How do you even begin to write about Sergio Aguero at Manchester City?
We're on the eve of the last opportunity City's famous striker could play for us in the Premier League, all being well he is fit enough to start and lead the team out in front of a crowd, but at the very least even if he cannot walk properly I'd imagine he'd still come on for the last few minutes.
There's only a few signings that I can remember exactly where I was when the news came through. For some reason I cannot place where I was when Bony was confirmed and I wasn't pressing F5 when it looked like we had sealed Sylvinho's signature. But I remember Sergio. Whilst others opted for signing of the summer Charlie Adam, or as the song goes, Phil Jones, City signed Kun Aguero.
There's few debuts I can recall moment for moment. It helps I suppose when you're making your debut as a substitute, but I can still remember the excitement and expectation as this young Argentinian was warming up in the second half. I can still hear my mate Green saying to me, "can you imagine if he comes on and scores a cracker? It'll be a better buzz than Robinho's debut." And it probably was a better buzz and you'd probably say his City career was a bit better than Robinho's, I think.
I've often thought about that night since the news was released that he would be leaving us at the end of the season and it made me think about what Sergio has done at City. As his time comes to an end at City a lot of the noise outside of the fanbase will of course be around that day in May 2012, and as much as it should be, for City fans we had 10 years of his magic. At City Sergio redefined what it meant to make an instant impact on your debut. He redefined goal scoring consistency. He redefined match winning moments. He redefined league winning moments. Overall he redefined Manchester City F.C.
To talk about Sergio only in terms of what happened in May 2012 is to me if I have a conversation with someone about Oasis. People from the outside only want to talk about Definitely Maybe or Morning Glory, much like the game against QPR, but I loved it all. His performances in the 2013/14 season were my Be Here Now, Aguero scoring hat tricks on consecutive weekends vs Arsenal and Chelsea in 2018/19 is my Dig Out Your Soul. Unfortunately this season has been very much like the power cut at the Heaton Park gig in 2009, but he's got enough credit in the bank to allow that to happen.
In the early days he scored in the 6-1. He scored what felt like an important winner in his first season against Villarreal. He scored the winner away at Arsenal in the League Cup when we hadn't won at Arsenal for about 40 years. He scored the winner away in Porto (that would be nice to see again, wouldn't it?) He scored 6 goals in the final 6 games of the 2011/12 season - lest we forget that we won the league that season by 8 goals. The following year wasn't great for City, but he still scored in an FA Cup semi final and one of my all time favourite moments scoring the winner at Old Trafford in April 2013.
In the 13/14 season, he was injured for large parts of it and for most fans the two stand out performers were Yaya and Dzeko but in all competitions Aguero scored 28 in 34 games. When you consider that he's not known for hitting the ground running when he gets back from an injury that is quite remarkable. The goal he scored at home to United to put us one up is a favourite of mine from that season, a great finish on a great day - although I'm still annoyed that we didn't put 7 or 8 past them being 4-0 up after 50 minutes.
There were times where the rest of the team was on the whole underperforming but he got us over the line or kept us in the fight. The 2014/15 season isn't one that particularly stirs up any great memories as we didn't win anything, in fact it was the only season since the 2008-09 season where we didn't get to a semi final of a cup competition. The team was a bit disjointed, Yaya and Silva looked tired from 5 years of playing every single week, Mangala was a flop, Jovetic and Lampard were playing a lot of games, Pellegrini was looking out of his depth but Aguero's goals got us to 2nd place in the league and one of the stand out nights of that year was his hat trick at home to Bayern Munich. Surprisingly that was his only season as the golden boot winner.
Again, the following season for the club wasn't particularly remarkable despite winning the League Cup and getting to the Champions League semi final (how far we've come eh?) but again Aguero's numbers in the league were brilliant - 24 goals in 30 appearances. It's not the most significant moment by any stretch, but one of my favourite moments from Aguero was a goal that only he could score at home vs Chelsea in front of the newly expanded South Stand. In the reverse fixture me and my mates had a great day out at Stamford Bridge where Sergio scored all three goals as we won 3-0, one of the highlights of the season.
All change at the start of the 2016/17 season, new badge, new manager and all things MCFC and been changed to "Man City" - that last bit still irks me, as we're not from "Man". Sergio scored the first goal under Pep and although he started the season well, things weren't always rosy between Aguero and Guardiola - the arrival of Gabriel Jesus seemed to unsettle Sergio somewhat, but over time that seemed to be less of an issue. There's so many great Sergio memories over the years that this season doesn't particularly stand out yet he scored 33 times in 45 appearances!
