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I swear you will never see anything like this ever again
The clock read 93:17.
The scorecard read MCI 2-2 QPR
The league table read Manchester United 89, Manchester City 87.
On Television, Sky Sports had one of those moments of TV genius and produed a split screen to show Sir Alex Ferguson punching the air in that charming, clumsily awkward way of his. United were going to do it again – win it at the end. As they always did. They were going to shut the ‘noisy neighbours’ up.
Which is when he touched the ball.
He had dropped deep looking for the ball. Receiving it some thirty yards from goal he cut in, worked a foot of space with a swivel of his hips and played it to the unmistakable figure of Mario Balotelli. Off balance and having almost killed the move with a bad first touch, the mercurial Italian swiveled and produced a pass back into his rampaging path.
He and Man City had cut open QPR like a hot knife slicing through butter... Almost
The clock read 93:19 when he received Balotelli’s pass. He knew he had no time for a second chance, no time for a mishit, no time for a loose touch...
He had never had time. Growing up in the notorious baro of Quilmes, Buenos Aires as the second of seven children he had had to learn how things quickly, and efficiently. It was a necessity, a way of life. Something else was a way of life in that baro, as it was in every baro across Argentina, football.
He had embraced the game, playing it wherever he could, in the house, on the streets, on the neighbourhood ground... and by age 9 he was doing it on an actual professional football pitch as a part of Independiente’s junior club set-up. He rocketed through the youth ranks like no one before and on the 5th of July, 2003 the young lad did something that no one thought was possible: Beat a Diego Maradona record.
Aged 15 years and 35 days he turned up for the senior team of Independiente and played 21 minutes against no less a team than San Lorenzo.
He had had no time to adapt – at age 15 you and I could barely buy groceries without messing something up – but he had. And risen to near-superstardom in the process. By the time he was an adult, he had scored 23 goals in 56 games for the Argentine giants and went on to win the U-20 World Cup for Argentina playing alongside this other little striker who went by the name of Lionel Andres Messi.
That was when the big boys came a-calling. And by that, I don’t mean Boca Juniors or River Plate.
I mean Europe. I mean Spain.
At an age when most of us are still grasping with the term “independence” and “living by yourself”, he walked into the capital of Spain and started doing what he had always done – score goals, win matches. At Atlético Madrid, Kun developed into one of Europe’s deadliest strikers and went from star to superstar to elite in a little under 5 years – where he banged in 101 goals in 234 matches. Anyone who thinks that this isn’t all that great a return is thinking of Diego Simeone’s Atlético and not the disorganized hit or miss chaos the Vicente Calderon used to be. They loved him in Spain
"His cutbacks, dribbling, and chips are works of art," one Spanish newspaper has said. "He is a virtuoso who's worth the entrance fee. He destroys his opponents with pace and strength, spilling creativity, ingenuity and pure talent all over the pitch."
And the praise wasn’t limited to Spain, "Watching him play is like visiting the Prado museum" Lokomotiv Moscow’s coach had said after the Argentine had destroyed his club in a typically brilliant Europa League performance. "He reminds me of Romário," Anatoliy Byshovets had said that night in Moscow, "except that he pressures all over the pitch and plays a greater role in the team's play."
After playing him in the Champions League, Didier Drogba said about the diminutive striker – “The only word I can use to describe him is spectacular. I don't want to disrespect Atlético but great players end up at great clubs”
Atlético were not... not back then. So after guiding them to Europa Cup glory, and seeing that the club was not going anywhere, he sought a transfer elsewhere... And that’s what had got him to cold, windy, rainy, Manchester.
93:20
...with a lovely touch that took the ball away from a desperate Ranger’s lunge he had opened up just enough space for him where a nanosecond ago there had been none.
He planted his left foot right next to the ball – as he had always done, as he had always practiced.
He had done this before, so many times...
