Darren Gough applauded Manchester City attacker Gabriel Jesus for his remarks about playing second-fiddle to Sergio Aguero.
The Brazilian forward has been sparingly-used by Pep Guardiola this season with the experienced manager opting to stick with Aguero being his first-choice option.
Jesus admitted that while he is fighting to feature more in Man City’s first-team, he pointed out he is competing with the club’s top scorer in history.
“I’m staying on the Manchester City bench at the moment but I’m fighting to get my place back in the starting line-up,” said the Man City player, as quoted by Sky Sports.
“But I’m fighting with the club’s top scorer in history, Sergio Aguero. He’s been helping me very much and I’m fighting to get my place back.”
These remarks when told to Gough by Adrian Durham saw him cheerily praise them and claimed that at last there was a young player with sense.
“Oh great!,” said Gough clapping the remarks (talkSPORT, 18:35, Wednesday March 20th).
“At last, at last, a young player with sense. See how long that lasts though.”
OPINION
Jesus has consistently featured for Man City across the season but a lot of his appearances have been made from the bench. The forward has only played 72 minutes of league action across the club’s last seven league games and most other players would be venting their frustration. However Jesus doesn’t appear to be angry but more determined to change his first-team status. The forward acknowledges who his competition is at Man City and is willing to wait for opportunities to feature once they come along. When you consider that Jesus has scored just six goals in his latest 23 league outings, then it makes sense that he is not moaning. If the 21-year-old was scoring goals for fun upon coming off the bench then maybe he’d be banging down Guardiola’s door to demand more minutes. Yet Jesus clearly knows that he is better off doing his talking on the pitch rather than running to the media to have a cheeky moan.