In a week when current Manchester City player João Cancelo hit out at the club for being what he perceives as “ungrateful”, a former player of theirs – and arguably the best one in their history – has named the rival of their best ever manager as his dream manager.
Sergio Aguero spent a decade terrorising English football as Man City’s number 9. He scored 184 league goals for the club in 275 league appearances.
Injuries (and sometimes managerial tactics) prevented him from ever playing a full 38-game season for the 2022/23 UEFA Champions League winners which has led many fans to believe that his numbers would have been better. However, the Argentine is ranked alongside Thierry Henry, Wayne Rooney, Alan Shearer and Harry Kane as the best strikers to have ever graced the league.
Six of those years were spent under Pep Guardiola, which also happened to be the most successful spell of his City career. Both men have a mutual respect for each other, with Guardiola even shedding tears over his departure from the club after their 2020/21 Premier League title win.
The club’s fans always refer to those times as brilliant, talking about how great it was to have the best striker and manager at their team at one time.
Aguero has now shot a dagger right through the heart of these fans with his recent statements, where he talked about Jürgen Klopp being the manager he wished he played for the most.
Klopp and Guardiola have enjoyed a healthy but sometimes inconvenient rivalry for both teams because of the stress they put each other through. City have triumphed more times than they have failed, however, which inadvertently crowns Guardiola as the better of the two managers.
However, it is Klopp’s style that appeals more to Aguero, which insinuates that he would have considered a move to Liverpool if the German had called for it.
This means he was ready to jump ship over to City’s biggest rivals, which is a sentiment that would hurt many of the club’s fans.
Answering “why”, the 35-year-old, who also played for Atléti and briefly, Barcelona, said: “Terrific manager, Klopp has certainly elevated Liverpool, allowing them to become a protagonist of the Premier League in recent years.”
“He’s made them more aggressive, more intense in their playing style. New players have arrived and Jurgen has managed to adapt them to this offensive mentality. He’ll be sorely missed in the Premier League… but he’s made his choice, and it’s up to us to respect it.”
“Any great manager will teach you many valuable things. It would have been a great experience for sure to play under Klopp.”
It reads like a eulogy for the departing German but hearing their greatest ever striker speaking about missing out on being coached by Klopp will sting for Man City fans.
