John Duggan writes that the news Sergio Aguero is leaving Manchester City brings back memories of an amazing moment that is hard to reconcile with the now...
"Now then - De Jong, yelled on and the crowd come to life again. Forward come Manchester City. City 2, Queens Park Rangers 2. Dinked forward - Balotelli - Still, a chance, and a GOAL! WONDERFUL GOAL! AGUERO!!!!!
SERGIO AGUERO HAS SCORED FOR MANCHESTER CITY AND HE HAS WON THEM THE TITLE! Without question, that will finish it. He broke through on the right of the area, and Sergio Aguero, the little Argentina international, has whipped in a right footed shot, and Manchester City - after 44 years, have won the Championship, the League Championship - AGAIN! And the crowd just go wild, they cannot believe it."
Ron Jones, Premier League Live, Today FM, 13th May 2012
It was meant to be a routine day as a radio producer. It was meant to be a coronation for Manchester City against relegation threatened QPR on the final day of the Premier League season. We'd do a nice show and then it was time for the summer holiday. All City needed to do was win, or match Manchester United's result at Sunderland.
United played their part by leading and going on to win, but the day got to City.
2-1 down to QPR entering stoppage time, their dream was falling apart in front of their eyes. Then Edin Dzeko scored with a header to prise the door ajar, and Aguero did the rest.
It was thrilling to experience it in real time and listen to the best radio commentary I think I have ever heard. Only Michael Thomas' goal for Arsenal against Liverpool in 1989 was comparable. This was sport at its most dramatic, at its zenith. The sound op in the studio was a rabid Liverpool supporter, and when Aguero scored, he started jumping around the room uncontrollably because United were about to lose the title. It was that type of day.
Fast forward nine years to this week and Aguero has announced he is leaving City at the end of the season. He will pocket a fifth Premier League winner's medal in May and he could play a part in further success as the quadruple is still very much on for the Sky Blues.
2011-12 was the now 32-year-old's first season at Eastlands, and his goal represented a moment when City banished years of struggle to the archives; living in the shadow of United - dropping to the third tier of English football - being famous in contemporary times for having the Gallagher brothers as fans and little else. Aguero will leave as the club's record goalscorer with 257 goals, 181 of them in the Premier League. He'll be a club legend alongside Colin Bell and Francis Lee and Eric Brook and Bert Trautmann forever.
Now, of course, nine years on, there is no romance about City, who represent a petro-dollar villain for all the beautiful football they play under Pep Guardiola.
That's not the first thing that came to my mind though when the Aguero news broke.
That May day, there was just an outpouring of joy, a sea of humanity at the Etihad Stadium, people from Joe Hart to the random fan just running in no particular direction. Just running. One could imagine the pubs of Manchester and the hugging and screaming and mayhem. One could imagine people leaving their homes and just running out onto the street.
That's what we miss right now. That kinship and shared experience, whichever team we support, or even if we don't support a team at all. The slagging with a mate over a pint. Settling down to watch a game in the local. When life returns to normal, that exhilaration will be tempered by the handbrake of distancing and awareness. That's understandable and is best practice in the short term.
Something I cannot understand though is how man-made VAR will be here to stay once fans return to Premier League games. When I went to the World Cup in Russia, I thought VAR was great. It was an aid for the referee who would check the incident on the monitor. I was sucked into the novelty of it and it was dramatic in the final itself. However, when VAR arrived in the Premier League, I began to realise that this was something out of George Orwell's 1984 - a Frankenstein's monster.
VAR would have robbed the Sergio Aguero moment of being what it was, the goal you dream of scoring, the goal you score in the park as a youngster and pretend you are the League winner, the Cup winner. The textbook definition of euphoria. Imagine having that paused and checked. The delayed reaction would kill the moment. Even when Spurs qualified for the Champions League quarter finals at City's expense in 2019 I couldn't celebrate as I normally would, as Raheem Sterling's goal had me on the floor before being ruled out. We were through, but it was a weird feeling of anti-climax.
I have seen many replays of Republic of Ireland striker Aaron Connolly going to ground against Serbia over the last week and it looks a penalty on repeat viewing. Ultimately though, one knows VAR would have given one to Serbia for a challenge by Seamus Coleman at the other end. We accepted the Serbia result. We accepted they were the better team.
I am happy with life being unfair and slightly grey if it means I get the flow of a game back. I am happy to let Lady Luck give and take. Watching matches on TV from empty stadiums can be a challenge even for obsessives, but especially soulless when the geometry kits and interminable delays kick-in due to VAR, where Big Brother being right trumps every other aspect of the experience. Are the players really enjoying this?
I'd rather goal line technology and a referee getting most things right. I remember isolated incidents over decades such as the handballs of Diego Maradona and Thierry Henry, but I don't remember football being broken before VAR rode into town.
We have been robbed of the simple joy of spontaneity in our lives because of this wretched pandemic. We may soon be running onto the street for no other reason but because we are free. I, for one, will also want that instant, uninterrupted joy to return in packed stadiums as a football fan.
Thanks for the beautiful moment, Kun Aguero.
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