Ross Embleton says he thought it was a joke when Yaya Toures agent first asked if the former Manchester City midfielder could train with Leyton Orient.
Toure has been without a club since leaving Chinese outfit Qingdao Huanghai and will train with the Os for the next few weeks to build up his fitness.
The League Two side sent social media into a frenzy on Friday when they posted on Twitter pictures of Toure in Orient colours at the clubs training session.
Who have we got here then?
It’s only three-time Premier League, Champions League, La Liga and African Cup of Nations winner Yaya Touré.
There he is look, in his Leyton Orient top at training this morning.#LOFC#OnlyOneOrientpic.twitter.com/nvX99rro4Y
— Leyton Orient (@leytonorientfc) July 24, 2020
That post has since had over 25,000 likes and you can understand why given the calibre of player they have on their hands – albeit on a temporary basis at the moment.
Toure, brother of Leicester coach Kolo, is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders to have graced English football in recent memory after a trophy-laden spell with Manchester City, winning the Premier League on three occasions, as well as the EFL Cup, FA Cup and Community Shield.
Prior to his move to the Etihad, Toure also won LaLiga twice, alongside the Champions League and Club World Cup, with Barcelona, while also captaining the Ivory Coast to Africa Cup of Nations glory in 2015, too.
It was Toure who scored the only goal in the 2011 FA Cup final against Stoke which secured Man Citys first major trophy since the Abu Dhabi Groups takeover in 2008, and the Premier League has not seen a box-to-box midfielder of his ilk since his departure in 2018.
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In over 300 appearances for Man City Toure score 79 goals, and Orient head coach Embleton couldnt quite believe it when he was first told of the Ivorians interest in training with the O’s two weeks ago.
Speaking exclusively to talkSPORT, Embleton said: We received an email from who we thought or was told was Yaya Toures agent. You can imagine my reaction was: Yeah, course it is’.
I said to the chief executive, give me the email address, Ill get in touch and call his bluff, because I thought it was a wind-up.
“It took a day or two to get a response, so then, straight away, I just thought it was a wind-up.
Then the guy came back to me and said, ‘[Im] really sorry, Im in Singapore and the time delay means Im not able to reply to you straight away’. We had a bit of coming and going over a couple of days and then he said that hed give me someone in the UK to deal with to get the process rolling.
Quickly, within two or three days, I started to get an idea that Yaya Toure was coming to Chigwell to train with Leyton Orient and it happened.
Toure has begun his trial with Leyton Orient after a spell playing in China
I didnt tell any of the players, because I wanted that wow factor when he turned up, continued Embleton.
A couple of the lads who were in early [on Friday] came to see me and said, whos the trialist coming in?, and I replied, ‘no one you know. Its a lad an agents put onto me and Im just going to have a look at him for a couple of days’, just to push that one to one side.
But because the staff were so excited about him turning up, we were all milling around outside waiting for his car to arrive, so I think a few of them got the feel that it would be someone a bit out of the ordinary. His car pulled up and he got out the car, but he had a mask on, so all anybody could see was his profile from a distance.
I went over to meet and greet him, have a little chat to him about his journey in and what we were expecting from the day. He took his face mask off and you could see a few of the boys going, ‘he looks a bit like Yaya Toure!
The great one was we had Ouss Cisse, who weve only just signed recently, and he was walking down the corridor after coming out of the gym and Cisses family live in France and hes off African origin.
He came out of the gym and looked and then looked again as if to say, ‘this guy looks like Yaya Toure! He spoke to him in French and Yaya answered him and Cisse was then like, ‘whats this guy doing here? Whys he in our training ground?
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“I had to reassure Cisse that he was still our main man and that right now, hes not going to be taking his place!
Its not the first time Orient have hit the headlines this summer either, after Tottenhams Harry Kane, who enjoyed a successful loan spell at the Breyer Group Stadium when he was younger, agreed to sponsor the Os kits for the upcoming campaign, before gifting the shirt space to three separate charities.
But the question on everyones lips is whether Orient could pull off the impossible and manage to persuade Toure to put pen-to-paper on a permanent contract with the club?
I think theres a chance you might see him walking out at the Breyer Group Stadium because were playing an internal game next weekend, Embleton explained.
It will be our first pre-season friendly and we wanted to try and be creative, so were doing it internally. So, theres every chance he could walk out at the Breyer Group Stadium, as well try and get him to play in that.
I think its highly unlikely [that hell sign a contract]. The initial conversations Ive had with him are about him coming in and doing a couple of weeks, but thats as loose as its been. So [it] could be longer, [it] could be shorter.
Toure will spend the next couple of weeks training with Leyton Orient – but will he sign for the O’s?
“If we impress him, who knows where it leads to.
Even if Toure is with the Os for just a short period, the experience and advice hell be able to pass on to the squad is something Embleton feels will be invaluable as the club look to build on their 17th place finish in League Two next season.
Selfishly, for me as a coach, Im going to have a room where I lock him away and try to drag as much information out of him as I can one afternoon, he joked.
As a coach and a player, he raises your standards because not for one minute do I want him coming into one of my sessions and thinking, ‘what is this guy trying to do here?
“I think it will add that little bit of extra edge and intensity to what everyone is trying to do and Im sure it will have that impact on the players and I think theyre going to want to impress him and show him what theyre about.
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Its just fantastic to have someone around like that. If we can all take a little bit from him, I think it will make us all better at what we do.
He doesnt need to come to Leyton Orient or get into his car at 8:30am in the morning to make his way into the training ground to come and do all the little bits and pieces we are doing and joining our pre-season. He doesnt need to do that at 37, but that epitomises the levels it takes to reach what he is about and whats he done in his career.