Victory tends to offer the best opportunity to complain. It sounds less like a case of sour grapes. The finest time to trumpet a player's cause is when he has just demonstrated his talent. So Manuel Pellegrini did on Saturday when Sergio Aguero became just the third visiting footballer to score a Premier League hat-trick at Stamford Bridge.
The Manchester City manager's argument was two-fold: the relatively uncontroversial suggestion that the Argentine is the outstanding striker in England and a lament that the individual honours have gone elsewhere. "It is very strange that Sergio has played so many years here and has never been [named] the best player in the Premier League," he said.
See also:
• Richard Jolly: Manchester City star pair; Liverpool duo; West Ham wonder-goal scorer: PL Team of the Week
• Steve Luckings: Paying homage to the unsung heroes of Leicester City's Premier League title march
• Greg Lea: Kevin de Bruyne shows what former employers are missing as Manchester City crush Chelsea
• Poll: Should Sergio Aguero have been included on the PFA Player of the Year shortlist?
Indeed, when the PFA announced their shortlist for their annual award, Aguero was not even ranked in the top six. Yet there are separate issues: has he been the outstanding footballer of the past eight months and whether he has excelled over several years? The answers are “no” and “yes” respectively.
Should Aguero score against Newcastle United on Tuesday night, he will bring up a century of Premier League goals. Since his debut in August 2011, no one else has scored more than 78. Many have been notable for the quicksilver movement and clinical brilliance Aguero exhibited at Stamford Bridge.
He has shown an ability to prosper in high-profile matches: he has six goals in his past six games against Chelsea, six in his past five versus Manchester United. He has delivered when it has mattered most, especially with the title-winning goal against Queens Park Rangers in the dying seconds of the 2011/12 season.
Yet that is part of his problem. The votes had been cast before then, the silverware awarded. City have a habit of finishing seasons strongly, often after the Players’ Football Association – who decide before the Football Writers – have been balloted. Aguero ended last season with nine goals in his final seven games, clinching the Golden Boot, but not a place in PFA Team of the Year. Pellegrini, who has in the past ranked Aguero third in the world behind only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, is no impartial observer but it is astonishing that the 27-year-old Argentina international has never been voted into the side of the season by his peers.
It is the safest of assumptions that the English pair of Jamie Vardy and Harry Kane will comprise the strike force in this season’s side. A British bias can be detected among the voters: Aguero lost out to Daniel Sturridge in 2013/14 and Wayne Rooney in 2011/12.
It is one reason City have been overlooked. Another may be the notion that they have simply bought success. But certainly the lack of recognition grates and it is remarkable that arguably the finest side of the past five years, containing three players who have defined a generation, has gone unrewarded.
Aguero’s mid-season injuries, which have prevented him from reaching 40 goals in a campaign, may be a reason for his repeated omissions but neither David Silva nor Yaya Toure has been named Player of the Year either, and the chances are that neither will be. They have been overshadowed by those who have performed with great verve and virtuosity, whether Robin van Persie in successive seasons from 2011 to 2012, Gareth Bale in 2012/13 or Luis Suarez the following year, but it nevertheless feels that the individual honours board fails to reflect a golden era for City.
It continues to irritate Pellegrini that, in his debut season in England, when City won both the Premier League and the League Cup, Brendan Rodgers was the manager anointed by his peers. Parochialism is still more apparent when the League Managers’ Association canvass their members and foreign winners are few and far between.
And the strange element is that minds tend to be made up before the season's key issues are settled. Even if Pellegrini wins the Uefa Champions League this season, he should not expect a personal accolade. Given the job Claudio Ranieri has done at Leicester City, he merits the managerial awards.
Yet there is the sense at City that it is unfair when they are overlooked time and again.
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