Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has warned that the club may not be able to afford to replace the departing Sergio Aguero next season.
Speaking for the first time since news broke about the impending departure of club legend Aguero, 32, Guardiola spoke about the difficult decisions he has had to make at the club:
“We know how important he was in the present and the past. These decisions are never easy.
“I want to be clear, maybe we are going to find a new player to replace Sergio in terms of numbers, but there’s a big chance that we will not sign a striker for the next season.
“We have enough players in the first team right now and some interesting players in the academy.”
Guardiola cited the world economic situation thanks to a year of COVID disruption, claiming major clubs didn’t have the kind of money required to sign a high profile replacement for Aguero.
Clearly, City have a track record of not overpaying for talent and they will make no exception when it comes to replacing a club legend and record top scorer (257 goals in in 384 appearances).
Injuries have deprived City of the services of both Aguero and Gabriel Jesus for large stretches of this season but Guardiola devised a striker-less system – using a false nine – which has taken them to the brink of the Premier League title this season and they remain on course for a trophy quadruple.
And following confirmation this week that the legendary Argentine striker would be leaving City this summer after ten years with the club it had been expected that a top class replacement would be coming.
Some stories have linked City with the likes of Harry Kane and Danny Ings alongside stellar names like Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe.
However, the popular choice amongst fans was overwhelmingly in favour of Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Braut Haaland, whose father Alf-Inge Haaland had a spell with the club.
But against a backdrop of super-agent Mino Raiola and Haaland senior embarking on a grand tour of Europe to gauge the next destination for the 20-year-old striker and try and increase the price for the much-sought-after striker, Guardiola sought to cool the media heat and the inevitable price inflation that brings before the Raiola bandwagon comes to England.
He said: “With these prices we can’t afford to buy a new striker. All the clubs struggle financially, we are not an exception.
“We have Gabriel [Jesus] and Ferran [Torres] and we have players from the academy, and we have played many times with a false nine.”
Guardiola has already shown what can be done without a traditional striker this season but he certainly isn’t short of options up front with Raheem Sterling, Phil Foden, and Ilkay Gundogan all chipping in as ‘centre forwards’ this term.
And Torres, who only made his international debut against Germany in September 2020, has now scored six times in ten games for Spain and famously hit a hat trick against the Germans last November.
He has a total of 14 goals for club and country this term despite a relative lack of minutes for City and might also expect to play more next season.
Although Guardiola has said previously that the gap between U23 football and men’s senior football is big the City EDS team are currently top of the Premier League 2 having scored a stunning 62 goals in 19 games this term.
Perhaps City’s next striker could be a son of another Premier League player though – Liam Delap (son of former Stoke player Rory Delap) has hit 20 goals in Premier League 2 action this season with the EDS team, which is managed by Enzo Maresca.
Guardiola said: “Many players have trained with us – Liam Delap, Felix Nmecha, Cole Palmer, James McAtee, and Luke Mbete.
“We talk with Enzo all the time about how they are developing, next season Liam will be with us – training every day.”