Back in the baro, they had called him “Kun” – a nickname given by a doting friend of his parents Jorge Chetti, a man he affectionately calls ’Grandpa’ to this day, because as a baby he only used to say “koo” or “koom” having been addicted to the Japanese cartoon where the main character, a little caveman was named Kum Kum – and even in Manchester, the back of his shirt said just that –“Kun”. You can take the boy out of Quilmes, you can’t take the Quilmes out of the boy.
He was not alone at Manchester, though. His captain from the U-20 World Cup triumph, Pablo Zabaleta was already an established presence on City’s right flank. The right-back had sounded a warning before Kun joined – "Kun is dangerous because it's impossible to know which way he is going to go. His dribbling is a 10 out of 10 and his imagination is too: he never does the same thing twice – he is always inventing something new." – nobody knew how true those words would ring out to be.
He marked his debut with two goals in nine minutes and didn’t look back scoring 29 goals in 47 games – before that crucial last game against Queens Park Rangers.
He knew that those 29 goals wouldn’t matter if he missed this. He had no time to think, to analyse options, so.... left leg correctly placed, head perfectly still, taking care not to lean back while connecting with the ball... he gave it an almighty whack
In the city of Manchester that day, the clock stopped at 93:20.
The score read MCI 3 – 2 QPR
The league table read Manchester United 89, Manchester City 89.
But, pertinently, the Goal Difference read Manchester United +56, Manchester City +64
For the first time in 43 years, the blue half of Manchester was going to lift the English League trophy. Somebody had done to Alex Ferguson what he had done to others all this while. They’d gone and won it at the death – in Fergie Time.
“Football, Bloody Hell” indeed.
Everyone in blue echoed Martin Tyler’s primal scream – “Agüeroooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo”
"In my career so far it's the most important goal. You score the goal in the last minute to win the title. You're not sure if that's ever going to happen in your career again. I wish I could tell you how I did it but I can't. I thought for all the world that Mario [Balotelli] was going to have a go himself but he just moved it on one more and it fell at my feet and I just thought: 'Hit the target, hit it as hard as you can and hit the target.' And it went in."
He it, it went in, and it changed the course of English football. Sergio ‘Kun’ Agüero made sure the world heard the “noisy neighbours”.
Five years and154 goals later (in a little under 234 games, becoming the second-fastest to 100 English League goals – only behind Alan Shearer), he is now third on Man City’s All Time Greatest Scorers and ought to have beaten Erik Brook (’20s) and Tommy Johnson (’30s) this season.
Ought to, because, right now it looks like he doesn’t have a chance in hell to do it and that’s down to one man:
Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola and his philosophy
“Midfielders are intelligent players who have to think about the team as a whole: they’re selfless players who understand the game better than anyone,” Pep Guardiola loves possession more than he loves himself. A little bit. “Hold on to the ball” or some variant you can constantly hear him screaming
An essentially defensive system masquerading as an ‘aesthetic’ attack-minded set-up, Guardiola’s famous tiki-taka revolves entirely around lateral, and triangular, movement of both men and ball and a philosophy that the opposition can’t score if they don’t have the ball. In this highly successful system – that often does produce a lot of goals due to to a number of reasons including stretching play to find gaps
Even under the new coach, who has no place in his formation, or his philosophy, for a traditional no.9, he forced his way into the reckoning. You see, when Agüero is fit, he is firing... as the fact that he already has 18 goals in just 26 games shows in no uncertain terms. Guardiola made public his feeling about the Argentine when he came in and immediately said Agüero needed to improve. Improve? Agüero? To what? He is no Leo Messi, for sure, but do footballers get any more elite than this one?
Why then, do I feel that he is being ostracized?
Because in January, along came young Gabriel Jesus – fresh from destroying the Brazilian first division with champions Palmeiras – and Pep had a more pliable young talent. One not quite as brilliant as Agüero (yet), but one more willing to listen to every word of the manager, and who can run the lateral lines a touch better than the Argentine.
