Pep Guardiola was keen not to comment at his Tuesday news conference but the main online chatter around Manchester City had nothing to do with their key midweek Premier League showdown against Brighton.
According to The Daily Mail, City have agreed initial personal terms with Erling Haaland’s representatives on a £500,000 per week wage package, putting them in pole position to trigger the Borussia Dortmund superstar’s €75 million (£63m) release clause.
Haaland’s brace in Dortmund’s 6-1 weekend win over Wolfsburg took the Norway striker to 33 goals in just 31 games for club and country this season.
Such form makes him one of the hottest properties in world football, but what will it mean if the 21-year-old links up with Guardiola and City?
Do Man City need a striker?
During Sergio Aguero’s injury-ruined final season at the club in 2020/21 and throughout the current campaign, following a failed attempt to lure Harry Kane from Tottenham, City have largely operated without a specialist striker.
Sometimes that has meant the likes of Raheem Sterling or, before his January exit to Barcelona, Ferran Torres filling in as a conventional forward but, for the most part, Guardiola has used his signature false-nine strategy, with an array of attacking midfield schemers serving as the roving point of his attack.
Given City won the Premier League and Carabao Cup last season, while reaching the Champions League final, and are in contention for the top prizes at home and abroad this term, it feels fair to ask whether they need to splash out on Haaland.
The short answer is that they do and don’t, take our word for it.
“We need a striker, I think the club is going to try, it hasn’t happened but in the end we adapt,” Guardiola said last month.
The adaptation, as detailed above, has been pretty impressive and a team full of attacking creatives feels in step with Guardiola’s footballing vision, especially considering his record working with big-name strikers seems mixed at first glance.
Would Erling Haaland be Pep Guardiola’s next Zlatan Ibrahimovic?
Samuel Eto’o and Thierry Henry both featured in Guardiola’s treble-winning 2008/09 Barcelona side but then left in consecutive summers.
By the time of Henry’s 2010 departure, another star frontman had arrived, whose travails in Catalonia still shape much of the perception around Guardiola and how he operates with traditional strikers.
Zlatan Ibrahimoivic joined from Inter in 2009 but was loaned to AC Milan the following year after falling out of favour with Guardiola, who he has rarely missed an opportunity to express his disdain towards since.
Given Haaland’s larger-than-life presence on the field, not to mention indications of a not inconsiderable ego, it is easy to see signs of him becoming Zlatan Mk II at City. On closer inspection, that’s unlikely.
Firstly, Guardiola is no rookie coach anymore. The idiosyncrasies that Ibrahimovic found so distasteful are now responsible for a decade of virtually unbroken success at Barcelona, Bayern Munich and City. Haaland and any other star arrival has plenty of reasons to tolerate Guardiola’s quirks because of the seemingly guaranteed medals that await.
Secondly, Lionel Messi was a huge factor in Ibrahimovic’s discomfort, having played and thrived as a false nine towards the end of 2008/09. Messi wanted to play centrally, which meant he and Ibrahimovic could not co-exist and something had to give.
By contrast, the false nine position at City has become something of a self-sacrificing role for Phil Foden, Jack Grealish or whoever else has filled it. They would probably be glad of someone else coming to take the burden.
Finally, despite initial teething problems, Robert Lewandowski and Sergio Aguero each thrived under Guardiola. Haaland is far more likely to follow their examples than repeat Ibrahomovic’s Camp Nou torment.
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Are Man City going to sign any other forwards?
If Haaland joins City this summer, he could do so at a time of change for Guardiola’s attack. Sterling, Gabriel Jesus and Riyad Mahrez are all out of contract in June 2023.
If they remain next season, they will have to jockey for position alongside Julian Alvarez – the Argentina international for whom City agreed an initial £14.1m deal with River Plate in January.
Alvarez is set to arrive at City ahead of the 2022/23 season and is a versatile forward comfortable operating either centrally or out wide – something that could be viewed as bad news for Jesus.
Youth team standouts Liam Delap and Cole Palmer have had their first-team progress checked by injury issues this season but should be more prominent next time around.
Delap would provide centre-forward cover for Haaland, even though a loan move might benefit him at this stage of his development, while Palmer has transitioned from being a midfielder to excelling as a left-footed attacker on the right flank.
How prominent Alvarez, Palmer and Delap are in Guardiola’s plans might depend on how the Sterling, Mahrez and Jesus contract situations shake out. Of course, there might be a new big dog in town when it comes to earnings.
Would Haaland be Man City’s biggest earner?
