SERGIO AGUERO is battling to save his Manchester City career.
Aguero was stunned after being axed by Pep Guardiola for Wednesday night’s Champions League showdown with Barcelona.
He was told several hours before kick-off that he would not be in Guardiola’s starting XI for tactical reasons.
The move backfired though as Barca dished out a 4-0 hammering thanks to Lionel Messi’s hat-trick to ruin Guardiola’s return to his former club.
It has emerged that Guardiola also left out Vincent Kompany despite club captain being fit and available.
The move is the clearest sign yet that Guardiola no longer regards either player as vital to the team as previous managers have done.
Senior sources within the dressing room have spoken of ‘tension’ between Guardiola and Aguero in recent weeks.
News of cracks in their relationship will put Real Madrid and Bayern Munich on red alert, with Aguero still regarded as one of the most lethal finishers in world football.
Guardiola has been determined to impose his authority on the club’s senior stars since taking over from Manuel Pellegrini in June.
He has frozen out Yaya Toure and sent the likes of Joe Hart and Samir Nasri out on loan elsewhere.
Guardiola sanctioned Hart’s move to Torino before signing his replacement, Claudio Bravo, from Barcelona in an £17m deal.
But his most startling move has been to drop Aguero for the last two games, despite the Argentine ace having scored 11 goals in nine matches this season.
Aguero, who signed a new deal at the Etihad earlier this year, is City’s all-time leading scorer in Europe and became an iconic figure at the club when he won them the Premier League title in 2011 with almost the last kick of the season.
But team-mates have noticed difficulties between Aguero and the Spaniard, with Guardiola repeatedly insisting in public that the 28-year-old ‘can do better’ and that he wants ‘more’ from him.
Aguero has admitted he is still getting used to Guardiola’s demands and revealed during the recent international break that he thinks his manager is ‘picky’ about everything.
It remains to be seen if Aguero is recalled to Guardiola’s Manchester City side when Southampton are the visitors on Sunday.
But he will not be impressed at having to sit out big games like this week’s and will want to know where he stands with Guardiola.
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