Sergio Aguero reveals Pep Guardiola dispute that shaped his Man City career

Sergio Aguero is the all-time leading scorer for Manchester City, hitting the back of the net 260 times. Aguero has now revealed, however, that he had a dispute with Pep Guardiola at the beginning of his reign in Manchester.

Back in 2016, there were plenty of rumours that Aguero was on his way out at City.

Guardiola was clear that he wanted more defensive work out of Aguero. It was an issue that came to a head in only the second weekend of the 2016/17 season.

Allowing Aguero to leave would have been part of a planned extensive overhaul of the team by Guardiola. As per a report from Goal at the time, the Spaniard had decided after leaving Bayern Munich that major squad surgery would go ahead.

Joe Hart, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany were linked with potential departures. In the end, Hart left the club on loan, whilst Toure and Kompany stayed.

However, sources at the club insisted that there was no major problem between Sergio Aguero and Pep Guardiola. But at one time, it was a complicated relationship.

The situation changed quickly. Aguero began that season in prolific fashion. He scored 10 goals in the opening 13 Premier League games. Aguero also brushed up on the defensive side of his game as Guardiola wanted.

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Sergio Aguero reveals how Pep Guardiola was unhappy with his training

As per Portuguese outlet A Bola, Aguero said: “There was a moment, right in the first year, when Pep arrived at Manchester City, when he said to me: ‘You can’t train like that’.

“I replied, ‘But I train like this. I train in my own way. If you tell me to run to the corner flag and back, I’ll go and run, but I run my own way’.

“We had a lot of problems because of that. Sometimes he didn’t like it, which is why I ended up playing very little when he arrived.”

Guardiola soon adapted to how Aguero trained. He also relented after Aguero had put his point across, even though this was another point of contention between the two parties at the beginning of their relationship.

A defining moment for Aguero’s Manchester City career

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Aguero continued as a crucial player for City over the next five years.

His best goalscoring returns came between 2017 and 2019. Aguero scored 21 times in both seasons, as City won back-to-back Premier League titles.

Often, one of the skills of management is to reach a compromise with your players. Had that not happened in Aguero’s case, he may not have been able to exert the same impact on the side as he did during his latter years.

Aguero left City to ironically join Guardiola’s former club Barcelona. He announced his retirement just months later in December 2021, due to a heart condition.

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