Sergio Aguero is finally winning over Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola… so expect many more goalscoring landmarks to be set
City fans are finally getting to feast on the goals of Aguero AND Gabriel Jesus and the team are red-hot favourites for the title
IT was ‘Champagne’ Charlie Nicholas who started the trend before Sergio Aguero had even kicked a ball for Manchester City.
Back in August 2011, the Sky pundit predicted the Argentine striker — just recruited from Atletico Madrid — would be the worst signing of that summer’s transfer window.
Well, Aguero began that season with two debut goals, including one absolute screamer, in a half-hour sub’s appearance during a 4-0 demolition of Swansea.
And he finished the campaign with the 94th-minute winner against QPR which handed City their first title in 44 years.
It also provided the Premier League’s most iconic moment and left Martin Tyler screaming out his name in a tone of voice normally only heard by those most intimate to him.
Yet despite boasting a two-in-three scoring rate in five of his six seasons at City, Aguero has NEVER been included in the PFA Team of the Season by his fellow professionals.
That extraordinary oversight alone surely confirms him as the most under-rated footballer ever to visit these shores — and goes a long way to justifying the chips on the shoulders of City’s gloriously chippy supporters.
Aguero seems to reach a new goalscoring landmark every weekend.
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Last time out, his tenth City hat-trick; before that, becoming the highest-scoring non-European in the history of England’s top flight.
His first goal against Crystal Palace this Saturday will be the 300th of his club career.
A second would see him equal Eric Brook’s 78-year-old City scoring record of 177 goals.
Aguero was once married to Diego Maradona’s daughter and was threatening to prove that his father-in-law, often regarded as the greatest footballer of all-time, might not even have been the best player in his own family.
Yet as we marvel at his remarkable lack of adulation, it is worth recalling that one of Aguero’s arch sceptics has been Pep Guardiola.
During his first season as City’s manager, Saint Pep made it clear he wasn’t convinced by Aguero’s all-round contribution and hinted Gabriel Jesus would eclipse him.
Aguero’s City future was in serious doubt — and his starting position would again have been under threat had Guardiola secured the £60million deadline-day signing of Alexis Sanchez.
Even after that, he said Aguero could not expect to be an automatic starter.
That can easily be forgotten after a miraculous week which saw Aguero score five times as City netted 15 without reply against Liverpool, Feyenoord and Watford.
While Manchester United are joint top with an identical league record, the quality of City’s football has been so blindingly gorgeous that many believe they are nailed-on for the title.
And those of us who tipped United aren’t looking much cleverer than dear old Charlie Nicholas.
Of course, City started like trains for the past two seasons and faded to such an extent that they struggled to make the Champions League.
But Guardiola now boasts the most expensively assembled squad in world football and, with the exception of defender Nicolas Otamendi, they look the finished article.
City have the world-class goalkeeper and full-backs they obviously lacked and the most exciting collection of attacking talent English football has ever seen.
So how can they possibly fail to win this title?
Well, one possible pitfall could be Guardiola’s tendency to become too clever for his own good. And to start messing with Aguero, like last season.
Guardiola was the creator of the ‘false nine’ concept when he moved Lionel Messi to the centre at Barcelona.
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He often seems sceptical about classic, genuine goal-poaching No 9s, with even Zlatan Ibrahimovic failing to click under the Catalan.
With football creaking under the weight of often meaningless stats, it can be tough to see the wood for the trees.
The only statistic that definitely matters — the number of goals scored — no longer seems to hold paramount importance.
Sometimes, though, it isn’t rocket science. Just stick the ball in the old onion bag.
Despite City’s mass of Galacticos, Aguero still does that more consistently than any of them.
If Guardiola shows absolute faith in him, he should win the title. It’s as simple as that.