Manchester City are still cautious about their chances of landing Erling Haaland - although the Blues are undoubtedly in pole position to secure the Borussia Dortmund sensation.
Sources in both Germany and Spain say that Haaland has agreed personal terms for a move to the Etihad Stadium this summer. With the Blues ready and able to meet the £63million release clause, there is no real obstacle to the transfer going ahead.
But City have been stung before when transfers seemed a certainty, not least last summer, when there was fairly high confidence in the camp that Harry Kane would make the move from Tottenham, confidence inspired by the player’s own determination to leave north London and link up with Pep Guardiola and his squad. There was also a deal in place for Jorginho in 2018 - the player had agreed to go to City and the two clubs had shaken hands on a £44million deal, only for Chelsea to gazump them by offering £10m more.
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Of course, Haaland seems to be a different situation. The player has strong emotional ties to the club, through his dad and former Blue Alf-Inge, and has been pictured wearing the club colours as a child, supporting City at Wembley.
It is believed that there are elements in his camp who have pushed the 21-year-old striker towards Barcelona or Real Madrid. His agent Mino Raiola has a difficult history with Guardiola and the City executive team, as he represented Zlatan Ibrahimovic when the Swedish superstar had a huge bust-up when at Barcelona.
Raiola called Guardiola “a coward, a dog” for not playing Ibrahimovic and claimed he had tried to attack him behind the scenes at the 2011 Champions League final for leaving his man out of the game. But Haaland knows his own mind and he and his father have been driving his next move - Raiola, for all his super-agent status, remains their employee, not the other way around, as seems the case with some player-agent relationships.
City executives are believed to have met with Haaland’s representatives last month to thrash out a deal, leading to increased hope that the deal will be done, although City’s official line is that the reports of a deal being set are speculation, while they refuse to comment on whether any meetings have taken place. Haaland has long fancied a move to City - as well as the emotional tie to the Blues, he was born in this country, has always been a fan of the Premier League and knows that Guardiola will both improve his game and ensure he becomes a serial trophy winner.
When Dortmund played at the Etihad Stadium in the Champions League quarter-finals, Haaland was picked up by City’s behind-the-scenes cam excitedly taking pictures of himself walking down the tunnel as he went out to take a look at the pitch. The release clause means that the player’s own intentions become the main factor in the destination - City and Real Madrid can both afford the required sum, Barcelona are hoping they will be in a more stable financial situation and Bayern Munich have already played down their links to the player.
Raiola will want his cut, and with the player landing a signing-on fee, the Blues will end up stumping up close to £100m - but that is less than they were prepared to pay for Kane last summer. Once the release clause became evident, Haaland was a no-brainer in terms of City’s summer transfer window.
The Blues have continued to thrive without a striker, winning the Premier League last season when Sergio Aguero was injured, and this season continuing to set the pace at the top. But Guardiola thinks his squad has been successful despite not having a goalscoring focus, rather than because of it, and has made no secret of his desire to land a top striker.
Kane was that man, but that ship appears to have sailed after Spurs dug in their heels, and the availability of Haaland - and his incredible record of 80 goals in 79 games in Germany - has made him their top target. City know from bitter experience that any deal is never done until the signature is on the contract, but they are huge favourites to complete this move and make Haaland a City player for next season.
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