Barcelona target Sergio Aguero still has much to offer at the highest level, according to former Manchester City winger Shaun Wright-Phillips. (More Football News)
Aguero and City announced this week that the 32-year-old will be leaving at the end of the season after 10 glorious years.
The striker is out of contract at the end of a 2020-21 campaign City hope can end with a famous quadruple.
Barcelona have long been linked with a move to Aguero and are seen as favourites for his signature.
A switch to play in MLS has also been mooted but Wright-Phillips thinks it would be too soon for the Argentina star to make that step.
Advertisement
"For me, it would definitely be a bigger club [than one in MLS] - I don't think he'll go to the States just yet," Wright-Phillips told Stats Perform News when asked about Aguero's future.
"One hundred per cent, if he stays fit he's got a lot more to give. He still looks powerful, he still looks hungry.
"The games that I've watched that he's come on, he's made some excellent runs, and they didn't really get him the ball in those positions.
"He's still got a lot to give, and I think he enjoys it. I don't see him sailing off to America just yet.
Advertisement
"I think [his future] kind of depends on how this season goes.
"He's still in with a chance to win a Champions League medal, which if anyone deserves it, especially as a City player, it should be him.
"That would just finish his career perfectly as a City player to win everything."
Injuries have restricted Aguero to only five starts across all competitions this season, but he is hoping to play a key part in the run-in before departing.
City have been linked with the likes of Erling Haaland and Harry Kane to replace Aguero, with Gabriel Jesus being the other main striker still at the club.
Wright-Phillips added: "To be honest, I was surprised [about the announcement].
"But when you get to a player like that, and he's getting old in football terms, he has not played probably as much as he wanted because of injuries or another reason that could have happened.
"In his head he's probably just thinking he wants to play football. In a way I could kind of see it happening, but I'm devastated about it at the same time.
"If you look at his stats in general. He's scored I think 181 goals in the Premier League for City. He's got 257 goals for City in total. So he's a record breaker and you're always going to miss somebody like that.
Advertisement
"As a fan it's devastating, you want to keep those players until they retire, and be selfish and not let anybody have them. But it's football isn't it, and sadly it always comes to an end."
Wright-Phillips was asked where Aguero ranked among all-time Premier League strikers, a debate that has attracted a host of opinions since the announcement.
The former England international added: "If you go on the stats, I would possibly put him in the top five and that's hard.
"There have been so many amazing and world-class players with elite talent who are in the record books we're talking about.
Advertisement
"The goals that he's scored, the one that stands out, the one that people always talk about in the game against QPR. It had to be him that scored it.
"He was most probably the only person that would have scored that goal. Everything just worked out perfectly.
"There where seasons when he didn't play all that much, he was injured, but he was still in the race for the golden boot and that says a lot for a striker.
"He very rarely had purple patches or going so many games without scoring, until like this season when he's played hardly anything."
