CARDIFF V CITY
IT took just 10 days for the rumours to begin.
It was a ‘stepping stone’ transfer to avoid a politically insensitive direct move from Atletico Madrid to fierce rivals Real.
A ‘secret deal’ had been struck between Sheikh Mansour and Real president Florentino Perez.
Sergio Aguero never wanted to join City in the first place - it was just a manoeuvre to enable him to effect the move he truly craved - a bounce to the Bernabeu. So it went on.
And here we are seven years on, and Kun has just tied his colours to the City mast until 2021 - when he will qualify for a testimonial.
Now, we can sit back and await the stories about how the Blues have only signed him up to keep his transfer value high, ahead of a big-money summer move.
It comes with the territory with Aguero.
At the heart of all this nonsense, of course, is the assumption by fans of the entitled elite that a player of Aguero’s calibre could not possibly have signed for City for football reasons.
“You signed Phil Jones and we signed Kun Aguero!” sang the City fans, pointing out to United that being smaller in stature does not make you small in ambition.
The arrogance of some rival fans refuses to allow them to acknowledge that Aguero is, and always has been, perfectly happy at City - that the Aguerooooo! moment which won the title in 2012 forged a bond between him, the club and the City fans that would take some breaking.
“But he came for the money!” they cry. Well of course he did, in part, that’s what footballers do these days.
But he could easily have negotiated a lucrative deal to switch to Barcelona or Real at any point in the last six years. He hasn’t.
He remains a bit of an enigma at City, in some ways.
He had everyone on social media offering to be his best friend when he revealed, rather poignantly, in the ‘All or Nothing’ documentary that he rattles around his Cheshire mansion on his own, a lonely figure. Then a few weeks later, he posted videos of himself partying in Mykonos with City team-mates and we felt a little less sorry for him! English summers used to be heralded by the first swallow, or the first call of the cuckoo. Since Aguero arrived at City, we know that summer is here by the sounds of ‘Aguero off to Spain’ emanating from the more desperate. The notion that a boy from Buenos Aires, by way of Madrid, could ever be happy in grim old Manchester has taken some getting used to. And when Pep Guardiola arrived at City and instantly demanded that he up his game, conflict was inevitable. He was dropped for the Champions League game at Barcelona early in Guardiola’s reign. The Blues lost 4-0 and the cameras showed Aguero whisper- Stuart Brennan