everyone at Tottenham will surely wish him well in his future endeavours.