Sergio Aguero the world's third best player, says Neil Custis

Sergio Aguero is the third best player in the world, according to The Sun's northern football correspondent Neil Custis.

The City striker scored his 23rd Premier League goal of the season in the club's 4-0 victory over Stoke on Saturday, putting him second in the league's goalscoring chart behind Tottenham's Harry Kane.

Three-time Ballon d'Or winner Cristiano Ronaldo and current holder Lionel Messi are widely regarded to be the two best players in the world but the likes of Luis Suarez, who has scored 34 La Liga goals for Barcelona this season, and Real Madrid's Gareth Bale could be considered among the best of the rest.

But Custis believes Aguero, who was not nominated for the PFA Player of the Year award, deserves the accolade while also describing the striker as the greatest player in City's history.

"In my opinion they have the third best player in the world in Sergio Aguero," Custis told the Sunday Supplement.

"If everybody in the Man City team had the application Aguero has, week-in, week-out, they would have won this league by March.

"One of the reasons why he doesn't get nominated is because he just goes out and plays football - there's nothing else to him and he just gets on with it.

"You look at his scoring stats and they are incredible, you look at his work rate, and you never see or read an 'Aguero could be on his way' or an 'Aguero wants out' story.

"He never causes a problem and he's Manchester City's greatest ever player, but I think he's also one of the greatest players ever to touch the Premier League.

"Manchester City would not be where they are without Aguero, no matter how much money spent, no matter how many players signed. They simply would not have achieved what they have.

"Aguero has been the catalyst and focal point for everything they have achieved over the last four or five years."

Oliver Holt from the Mail on Sunday disagreed with his Sunday Supplement colleague, arguing the City striker has not been at the club long enough to be considered its best player.

"As someone who grew up in Manchester, I wouldn't put him down as that," Holt said. "I would think immediately of someone like Colin Bell or Mike Summerbee, or somebody from that vintage era when City won the title.

"I am being nostalgic, but I still think those players were City through and through. Aguero has not been there as long and not got as big a body of work.

"He has won titles and has been incredibly important to City and I think he's a wonderful player, but I would not count him as City's greatest ever."