Sergio Aguero faces sad end to time in the Premier League with Manchester City

A world class striker, an all-time leading goal scorer, a legendary symbol of one of England’s biggest footballing institutions: benched for one of the biggest games of the season.

This has been the sad state of affairs for Sergio Aguero for a while now.

Injuries have badgered the Argentine throughout his time at Manchester City, but never more so than this campaign, where Aguero has found himself on the injury table more often than not this year. Not only this, but even when Aguero has been available to play, he’s spent his time wrapped up in a jacket and a bib on the City bench.

It seems Aguero’s days at the Etihad are unfortunately numbered.

City’s derby loss to United at the Etihad showcased just how far Aguero has fallen in Guardiola’s squad this year, with the man who has scored nine times in the derby previously remaining stuck on the bench for the entirety of the match, as City slumped to a 2-0 loss.

The misfiring Gabriel Jesus has been chosen over Aguero throughout the campaign, and City starting without a striker against Southampton despite the availability of their top scorer told you all you needed to know.

It seems Aguero’s days at the Etihad are unfortunately numbered.

Aguero has spoken openly with friends in the past about his desire to smash records, and motivation has never been the striker’s problem. Fitness is no longer the problem either, it seems – he has been available for several weeks now, but his playing time doesn’t reflect this.

City have often played without a recognised striker this term, and clearly, with them well clear at the top of the table, it is working.

Aguero’s period out of the team has, unfortunately for him, coincided with one of City’s greatest ever winning runs. Why, then, would Guardiola want to change what has been working so well?

We have seen Guardiola leave Aguero out before, however, only for him to come storming back.

In 2016, back when Pep first took the reins as City manager, there was a feeling that Aguero was unwilling to do the relentless pressing that Guardiola demanded of his players, and so was dropped for a run of three games.

In the third of those games, his replacement, Gabriel Jesus, fractured his toe and didn’t play for ten weeks, giving Aguero a route straight back into the team.

Upon his return, the Argentinian was like a different beast, pressing furiously and scoring 15 times in just 17 games.

Ever since then, whenever Aguero plays, he seems to pop up all over the pitch, constantly harrying the opposition and pushing them off the ball, before making lung busting runs back into the box to put away the chances his team mates lay on for him.

This time feels different, though.

Aguero found himself back in the team in the 2016/17 season because the team needed a striker. Nowadays, no striker is no problem for the champions-elect, with some arguing they play better without a designated frontman, with the fluidity of rotation of midfield and wing players being preferred.

Without this need for a hitman, Guardiola’s team seem to be doing just fine, with the club icon forced to sit and watch from the substitutes bench as he, along with the rest of Mancini’s 2012 title winning team, are slowly left behind.

Where fellow club heroes Vincent Kompany and David Silva left on high notes, however, Aguero’s potential departure is setting up to be pitifully anti-climactic.

There is hope for a happy ending

Aguero is one of the Premier League’s greatest ever strikers, and arguably the greatest ever foreign import following his move from Atletico Madrid ten years ago.

The Argentinian is a legend not only of Manchester City, but also of the Premier League, having scored the most iconic goal of the competition’s history back in that famous 2012 title winning campaign.

As such, this man deserves a sending off of equal magnitude.

Contract talks remain a possibility, with Guardiola mentioning this week that he would like to keep Aguero at the club. However, should this season be Aguero’s last swansong, it would be a bitterly disappointing and sad conclusion to one of the league’s best stories.

However, there is hope for a happy ending.

Aguero said he would stay until City won the Champions League. This season is gearing up to be a brilliant chance to do just that. A Champions League final could present Aguero with his opportunity to show English football one last time how good he is and how good he can be.

If he is to leave the club this summer, with reports that Barcelona’s newly elected president Joan Laporta has tabled an offer for him when his contract expires, let’s hope it is in a blaze of glory, a sudden resurgence, a final flourish, before he takes his last bow.

His story isn’t finished just yet.