Aguero’s goals will be worthless if we don’t win any titles
Pellegrini dampens down Sergio-mania in bid for trophies
SERGIO AGUERO is English football’s man of the moment following a hat-trick against Bayern Munich that grabbed headlines around the world.
But Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini does not want all the Argentine striker’s efforts to be in vain without at least one major trophy to show for them this season.
It has been Pellegrini’s policy not to get too downcast by some of his team’s poor results, most notably defeats at West Ham and at home by CSKA Moscow in the Champions League.
Now he is in the different position of trying to dampen Sergio-mania ahead of today’s Premier League match at Southampton, who are second, one place above the champions.
Aguero has scored half of City’s 24 Premier League goals and five of their seven in the Champions League. But having won the Premier League and Capital One Cup in his debut season in English football, it is silverware rather than personal endorsements that interest Pellegrini. Asked if Aguero is in the best moment of his career, the Chilean said: ‘I don’t think so. An important career for a player is when you achieve something and Sergio has had a lot of important moments in his career. For me, the most important thing Sergio has done so far was scoring the goal to give this club the title [in 2012].’
Pellegrini does, however, accept that Aguero, 26, is improving with age. ‘Maybe at 22 or 23 you are too young to decide the correct things at a lot of moments in the game,’ he said.
‘In every game he plays he is growing and he has at least five more years where he is at his top performance.’
Pellegrini is playing a smart psychological game. He does not need to big up Aguero when the evidence is clear he is the best player in England. The way he destroyed one of Europe’s best teams was enthralling and might have helped to turn around City’s season. Certainly he will be uppermost in Southampton’s minds today.
The City manager knew about Aguero well before he moved to the Etihad. A decade ago, when he was manager of River Plate in Argentina, he heard all about an emerging 16-year-old striker with one of the country’s other leading clubs, Independiente.
He said: ‘From the start, everyone saw he would be a very good player. It wasn’t normal for someone so young to play so well. And when I went to Spain with Villarreal, I tried to buy him [in 2006] but Atletico Madrid got him. He was just 18.’
Despite lagging behind Chelsea, Pellegrini knows title races can swing at any time, just as it did last season when Liverpool were favourites until they lost at home against Chelsea in late April.
And the win against Bayern has proved City have the capability of going to the south coast and winning today. ‘Every time you beat an important team like Bayern, the confidence and trust of the squad rises,’ said Pellegrini.
‘At this moment last year, we were six points behind Arsenal and no one was talking about us. We were fourth or fifth and everyone was saying Arsenal were the team who were going to win the league — and at the end they were fourth.’