PETER CROUCH: WHY AGUERO IS MY HERO!
IF I asked you to select your all-time Premier League XI, who (other than me) would you pick in attack? Thierry henry and Alan Shearer, I imagine, would be shoo-ins. harry Kane and Wayne Rooney would have their supporters, as would eric Cantona, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Didier Drogba. how many of you would instantly say Sergio Aguero? If you did, I expect you would be in a minority.
Now, if I asked you to pick Manchester City’s greatest player, who would you choose? Fans of an older generation would not look beyond Colin Bell, Mike Summerbee or Francis Lee. Others would go for David Silva (below), Yaya Toure or Vincent Kompany. Kevin De Bruyne would also be in the frame.
how many would vote for Aguero? I come from a family of City fans and none of them would have him as first choice. Given this is a man who has scored a club record 177 league goals, it puzzles me why he goes under the radar.
Aguero has been playing in england since 2011 and in five of his eight full seasons he has plundered more than 30 goals. his consistency has been remarkable and with last week’s hat-trick at Aston Villa moving his tally for the current campaign to 18, I expect he will break the 30-goal barrier again.
Should all go to plan and he sees out the rest of his contract, which runs to June 2021, he can join Shearer and Rooney in the Premier League’s 200 club. Aguero continues to improve and I don’t see him losing his hunger. his numbers are incredible.
So why is it nobody ever wants to label Aguero with a tag of ‘The Greatest’? he always falls short when it comes to awards — only twice has he been in the PFA Team of the Year — and when he hits a hat- trick it’s almost greeted with a shrug of the shoulders — Aguero scored, Aguero always scores. It’s time to give him proper recognition. I won’t call him City’s greatest player but I will say that Aguero is the greatest signing in City’s history. here are my reasons.
Four players who could be bestowed with that term: Aguero, Kompany, David Silva — one of my all- time favourite little magicians — and Yaya Toure. That quartet came in and changed the landscape for City, catapulting them into areas they had never seen before.
Kompany was a colossus, one of the best defenders we have seen in england. he was a leader, an inspiration and the fact that the club have named a road after him at their campus — and have plans to build a statue — tells you all you need to know about his influence.
Yaya Toure was immense, a force of nature who could win games on his own. During his peak years, especially 2012 to 2014, he was unstoppable. City would get a freekick, he would stand over it and you knew it was going in. his goal won the 2011 FA Cup final against Stoke. Something, however, separates Aguero from the rest. A fee of £38million seemed a lot of money when he arrived from Atletico Madrid in July 2011 but he repaid that with one flash of his right boot in May 2012.
Aguero’s goal made City Premier League champions and changed everything.
You also have to consider what he has done since Pep Guardiola arrived. I am convinced Gabriel Jesus was signed to replace Aguero but the Brazilian can’t get near him. In three-and-a-half years working with Guardiola, Aguero has rattled in 113 goals.
The first time he scored for City was within nine minutes of coming on as substitute against Swansea. he has barely stopped scoring since.
every team in the world would want this lethal Argentine — the man who has made the exceptional appear routine.