John Terry blocked Chelsea’s transfer approach for Sergio Aguero even though ex-Atletico star scored twice against him
CHELSEA came close to signing Sergio Aguero before his move to Manchester City… only for John Terry to gazump the deal.
The Argentine will go down as a Premier League legend after a remarkable goal record of 244 for City.
His accolades in Manchester include four league titles, an FA Cup and four League Cups.
But his career could have panned out so differently had their former captain given the club the green light to land his signature.
According to the Athletic, Chelsea were extremely interested in signing a new striker a decade ago with both Nicolas Anelka and Didier Drogba into their 30’s.
Aguero, 21 at the time, was identified by the club following his remarkable goalscoring form for Atletico Madrid.
They had contacted the Spanish club and although initially put off by their £40million asking-price, were working towards a deal.
The player himself had also expressed an interest to play for the Blues and become the club’s highest paid player in the process.
When Chelsea drew Atletico in the 2009-10 Champions League, Terry was given the job of marking the latest talent on the block.
JOHN TERRY HAS HIS SAY
After misfiring at Stamford Bridge, Aguero went on to score twice in the return-leg convincing the club that he should be the next huge money signing of the Roman Abramovich era.
But Terry, who had a strong influence on club decisions, told the hierarchy that he wasn’t impressed with Aguero’s movement and they should instead go for David Villa.
After winning the FA Cup in 2009, Terry said: “I think we’ll see Chelsea back and competing for the top players who are out there at the moment. The likes of Franck Ribery, David Villa. These are the kind of players we want to attract.”
But Chelsea ended up failing to sign either and instead landed the hot prospect Daniel Sturridge while Aguero moved to Man City for £35m in 2011.
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Talk of a deal for Santos’ Neymar also fell through because Chelsea didn’t want to meet his £28.7m release clause.
A year later and they splashed out a club-record £50m on Fernando Torres and despite scoring that famous Champions League goal against Barcelona, he would be regarded as an expensive flop after scoring just 45 times in 172 matches.
Aguero has gone on to haunt Chelsea 15 times in 19 appearances in the Premier League and he will be hoping to do so again when the two teams meet on Saturday.