Manchester City agree club record £35 million fee for Atlético Madrid forward Sergio Aguero

The player is expected to hold talks with Manchester City today over a five-year contract, thought to be worth around £150,000-a-week, before completing his move.

The 23-year-old’s imminent arrival brings to a close one of the most laborious sagas of the summer and represents a major victory for the Etihad Stadium side and City’s manager, Roberto Mancini, in his attempts to build a team capable of winning the Premier League .

Aguero, son-in-law to Diego Maradona, widely hailed as a key figure for the future of the Argentine national side and one of Spain’s most prolific forwards over the last five years, had been coveted by both Juventus and Real Madrid.

That City have been able to see off such illustrious competition will be seen as undeniable proof of their altered status on the world stage.

The player is thought to have indicated his willingness to move to the Premier League after discussing City’s offer with his wife, Maradona’s daughter Giannina, in his homeland over the weekend.

After she gave the switch her blessing – a not insignificant victory for City in itself, given the domestic tribulations of his compatriot Carlos Tévez – he is believed to have instructed his Argentine agent, Hernan Reguera, to inform City of his desire to move to Manchester on Monday.

The English club agreed a fee with Atlético marginally shy of the £38 million release clause inserted into Aguero’s most recent contract, signed in January this year, of which £2.2 million will be paid to the player’s first club, Independiente, who sold the striker to Spain as a teenager in 2006 for £15 million.

Khaldoon al-Mubarak, City’s chairman, was not in Spain this weekend, contrary to reports.

The player made public his desire to leave in May and has this week remained in Buenos Aires, ostensibly recuperating from the Copa America, while his team-mates returned to pre-season training.

That Atlético have removed the player’s image from their club shop at their ramshackle Vicente Calderón stadium was seen as evidence the Spanish side had accepted he would not return.

Though Atlético have been forced to reduce their valuation of their talisman to ensure he does not, such an outcome is far preferable to the alternative of seeing Aguero join their fierce rivals Real Madrid.

Atletico’s fear of losing the player to Jose Mourinho’s side began with the player insisting before the Copa America he would “prefer to continue in La Liga if possible.”

Despite the problems inherent in switching sides in the Spanish capital, Aguero’s release clause would have allowed Real to secure the player for market value.

Mourinho’s interest in the player appears to have cooled, though, with his attentions firmly fixed on the Brazilian striker Neymar, despite some suggestions in Spain yesterday that the Bernabeu side had drawn up a provisional arrangement with Aguero earlier this year.

Regardless, Mancini now seems set to be granted his wish to see the capture of Aguero completed before his side travel to Dublin for the latest stage of their pre-season odyssey on Friday. It is unlikely that Aguero, who has had scant break since Argentina’s ignominious exit from a Copa America from which he was almost alone in emerging with credit, will feature in that tournament.

Tévez, currently on holiday in Sardinia, will definitely not feature but the disaffected club captain will loom large in Mancini’s thoughts.

The player has made it clear he wishes to be reunited with his family in Argentina, but after the collapse of his move to Corinthians last week, suitors are growing thin on the ground.

Both Milan clubs have already ruled themselves out of the running for his services, while Barcelona’s signing of Alexis Sanchez makes the European champions unlikely.

So, too, Real, with Mourinho’s desire believed to be Neymar with Tévez’s current team-mate, Emmanuel Adebayor, as cover until the Brazilian arrives in January.

Of the handful of clubs who could afford Tévez, that leaves only newly-rich Malaga and Paris Saint-Germain, though both have already committed funds elsewhere this summer, the former paying £20 million for Santi Cazorla and the latter £9 million for Jeremy Menez.

Chelsea already have a wealth of forwards, and Andre Villas-Boas’s admiration of Falcao, the Porto striker, is well-known. Increasingly, Tévez is facing the prospect of becoming a team-mate of Aguero, rather than a forerunner.

City, who remain keen to sign Samir Nasri, the Arsenal playmaker, insist that is a proposition they are prepared to countenance, though it remains unclear whether the club would attempt to assuage Tévez’s unhappiness with the offer of a new contract. The player, for his part, has made clear his desire to leave is not financial.

By the time the former Manchester United striker returns to training next week, as City prepare for the Community Shield against their near neighbours on Aug 7, Aguero should be installed as his replacement and heir. With City refusing to budge from their £50 million valuation for a European side, Tévez is unlikely to be overjoyed at having to welcome him.

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