First came the reports this very morning that Yaya Toure's agent, Dimitry Seluk, claimed his client was considering leaving Manchester City because no one at the club wished Toure a happy birthday when he turned 31 during a recent post-season trip to Abu Dhabi.
Strangely however, it soon came to light that Man City's entire squad wished Toure a happy birthday and even presented him with a special cake on the flight out to the United Arab Emirates, with footage emerging of the impromptu mini-party (skip to the 2:27 mark) via the club's official Youtube channel.
It should also be noted that City's official Twitter account went out of their way to wish Toure a very happy birthday on his big day, too.
Join us in wishing @Toure_yaya42 a very happy 31st birthday today! #mcfc pic.twitter.com/j7w7ryCDhy
— Manchester City FC (@MCFC) May 13, 2014
Not that a simple tweet or cake would be enough to satisfy Seluk, with the Ukrainian agent bemoaning the fact that the billionaire former owners of Russian club Anzhi Makhachkala gave Roberto Carlos a Bugatti to mark his birthday a few years ago while City's owners failed to so much as shake Toure's hand.
"None of [the City owners] shook his hand on his birthday," Seluk grumbled to BBC Sport. "It's really sick."
Even more bizarrely, Toure then took to Twitter to distance himself from Seluk's agitating.
Thanks for all the birthday messages today. Card from City just arrived... Must have got lost in the post. Haha
— yaya toure (@Toure_yaya42) May 20, 2014
Then, just to further muddy the waters, he tweeted, "Jokes aside. Please do not take words that do not come out of MY mouth seriously. Judge my commitment to @MCFC by my performances." That tweet has since been taken down, but a defence of Seluk remains.
Everything dimitry said is true . He speaks for me . I will give an interview after world cup to explain
— yaya toure (@Toure_yaya42) May 20, 2014
Nope. We have absolutely no idea what's going on either. It's Yaya's party and he'll cry if he wants to.
What we do know is that several clubs are already lining up to emancipate Yaya from his dire, reportedly 240,000-pounds-a-week situation at City, with both Yeovil Town and Welsh side Colwyn Bay FC making early -- if slightly optimistic -- offers for the rampaging midfielder.
Stay tuned, folks. This could get interesting, messy, or both.