Despite their heavy spending in the last 14 years, Manchester City have never truly gone in for marquee signings. The purchase of Robinho in the first flush of the takeover in 2008 was something of an exception, a statement move to announce that the Blues were about to arrive as a force in English and European football.
Arguably, the arrival of Carlos Tevez a year later was along the same lines, but even he was not a global superstar, despite winning a couple of league titles and a Champions League with Manchester United. Since then, City have gone for players who, while top professionals, hardly made a ripple in terms of being icons: Kevin De Bruyne, Bernardo Silva, Ederson, Ruben Dias. It explains why, until they splashed a £100million British record on Jack Grealish, they did not figure in the top 30 of most expensive signings of all time.
While others targeted huge names like Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Eden Hazard, City shopped at the next level down, and built an impressive squad by doing so.
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But the impending arrival of Erling Haaland changes all that. The 21-year-old may not have won any World Cups or Champions Leagues, but his goal record makes him a phenomenon, a figure whose name excites interest around the planet.
And the irony is that, due to his contract release clause, City will land him for much less than United paid for Harry Maguire.
As long as he slots in to Pep Guardiola’s team without fuss, Haaland will not just replace Sergio Aguero as the main source of goals for the team, he will also become the poster boy, in the same way as Kun was. In a week when City are set to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Aguero’s 93:20 moment, it is worth remembering that it was that one goal that propelled Aguero from being a dynamic goalscoring striker into a legendary figure.
The world was watching as City’s title hopes unravelled, and United stood on the brink of denying them once more, and the sheer drama — and the bravado of Aguero’s goal — turned him into a superstar.
Wherever City went in the world after that, on promotional summer tours, Aguero figured as the chief pin-up - his shirt-twirling figure adorned the side of office blocks in Manhattan and Hanoi. He was the face of Manchester City for a 21st century audience.
Guardiola’s extreme team ethic means that, despite having world-class talents like De Bruyne and Bernardo, the players remain cogs in the machine, and — while they are supremely effective in winning football matches and lifting trophies — they do not transcend the game in the way Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar and Mbappe do.
In Haaland, City have a player who could do both. The fact he has scored 85 goals in 88 games in German football — and 15 in 13 Champions League appearances — tells you all you need to know about his credentials as an Aguero replacement on the field. But as a force of nature, 6ft 4 ins, quick and also equipped with a shrewd football brain, he has all the tools to make a real mess of Premier League defences.
Aguero was a 23-year-old prodigy when he arrived at City in 2011, but even his record of 101 goals in 234 games for Atletico Madrid in La Liga is only half as good as Haaland’s strike rate. With players like De Bruyne and Phil Foden providing the ammo, Haaland is primed to become City’s first bona fide superstar, winning trophies on the field and boosting a global fanbase off it.
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