Sergio Aguero – From Worst Buy To Premier League Record Breaker

It was August 2011 and an Argentine striker arrived at Manchester City from Atletico Madrid. It’s fair to say that not many people in England had heard of Sergio Aguero prior to 2011, despite him scoring 74 goals in 175 appearance for the Spanish outfit, and his fee of £35m sounded excessive.

Indeed, the huge fee paid for the international striker, who had no Premier League experience, caught the attention of a certain Sky Sports pundit, who labelled Aguero as the worst buy if the season. Charlie Nicholas, the former Arsenal and Scotland striker, was giving his opinion prior to the new season when he labelled Aguero as the ‘worst buy, and not value for money.’ He even predicted City would finish third behind United and Chelsea in the league.

How wrong could one person be?

Aguero replaced Nigel de Jong on 59 minutes with City 1-0 up and took just 12 minutes to get on the scoresheet, tapping in a cross from Micah Richards. Three minutes later, Aguero chased a hopeless ball, before knocking it back into the path of David Silva who made it 3-0. But Aguero wasn’t finished. The Argentine picked up the ball in the first minute of injury time and, 25 yards out, sent a wicked shot over the defence and into the goal.

And from there it continued.

Aguero scored 26 goals for City that season, 23 in the Premier League including that all-important last-minute winner at home to QPR.

The following season, Aguero scored 12 Premier League goals in an injury hit campaign that saw the blues concede their title with barely a fight and the following season he bagged 17. 52 goals in 87 games in not a bad return by anyone’s standards, but the striker still had work to do.

Another 102 goals arrived prior to this season, taking his total to 154, before breaking two Premier League records this season – highest non-English goalscorer and most Premier League hat-tricks.

But it’s his record goals for City that silenced Nicholas and had his fellow pundits purring with admiration for the striker.

Aguero is City’s all time top goalscorer. 252 goals the striker has scored in all competitions for City has propelled the striker to the top of the blues goalscoring charts, surpassing Eric Brook’s record that was held since 1940.

Aguero has won four Premier League titles, one FA Cup, four League Cups and three Community Shields in his time at City and is regarded as one of the best players to ever grace the City shirt. And to think that, just a few months before Aguero signed for City, Chelsea signed Fernando Torres for £50m from Liverpool, it makes you realise that £35m was an absolute bargain.