West Ham boss Manuel Pellegrini rules out free transfer move for former Man City midfielder Yaya Toure
Toure left the Premier League champions after eight years at the Etihad and was reported to be in line for a reunion with his former boss Pellegrini at the London Stadium
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MANUEL PELLEGRINI has ruled out signing former Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure at West Ham because his squad is already "complete".
Toure, 35, left the Etihad this summer when his contract expired after eight seasons at the club, but a reunion with former City manager Pellegrini is off the cards.
Pellegrini said: "Yaya Toure is a good player, he will always be a good player, but for the moment he is not for West Ham. For the moment, the squad is complete."
The Chilean manager invested heavily in the summer transfer window, spending just over £100million to bring in ten new signings.
The Hammers smashed their transfer record twice in the summer by paying £22m for Issa Diop and then £41m on Lazio attacking midfielder Felipe Anderson.
Signing Toure would therefore seem a waste considering the wages he would be likely to demand.
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Jack Wilshere and Carlos Sanchez also moved to West Ham this summer, giving Pellegrini further midfield options - for Sunday's 4-0 defeat at Liverpool, he opted for a midfield three of Mark Noble, Declan Rice and Wilshere.
And Pellegrini has now quashed any chance of signing the Ivorian midfielder, who left the Etihad after winning three Premier Leagues, one FA Cup and two League Cups in his eight-year spell.
But his time at the Etihad almost terminated prematurely in 2014 when he was left upset at the club's failure to mark his 31st birthday sufficiently.
Pellegrini was the manager at that time but the pair stayed on for a further two years before being replaced by Pep Guardiola.
And it was under Pellegrini's tenure that Toure had his sensational season, in 2013/14, netting 20 goals from 27 shots on target and ten set pieces from 13 attempts.
West Ham face Bournemouth at the London Stadium on Saturday as they look to move off the bottom of the table.
