Erling Haaland to remain top priority for Manchester City despite Guardiola claims
Erling Haaland is one of the hottest targets in European football and it is due to the 20-year-old’s machine-like goal-scoring capabilities. Manchester City are one of the several teams linked with Haaland this summer and those links might actually come true.
It was only very recently that manager Pep Guardiola made a claim that spending as much as £150 million on a striker would be close to “impossible” due to the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite these claims, Mirror Sport understands that Manchester City have not given up on the 20-year-old and will continue to push for a transfer.
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The former Premier League champions have already got a bargaining chip that slightly places them ahead of the other teams in the race. When Jadon Sancho joined Dortmund in 2017, the Cityzens imposed a 15% sell-on clause in the deal and the think-tank at the Etihad Stadium now feels that it may be time to waiver the clause if they are to land Haaland at a lesser price. Last summer, Dortmund gave a valuation of £108 million to Manchester United who were heavily linked with Jadon Sancho. Going by the same amount, Manchester City would receive close to £15 million from the transfer if the clause is kept in place.
Haaland is expected to cost between £150 to £180 million and it is highly unlikely that any team would go on to spend an amount so huge, given that Mino Raiola is demanding an unrealistic wage package of £600,000/week. Not only would such a wage bill put a huge dent on the club’s finances, but it would also disrupt the wage structure of the club. Moreover, Erling Haaland is simply too young to be the world’s highest-paid player in terms of wages/week.
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Manchester City were also linked with Lionel Messi last summer and continue to be linked. However, after getting an idea of the numbers that could become a part of the deal involving Haaland, landing both Messi and Haaland would be simply too much for any club and which is why Erling Haaland has overtaken Lionel Messi to become the top transfer target of Manchester City.
The Sky Blues could wait for another season as the £65 million release clause in Haaland’s contract would come into effect then. The wait though could mean that Haaland’s decision could simply boil down to the team that excites him the most.