Sergio Aguero has two options, but both of them require him to do exactly the same thing.
Option number one is to stay at Manchester City for the long haul and wrestle his place back. The arrival of Gabriel Jesus seemed to push the Argentine into the cold. He was City’s top scorer, the man who provided the spark for the team to go from a team pushing for Champions League football into one that could actually win league titles, and he turned himself into one of the world’s best strikers in the process. And yet there he was cast out of the side because a Brazilian teenager can do more sprints and close down defenders more often.
Jesus’s injury makes it – at this juncture – impossible to tell what would have happened next, or what might happen when the young Brazilian comes back from his time on the treatment table. It’s entirely possible that Aguero remains as City’s number one choice in the striker’s role. It’s possible that Jesus was preferred to Aguero only for a few games, as the fresh pair of energetic legs impressed in training, but wouldn’t have been able to keep it up long term, even if he didn’t pick up an injury.
It’s also possible that Pep Guardiola sees a way to keep Jesus and Aguero in the same team in the long term – though the form of Leroy Sane and Raheem Sterling make that somewhat unlikely.
If any of these long-term options are to pan out, though, Aguero needs to grab his chance. When Jesus was injured against Bournemouth, it looked as if he realised that. He jumped up quickly to put on his shirt and, although it went down as a Tyrone Mings own goal, he was instrumental in applying the crucial touch for City’s second goal. Since then, two goals in a stunning comeback against Monaco brought his tally to 17 goals in all competitions this season. An assist in that game, too, won’t have weakened his cause.
But there still seems to be an underlying doubt about Aguero’s future at City. As hard as he appears to be working to try and mould his game to Guardiola’s demands, there does now appear to be more paper talk about his exit. A move to Real Madrid is being reported as a rumour, and although there’s little to suggest that it could be any more than that, it’s certainly the type of rumour that makes sense given the context.
That’s option number two. It may not be Real Madrid who come calling, but there are any number of top European clubs who would jump at the chance to have Aguero in their team. Yet in order to get a top move, he has to prove that he can still find the net regularly. And that means playing – and scoring – for Manchester City.
In order to play, though, he needs to prove to his current manager that he can add to the team.
So if he wants a move away from the club, or if he wants to stay and fight for his place over the long term, when Jesus is back to fitness, Aguero still needs to prove that he can do what Guardiola asks of him.
But if it looks like Aguero is making an effort to change his game and fit into his manager’s plans, it could well be because this is his only way of getting playing time now and a big move in the summer.
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