Chelsea’s former technical director, Michael Emenalo, admitted that he missed out on signing a player who went on to become a Premier League icon with 184 goals.
Sergio Aguero is now a Manchester City great, famed for his legendary goal that won his club their first ever Premier League title in 2012 – but it all could have been very different, had the Blues boss had his way.
A young Sergio Aguero during his days at Atletico Madrid
Aguero caught the eye of Chelsea during a Champions League tie in November 2009 as Chelsea travelled to Madrid to face Atletico.
The Argentine came on as a substitute in the 54th minute and opened the scoring with a spectacular volley that Petr Cech had little chance of saving.
Didier Drogba went on to score a brace, and it seemed like the Blues would walk away with three points until Aguero netted again in injury-time to take a point for Los Colchoneros in a 2-2 draw.
When Emenalo was talking about the best players he signed on Mikel John Obi’s podcast, he revealed he narrowly missed out on bringing Aguero to Stamford Bridge before his eventual move to City.
He replied: “Sergio Aguero. We came very close. He was 20 and the idea was to have him with Didier Drogba and to have him phase Didier out gradually. We anticipated that Didier would go to 35, 36.”
The deal did not flourish and in 2011 Aguero joined Manchester City, scoring 23 goals in the league.
Including arguably the best Premier League moment of all time, scoring the winner against QPR on the final day of the season beating rivals Manchester United to the title on goal difference.
Aguero went on to win five Premier League titles, picking up a golden boot award for the 2014/15 season scoring 26. That campaign in the top flight he averaged 1.03 goal involvements per game.
He’s also Man City’s all-time top goal scorer with 260 goals and leads the league with most hat tricks ever at 12, above Alan Shearer who played 166 more matches.
In an interview with The Club YouTube channel, the striker said about the possible Chelsea move: “After that game, maybe two months after, my agent said to me, ‘Chelsea are interested’.
Sergio Aguero’s incredible injury time winner against QPR in May 2012getty
“I had just three years at Atletico Madrid. I mean, I loved the Premier League, to play there, but Chelsea were never interested after.
“I spoke about that with Frank Lampard because Frank Lampard played at Manchester City. He said when I played against him, he told the staff at Chelsea to sign Aguero.”
Former Chelsea player Joe Cole previously spoke on his admiration for Aguero.
“You know as a player, I was playing against him and I thought ‘wow’. He was up against JT [John Terry] and Ricardo Carvalho and was just outstanding.”
He told TNT Sport: “Chelsea actually passed on him because of his shape, which was obviously a huge mistake looking back at the time.”
