Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola has admitted it will be almost impossible to replace legendary attacker Sergio Agüero when he inevitably leaves the club.
The 31-year old has become recognised as one of the best players of his generation, earning his place as the fourth top scorer in Premier League history and also becoming City's highest all-time scorer, netting 180 times in 257 league appearances.
With 21 goals in just 23 games in all competitions this season, the Argentine is showing no sign of slowing down and is expected to remain a key part of Guardiola's plans.
But he too recognises that Agüero's playing days will eventually come to an end, admitting via Mail Sport that any club would be lucky to have a player of his calibre. He also described the club's efforts as scouts are already on the lookout for a potential replacement.
He said: "It's a completely different approach with strikers compared to David and the others. Strikers is numbers. Strikers is a smell of a goal. It is not easy to find it and I think all the big clubs need this kind of guy. When Sergio is fit and happy, he can do anything.
"We have a department here to look at new talented players in different countries. People talk about players to me and show highlights but I don't have time to look in depth at the specific skills."
City do of course have a very talented Brazilian waiting in the wings by the name of Gabriel Jesus, and Guardiola is aware of his skillset, praising him for his impressive returns for the club.
He added: "Gabriel has incredible statistics as well for goals and assists. We are lucky to have both of them and recently they've done well together.
The Catalan made a number of changes to his team for the visit of Fulham in the FA Cup on Sunday, with Aguero dropped to the bench in favour of Jesus.
Source : 90min