2017/2018 was a significant season for the club and for Sergio. The team broke all sorts of records as we won our 3rd Premier League title, some of which we may never see broken again whether it be the 100 points, 106 goals, 18 consecutive league wins, 32 league wins, just to name a few. Another record I don't think we're likely to see broken was when Sergio scored away at Napoli to become the clubs all time leading goal scorer. Unfortunately I wasn't there to witness it but all the same it was an incredible achievement that Sergio broke Eric Brook's record that had been there for decades. Loads of great highlights from Sergio that season, the opening goal in the Carabao Cup final vs Arsenal, the four goals at home to Leicester, giving it out to that copper who held that City fan down on the pitch away to Bournemouth. Despite personal and club landmarks that season it still feels like a bit of a "what if" season for Aguero as again injuries hampered him - 21 goals in 25 league appearances is again ridiculous numbers, makes you wonder what he could have done if he was fit all season.
After a lay off and surgery Sergio seemed to be back to his best. Winning the Community Shield he scored both the goals, the first of which was his 200th goal for City. In the first home game of the season he scored a hat trick against Huddersfield. Another goal in a derby at home to United in November in typical Sergio way - blasting the ball as hard at the near post as possible. After some poor form around Christmas, City needed to beat Liverpool at home in January 2019 to get themselves back in to the title race. Any other result would have seen City struggling to catch Liverpool. Similar to the goal against United 2 months earlier, a trademark Aguero goal got us 1-0 up going in to half time - the pace of the game and the power in Sergio's shot is unbelievable - it was so intense at the time living in that title race but reflecting on it, you were looking at two of the great modern era teams going at it and of course Sergio scored. The aforementioned hat tricks on consecutive weekends to Arsenal and Chelsea played a huge part in City building our momentum for retaining the title, the Chelsea hat trick in particular was stunning. As things got more and more tense as the season went on, Aguero as always with ice in his veins provided some important and crucial goals - Fulham away and especially Burnley away stand out in my mind as games where I felt like I was about to have a heart attack in the away end due to the pressure of the situation. And then who else can you rely on when it's the final game of the season? City went 1-0 down to Brighton in the first half at the Amex, for me the enormity of that didn't even have time to sink in because before you knew it, Aguero had scored an equaliser and we went on to win 4-1 and retain the league title.
After winning 5 of the previous 6 domestic trophies, the 2019/20 season always had the potential to feel a bit flat. And it did. However, Aguero still broke records and scored important goals, because that's what he does. I was there at Villa Park in January 2020 as he overtook Thierry Henry as the highest scoring international player in English history. Just read that again. Anyone who saw Henry in his pomp understands that he was one of the greatest foreign players to ever kick a ball in England and Sergio has gone past his record. And he also broke Alan Shearer's hat trick record. I grew up on Alan Shearer, he was probably my non-City hero when I was a kid and again Aguero has broken his record. The following month and again against Aston Villa he scored the opening goal as City went on to win the Carabao Cup for the 3rd time in a row.
I went to Sheffield Wednesday in the FA Cup. Bit of an unremarkable night, albeit I can recall having a laugh in the car with my mates as we went over The Pennines. We won 1-0, Aguero scored. Got back in the car and listened to the draw for the next round - Newcastle away, buzzing, night out in Newcastle on the cards. And then the world stopped. I was fortunate enough to attend the 2021 Carabao Cup final, but for 13 months the last City goal I had seen scored was by Aguero. I'm sure there's people out there who went to Sheffield that night who didn't go to Wembley nor have got tickets for Everton this weekend.
Soon after "Project Restart" Aguero got a bad injury. I don't really want to reflect too much on this season because it's not how I'll remember Aguero, struggling for fitness and form, looking numb on the bench as the team look to have found a winning formula without him. The goal at Palace was a nice reminder though of what he is all about, and I'm pleased that the last points we picked up before we won this years title had his influence on it. It's a shame that things are having to end, but all good things do unfortunately.
There's so many records and moments I've listed here. And there's always more. He's scored in every home league game against Liverpool. He's City's highest scorer in Manchester derbies. He has the highest goal scoring ratio in Premier League history. It goes on and on. But like Zabaleta, Yaya Toure, Kompany and David Silva before him it's what he meant to supporters more than just stats. Aguero will always be linked with that moment in May 2012, a moment that transcends football in all honesty, there will be people in this country who have no idea about football but they know about the dramatic moment where he scored the late winner to secure City's first league title in 44 years.
I'm no fan of Martin Tyler, but his commentary over that moment is iconic. I've watched the highlights of that game so many times that for me the best part of his commentary that day gets overlooked. Just after the final whistle he says, "but the bare facts will never tell you the whole story" - words that reflect the run in of the 2011/12 season, and words that reflect Sergio Aguero and his time at City.
I really hope that either against Everton or next week in Porto we see the great man one more time, he still has some magic left in him and potentially one last great moment, and if that is to win the Champions League then it will be a fitting end for one of the greatest players not just City but English football has ever seen.
And of course I don't want my last memory of him in a City shirt to be that fucking penalty.
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