Agüero‘s always had just the one job – score goals. Even then, though, he has never been the rigid goal poacher that many modern managers detest, and he’s shown a willingness to press high and hard whenever any manager has demanded that of him... including Guardiola, and he’s continued to score... but somehow that’s not been enough.
Guardiola’s always liked to be the boss in the dressing room, as any manager would, but there’s a reason the three people he did pick on as soon as he arrived at City were Vincent Kompany, Yaya Toure, and the Argentine – the system is always more important than the individual.. and the system only works perfectly when it’s components are completely pliable.
For all the world, Sergio Agüero – arguably the best player in the Premier League from the day he landed in Manchester - has been deemed unpliable.
The dying value of loyalty
“I know he’s trying. I know how much he fought against Tottenham and how many chances he had. But at Palace, I saw three guys in front with a high intensity and said: ‘Wow, I like what they do.’ In the last game, it gave them continuity. My advice to the guys is, keep going – show me again how good you are. Sergio knows the intention of his manager and the club. I don’t want to sell him. I want him to stay here for a long time until he decides. The reason he’s not played the last two games is because Leroy, Gabriel, and Raheem have played amazing. That’s the only reason why. If I can change the model and play all four … But I am a guy who likes to play midfield players to have more control. What I feel now is that if Leroy, Gabriel or Raheem don’t play, then he will be in for them.”
If they don’t play... Backup to Leroy Sane, Raheem Sterling, and Gabriel Jesus.
Wow!
Must do wonders for the ego of a man who can legitimately lay claim to the title of Greatest Manchester City player of All Time.
Guardiola always says he wants Agüero to stay, but somehow the words “until he decides” seem to hold a deeper underlying meaning. Even then, while I can understand that the Catalan's system purportedly doesn’t have any role for a pure goalscorer (although he has changed that up, struggling initially at Bayern Munich and trying to play a system without a proper no. 9, he was finally forced to play Robert Lewandowski there – and paid rich dividends) or that he feels he can have better control over the dressing room without the presence of one its most dominant characters, what I really don’t understand is the number of fans – online commenters and the like – and ‘experts’ who already seemed to have moved on from Agüero.
He is neither over the hill nor has he stopped scoring for a discernibly long period (he never has, in the past TEN years he has dipped below 20 goals-a-season just once), and he has never once said anything against the club or the fans. Then why the sudden onslaught of “OH MY GOD! JESUS SANE STERLING! WHAT A TRIO!”?
Sure, they’ve clicked well in the two games they’ve played together, and sure Gabriel Jesus promises to be everything he is hyped up to be currently – but how can then so easily ditch the man who has given them the most joy in their storied history?
Loyalty cuts both ways.
While we all hail players like Francesco Totti to the skies for staying true to his club (and rightly so, what a man il Caesar is), do we not overlook the fact that a lot of times people around the club – staff, fans, directors – rarely do the same to a player?
Sergio Agüero has given his all for the club and taken them to levels no one ever saw them at, and suddenly a charismatic manager and his words are enough to turn people again?
Regardless of the affiliation of your club, the sight of the man huddled on the bench, alone, forgotten, is not an easy one to digest. It is, in a word, sad.
What happens now, though? No player of Agüero’s calibre will be content to sit as back-up or plan B... Zlatan Ibrahimovic certainly didn’t appreciate it at Barcelona and although Agüero is trying his best to match up to the expectations, and demands, of his manager in order to continue playing a pivotal role for City – he may very well leave sooner rather than later.
Of course, he may just score a hat-trick against Bournemouth tonight – or Monaco in a couple of days – if given the chance, and then suddenly engender feelings of love everywhere, but loyalty not returned is not one worth keeping Sergio.
Anyone in Europe – and I mean any club in Europe will welcome you with open arms. If the Citizens and Guardiola deem you unworthy, move on. And show them what a costly mistake it was to forget the value of loyalty. To you.
