If you can't beat them, join them, people say.
Chelsea weren't able to sign Erling Haaland in the summer of 2021 with the Norwegian forward costing too much and being an unviable deal for Roman Abramovich at Chelsea. After the striker buried 27 goals in 26 league matches if there was ever a time to go big then it was probably then.
The club decided against jumping the queue on Haaland one-year ago and were quickly made to pay for it. Before Chelsea could complete a takeover or even get out of their stage of being a sanctioned asset as part of the UK Government's plan to punish Abramovich, Manchester City had reached an agreement with Borussia Dortmund for less than half the price Chelsea had been negotiating the year before. That £97million spent on Romelu Lukaku looks even worse now.
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Haaland is just seven games into his career in England and has three more goals than Lukaku got in the league throughout all of last season. He has almost equalled the combined tally of Timo Werner and Kai Havertz last term (12) and is level with top scorer for 2021/22 Mason Mount.
Chelsea not do the Haaland deal last summer, they were behind this summer from the get-go and then missed out on another early chance to sign someone tipped as a potential heir to his throne - not that he will be going anywhere soon aged 22.
Not only does Benjamin Sesko of RB Salzburg beat Haaland's towering 191cm frame, his goalscoring isn't too shabby either. In his first full season at the club's senior team he scored five goals in 24 games aged just 18, Haaland at the same stage only played one match. Aged 19, Sesko already has four goals and two assists in nine matches, Haaland went on to make a name for himself in a breakout season at this point, getting 16 in 14 matches before Christmas before being snapped up by Dortmund where he would get a further 13 in 15 matches. He ended the season with 29 league goals in 29 games with six assists.
Sesko has quite a way to match that tally but it hasn't stopped there being immense interest in the player, especially not with the common knowledge of Salzburg's talent production line. The Slovenian forward was heavily pursued by Chelsea and Manchester United this summer in a bid to get ahead of the suitors that will undoubtedly go in for him again.
Although he chose to remain in Austria for development, and the reported £60m price tag being quite steep for a teenager - not that it has stopped Todd Boehly so far - Chelsea, if they do go in strongly for the player next summer, will be wary of the previous Haaland mistakes they've made.
There is more to the comparison than just the path they seem destined to take as well, Sesko models his game on the striker. "Haaland is a fantastic player," he said. "I have great respect for him and I watch a lot of YouTube videos of him to learn and observe." Should he go on to be even half the goal-scorer that Haaland is then Chelsea would be foolish not to take the chance to sign him should it arise.
In an alternate universe Tuchel may be imagining what it would be like to manage Haaland at Stamford Bridge, instead, Chelsea have already paid £35m due, in part, to their failure to click up front. Outside the massive amounts they have spent on attackers it cost a reported £13m in compensation to sack Tuchel with £2m for his backroom staff, they then spent an additional £20m to bring in Graham Potter. Maybe Haaland wouldn't have solved Chelsea's issues and couldn't have saved Tuchel, but to have a fourth missed opportunity would surely only be more damaging for the Blues.
Manchester City hardly looked short of goals as they went to a third league title in four years. Even with an injury prone Sergio Aguero as their main striker in 2020/21 they won the league at a canter, without him Liverpool's challenge was just an inconvenience for a team that scored 99 goals, without a striker. It was 23 more than Chelsea scored with one. Sesko may not be Haaland yet but he's doing the right things to follow City's No.9.
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