Manchester City striker Sergio Aguero is not immune from being axed by boss Pep Guardiola

AN extraordinary scoring record at Manchester City has not made Sergio Aguero immune to Pep Guardiola’s singular methods of judging players.

The Argentinian has been the Premier League’s most consistent striker for the past five-and-a-half seasons, scoring 154 goals in 234 matches, including the most-famous in the club’s history when he won the title with the last kick of the 2011-12 season.

Guardiola’s endorsement of Aguero has been patchy at best since he arrived at the Etihad, and over the last couple of weeks he’s preferred to start Brazilian teenager, Gabriel Jesus.

Of course, there have been appropriate noises from Guardiola, suggesting that the 28-year-old remains integral to his plans.

But by now we know what happens when this manager gets an idea into his head about the suitability of players to his masterplan.

When he was manager at Barcelona, he got rid of Samuel Eto’o after he’d just scored 36 goals in 52 games – including one in the Champions League Final – as the club clinched the treble.

His replacement, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, lasted just a year despite scoring 21 in 45 as Barca won La Liga.

They were both traditional goalscorers, who didn’t suit the pressing game the coach required.

For Guardiola, goals are not enough.

His philosophy requires complete footballers, not specialists.

England No.1 Joe Hart found that out to his cost and is playing out the final few months of his loan at Torino.

He will leave City in the summer because Guardiola doesn’t think he’s good enough with his feet.

City have employed the man with the reputation as the best coach in the world to make such judgement calls, and over the years he has been right more often than he’s been wrong.

The rest of us might have expected him to build his team around Hart and Aguero, but clearly Guardiola has other ideas.

Believing unerringly that he’s right – even if almost everyone else thinks he’s wrong – is part of the Guardiola package.

He will do things his way, regardless.

Aguero is an elite player and it’s likely that demotion from his untouchable status as prime striker will mean that he seeks alternative arrangements when the next transfer window opens.

But maybe Guardiola is right.

Pundits have commonly described Aguero as the Premier League’s only world-class player, but his fellow pros haven’t all seen it that way.

He may have scored more goals than any other striker in the last five seasons, but he’s never once been voted into the PFA Team of the Year.

When he scored 30 and won the League for City in 2012, the PFA chose Wayne Rooney and Robin van Persie.

When he scored 28 in the 2014 title win, the pros preferred Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.

When he top-scored with 32 the following year, they chose Diego Costa and Harry Kane.

City pay their manager more than £12m a year to make big decisions and the Spaniard would put himself under serious pressure if he ditched Aguero.

Then again, when has that ever worried him?