Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says the Old Trafford club will not make a move to sign Manchester City legend, Sergio Aguero.
Solskjaer identified Aguero’s allegiance to fierce rivals City as the reason why a swoop for the Argentine is untenable.
City confirmed on Monday that Aguero is to bring an end to his decade-long spell at the Etihad Stadium when his contract expires at the end of the campaign.
He will bow out as City’s all-time leading scorer, with a current tally of 257 goals in 385 games, the most recent of those appearances coming against Leicester City on Saturday but Solskjaer says it will be impossible to have a player like Aguero pull a Manchester United strip.
“When I played for Man Utd, if a rival club would try to sign me and I’d gone to a rival club, where’s the loyalty?” Solskjaer said. “Of course, loyalty is one of the values I rank highly. So I wouldn’t expect any player who had played for a club for 10 years to want to go to a local rival.
“I know we’re professional but when you play for Man Utd, you don’t go to Man City.”
Peter Schmeichel, Andrew Cole and Carlos Tevez are previous high-profile examples of players to have moved between neighbours United and City during the Premier League era.
In an apparent swipe at some of his former team-mates, Solskjaer criticised those who show a lack of loyalty to their clubs by crossing the divide.
“We’ve had examples of that and I didn’t really agree to those moves, to put it that way. I don’t want to name names, but you all know who I point my finger at. Enough said,” Solskjaer added.
Cole is one of three players to have scored more goals than Aguero in Premier League history with 187, along with Wayne Rooney (208) and Alan Shearer (260).
Aguero, a £38million signing from Atletico Madrid in July 2011, has scored 181 goals in the English top flight in 272 appearances – a goal every 108.69 minutes.
Among forwards currently at United, Edinson Cavani boasts the best goals-per-game return in the competition with one every 153.5 minutes, albeit having played just 18 games.
Anthony Martial is next on the list, scoring 55 Premier League goals in 167 matches (209.44), followed by Marcus Rashford (221.62) and Mason Greenwood (247.45).
