93:20 have become numerals that will forever be associated with Sergio Aguero, but the man behind the microphone that fateful day in 2012 couldn’t have described the goal, the celebration, or the seismic shift from utter devastation to delirium better than legendary Sky Sports commentator Martin Tyler.
The voice of football for more than four decades, Tyler is keen to play down his part in the ‘Aguerooooo!’ goal, but the commentary has become intertwined with City’s triumph to the point it’s impossible not to hear his words as the goal is replayed or even thought of.
Modest and unassuming, Tyler claims he was just lucky to be there - and is glad he didn’t mess it up!
“The only thing I’ve ever been able to remember about that day with clarity is that the moment Sergio took a touch, I knew he’d score,” said Tyler.
“I’ve no reason for saying what I did when he did score and people have often suggested I must have had something up my sleeve, but how can you even imagine a scenario like that?
“Saying what I said when he did score just enabled me to draw breath I suppose, because I just knew having played football and coached football what would happen because it was him.
“Lesser mortals would have snatched at the chance, but he was the right person at the right moment for Manchester City and that’s the only explanation I can give for what happened actually happening.
“I was aware when it went 2-2 that it could happen, but also not expecting it to.
“I’m a great believer that silence is part of what I do and people have timed the pause between me saying the last ‘o’ of Aguero until when I spoke again.”
Tyler, whose co-commentator that day was former City favourite Niall Quinn, admits that life was never the same again after that goal, also praising the former Republic of Ireland star for his role that day.
“Quinny is a very eloquent man and his words are just as important as mine,” said Tyler.
“I think he was passionate but controlled and he was excellent. His contribution was enormous.
“Afterwards, I went to meet Paul Doherty who had been my boss a Granada for a few seasons and he’d brought his father’s league championship medal with him for me to look at. His dad was Peter Doherty who had won the title with City in 1937 so to see this lovely piece of football history on the day City players were being handed the Premier League winners medals was a really nice thing for me.
“We later went to a restaurant in Altrincham that Graeme Souness had set up for us and they were playing the goal on a couple of large screen as we walked in s and some people were pointing at me and I just thought ‘what have I done?’ it was quite emotional in all honesty, but I never dreamed when it happened that we’d still be talking about it 10 years later.
“The very next day I was at a League Managers Association dinner and one of the first people I bumped into was then-QPR boss Mark Hughes and he said was the nosiest moment in a football ground he’d ever heard.
“This is a man who played for Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Wales and had managed several clubs in a long and successful career so because of the noise within the Etihad, I guess if I’d spoken straight away, it wouldn’t have been as clear cut as it eventually transpired.
“So, whether it was a natural reaction or the noise, I’m not sure – it might just have been a combination of both – but part of my job is to recognise when history is being made before your very eyes and I’ve had a few just recently with my commentary of the FA Cup final going out to the English speaking world as Leicester won it for the first time and Alisson’s header against West Brom both being ‘moments’, for sure.
“The words that followed the actual goal are not phrases I wouldn’t use normally but it was an abnormal moment in history.
“But it wasn’t my moment – it belongs to Manchester City, Sergio Aguero and football history and I was just lucky to be a small part of it.
“I couldn’t have done it without the guys at Sky who are superb. I was just lucky that I was there to witness it. And I think a special mention for Tony Mills who directed the match that day – when you think how the games at Sunderland and City unfold and then we look back at it again today, the split screen between the two grounds as United’s game finished and then to come back at the moment City were about to score…
“The timing was incredible and to capture Joe Hart wheeling away in disbelief… just amazing. He is a wonderful director who managed to get the sequence of events absolutely to perfection,
“I’d been commentating for 38 years and that day, I suddenly got noticed! I get asked about it all the time and get introduced as the ‘Aguerooooo person’ from time to time.
“I get asked to repeat it as I did on the day but I never have - but who knows? If I ever do, I’ll have to do it justice.
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“I always think of Edin Dzeko as the forgotten man in all of this because without his goal, we’d have never got to where we did, so I think his part should never be understated.
“It was the 20th season of the Premier League and to settle it with pretty much the final kick, all I can say is the football gods were smiling on City, the Premier League, Sergio and myself that day.
“I’ll never tire of talking about it because I know how lucky I was and one in a career is more than enough.
“Sergio will be missed in the Premier League if he does move away and if I could say one thing about his time in England it would be, ‘I swear Manchester City will never see anyone like him again.’”
