Erling Haaland a Red?

Norwegian sensation Erling Haaland is on his way to the top of the game, smashing every goal scoring record along the way. His fellow Norwegian, former footballer and Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is however the one making headlines in recent times for remarks and claims he made about his compatriot Haaland. Whilst giving a talk at an event in Manchester the former Man Utd manager said that he gave Man Utd the chance to sign Haaland as a teenager while he was still playing in Norway for four million Pounds. He was quoted saying, “I got in contact with Man Utd because we had this talented striker who they should have had. But they didn’t listen, unfortunately. Four million I asked. But they never signed him. Four million!” Man Utd turned down the offer and Haaland has since gone on to sign for their cross town rivals Manchester City, becoming one of the most prolific goal scorers in world football.

Haaland could have signed for Man Utd aged 17 for just four million, which is chump change for a club that has enjoyed so much commercial success. Since Ole made this offer to Man Utd Haaland went on to score a bucket load of goals in his homeland of Norway whilst playing for Molde. He then went on to play for Red Bull Salzburg, signed with Borussia Dortmund thereafter and is now doing wonders with Man City.

Man Utd have needed a proper goal scoring number nine for so long but their recruitment strategy has not done them any favours. In recent years they have been bringing in older strikers who do the business for a season or two and then dip – the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Edinson Cavani and who could forget the return of the prodigal son Cristiano Ronaldo. The club has constantly been flicking through strikers, trying to force the issue and make things work out when they could have just molded a super talented kid when he was 17. In this day and age one could argue that Haaland is more effective than every forward player Man Utd currently have and the ridiculous numbers the Norwegian has put up strongly support this argument.

However, questions still linger over this whole matter. Would Haaland’s father Alfie have given the green light for this move to happen given his ties to Man City having played for them and his history with former Man Utd captain Roy Keane? Two, would the move to Man Utd have worked for Haaland and would we have gotten the same prolific scorer if he had ended up at Man Utd that early on in his career?

When looking back, Haaland’s career path has been perfect for him you could say. Red Bull Salzburg are a club known to develop young talent and sell them on for significant fees. All Haaland had to do was score goals for them, which he did on a more than regular basis and it wasn’t long before Borussia Dortmund came calling. Dortmund are a club known to nurture young talent and present an even bigger stage for them to showcase their abilities as they do play in the biggest games across Europe, owing to their regular Champions League appearances. Again Haaland did his thing managing to bag 86 goals in 89 appearances across two seasons in Germany before making his big move to Premier League champions Man City, where he is currently at the height of his abilities and top of his game.

Genuinely speaking we probably would not have gotten the same Haaland had he joined Man Utd at 17. Five years ago Man Utd were still finding their feet trying to figure out their identity after years of instability and inconsistency following the departure of longtime manager Sir Alex Ferguson. From David Moyes to Louis Van Gaal to Jose Mourinho, Man Utd were still in the dark and had no clear vision of where the team was headed. Ironically in hindsight, signing Haaland would probably have helped a lot as Man Utd have needed a consistent source of goals for the longest time and despite the rise of homegrown talent Marcus Rashford in recent times they still do need some help in the goal scoring department as is evident from their low scoring games.

There is still a huge gap in terms of talent and squad depth between Man Utd and Man City and there’s an argument to be had on whether Haaland would still score the same number of goals if he was placed in this current Man Utd squad. Without a doubt Haaland is super talented and gifted and would probably thrive under any circumstances and he would probably put up similar numbers at Man Utd or something close to what he has done at Man City. Haaland would have been at Man Utd for six years now scoring lots of goals and they definitely would have been a different team as to what we have been seeing recently. In terms of Haaland’s development as a player and the recent Man Utd teams as a whole it probably isn’t a match made in heaven and we could even go as far as to say Haaland dodged a bullet by not signing for Man Utd.

The question remains, would Erling Haaland still have been the same player if he had joined Man Utd all those years ago and where would Man Utd have been if they had managed to secure the young Norwegian’s signature?

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