The £500,000 p/w figure attached to Haaland would make him City’s biggest earner if it was a basic wage, but it is not clear how much – if any – of this reported pay packet is dependant upon bonuses.
When Kevin De Bruyne negotiated his latest contract extension until 2025 last April, The Times reported his wages climbed to £385,000 p/w to eclipse David de Gea as the Premier League’s highest-paid player.
If the Belgium midfielder inspires City to Premier League and Champions League glory this season, he would be entitled to ask for a bump towards Haaland’s purported wage levels.
Outside of that, Mahrez is City’s top scorer this season and Sterling became the club’s 10th highest scorer of all time this term. Each could make a claim – in Sterling’s case a strong one given his huge public profile and prominence in the England national team – that they deserve earnings within a top bracket that Haaland could come to redefine.
At the other end of the team, Ruben Dias’ influence as a leader has been instant and considerable – something else arguably worthy of top-earner status.
This team 💙 we move 👊🏾 pic.twitter.com/vgDqvpwuV9
— Raheem Sterling (@sterling7) April 10, 2022
How many players will Man City sign this summer?
Since their 2017 overhaul in the aftermath of Guardiola’s first season at the helm, City have generally dealt in one or two major signings and no more every close season. Mahrez in 2018, Rodri and Joao Cancelo in 2019, Grealish last August.
The overall outlay required for Haaland means a similar situation is likely, but Guardiola’s expensively assembled squad is starting to look a little thin in places and could arguably do with a couple more bodies.
“I prefer 16, 17, 18 all fit, otherwise it’s difficult to handle it,” Guardiola said when discussing his optimum squad size on Tuesday.
This season, City have 17 senior outfield players – a number slightly smaller than intended following the failure to sign Kane, Torres’ exit and Benjamin Mendy’s suspension as he awaits trial for multiple alleged rapes.
Aside from the forward trio with their contracts winding down, Ilkay Gundogan also only has a year remaining on his deal. Throw in veteran captain Fernandinho intending to leave at the end of the season and City certainly look like they need reinforcement in central midfield, even allowing for the expectation that teenage playmaker James McAtee will get more minutes in 2022/23.
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Left-back is a curious position, given City have no specialist there but Joao Cancelo excelling in an inverted role, with Nathan Ake and Oleksandr Zinchenko providing backup. Cancelo’s new home means another right-back to cover for Kyle Walker might be needed. The money ringfenced for Haaland means that might signal a return for loanees Yan Couto or Issa Kabore as opposed to a new buy from elsewhere.
Would Erling Haaland change how Man City play?
Not really. Throughout his career, Guardiola has remained studiously committed to his Cruyffian positional play model, all high possession and high pressing. Haaland would have to learn how to operate within those parameters as much as his new team-mates would need to adapt to him.
Over the past couple of season, City have become more methodical in their play – a shift partly inspired by the fact they are less able to blow teams away with a weight of goals.
Assuming Haaland solves that problem, then we might see a shift back towards the more expansive approach seen when Aguero, Sterling and Leroy Sane were Guardiola’s first-choice front three.
With Alvarez in tow as well, Foden and Grealish could spend more time in midfield, although retaining players of such technical quality in the forward line would satisfy Guardiola’s often-stated desire for the “extra pass” despite having a brand new centre-forward.
In short, City with Haaland would have new ways to hurt opponents and fresh angles of attack, while still looking very much like a Guardiola team.
Will Real Madrid or Barcelona sign Erling Haaland instead?
Madrid remain City’s main opposition when it comes to securing Haaland’s signature.
Former Norway striker Jan Age Fjortoft, an ex-international team-mate of Erling’s father and one-time City captain Alf-Inge Haaland, has covered the saga for a long time and stuck to this version when the latest news broke on Tuesday.
However, Madrid’s long-held desire to bring Kylian Mbappe to the Spanish capital means Haaland cannot be a priority in the way he appears to be for City.
Like I have reported for months, Erling Haaland could end up at Manchester City and Real Madrid.
The two favorites.
But NO agreement so far— Jan Aage Fjørtoft 🏳️🌈 🇳🇴 💛💙 (@JanAageFjortoft) April 19, 2022
Barcelona have also been touted as a potential destination as intrigue and enthusiasm builds around the Xavi era.
Club president Joan Laporta pulled some impressive strokes to get the likes of Torres, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Adama Traore through the door in January but Barca’s dire financial situation means more of such creativity is likely to be the order of the day during the close season.
Talking up the potential of a move for Haaland might be politically advantageous, but it would be a surprise to see Barcelona back up those words with actions.