MORE than once, Manchester’s two rival clubs have vied for the one player. Alexis Sanchez, for instance, looked destined for the Etihad Stadium before Manchester United stepped in to lure the Chilean to Old Trafford. The same happened with Robin van Persie three years after Carlos Tevez swapped United for Manchester City.
Now with a Manchester derby this Sunday it seems the two clubs are set to scrap for another transfer target with Erling Haaland believed to be on the radar of both. Along with Kylian Mbappe, the Norwegian is at the vanguard of European football’s next generation and possesses the qualities City and United need in a new centre forward.
City will almost certainly enter the market for a new striker this summer with Sergio Aguero out of contract and edging closer to the Etihad Stadium exit door. The Argentine is a club legend, but he has barely played this season due to injury. Handing an increasingly absent Aguero a contract extension at the age of 32 doesn’t appear to make much sense.
Long tipped as the natural successor to Aguero, Gabriel Jesus has yet to prove he can handle the burden of being Manchester City’s main man in attack. Pep Guardiola has made do without Aguero and Jesus for much of the season, using Ilkay Gundogan, Bernardo Silva and Ferran Torres in rotating ‘false nine’ roles, but this solution isn’t sustainable in the long term.
Haaland isn’t an archetypal Guardiola forward, but he would undeniably broaden City’s attacking options. They might be a more orthodox side with the 20-year-old leading the line, but they could well be a better side for it. Haaland is capable of scoring goals for any team, but imagine how many he could score for a team as good as Manchester City.
The Norwegian, whose father Alf Inge Haaland was a City player for three years, already has an emotional connection to the club, but he also has a personal relationship with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer having played under the Manchester United boss during his formative years as a professional at Molde.
“When you have had kids and players through as a coach, you follow them and I keep in touch with Erling,” Solskjaer recently revealed. “It’s great to see him become the player he has become and [how] he works to improve all the time. He’s a Dortmund player – we just wish him well there and let’s see what life will bring later on.”
Solskjaer made a great effort to sign Haaland a year ago when he was looking to move on from Red Bull Salzburg with the United manager even flying to Austria to hold talks in person with the young striker. There is a sense Solskjaer has never let go of the notion that Haaland might one day call Old Trafford home.
Having missed out on Haaland a year ago, United signed Edinson Cavani last summer but while the Uruguayan has made a strong impression in England he is only a short-term solution. Haaland, however, would be the sort of generational talent the Old Trafford outfit could build a team around for years to come. United haven’t made such an investment in an elite level youngster since the signing of Wayne Rooney back in 2004.
Borussia Dortmund has been a good stepping stone for Haaland. He made a wise decision to make the move to the Bundesliga in order to further refine his game, but the 20-year-old already appears ready to take the next step. That next step could carry him to Manchester with both City and United keen. Forget the derby, the biggest, most consequential clash between these two rivals could happen in the summer transfer window.
