Former Newcastle and Tottenham striker Les Ferdinand believes it is a 'bit early' to place Erling Haaland among the Premier League's greatest forwards because the Manchester City star has only been here for one season.
Haaland surpassed Alan Shearer and Andy Cole as the highest one-season goalscorer in Wednesday's 3-0 win over West Ham. The Norwegian latched onto Jack Grealish's through-ball and dinked over Lukasz Fabianski for City's second on the night and his 35th goal from 31 league games.
It also took him to 50 across all competitions for the season, with the seemingly unbreakable record of 63 goals scored by Everton legend Dixie Dean in 1927/1928 now a faint possibility. But Ferdinand insists the Blues star cannot be placed among the best until he proves himself over multiple years.
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"It's a bit early to say as these guys did it consistently over the years," Ferdinand told Stats Perform. "Haaland has done it this season and he's been phenomenal this season, but he'll get judged over what he does over the next X amount of years.
"I think a lot of strikers will say, you can have an exceptional year but can you repeat it, can you repeat it and can you repeat it? It looks like he can but until he's done it, it's hard to put him in that category of those great strikers. Although he's having an absolutely phenomenal season this year."
City could have nine games left this season, should they progress past Real Madrid and into the Champions League final, with Haaland needing 14 goals to surpass Dean's 95-year record. That would demand the 22-year-old average 1.56 goals-per-game - he is currently averaging 1.26.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the win over West Ham on Wednesday, Haaland admitted without hesitation that he would swap all his goals for the three trophies City have left to compete for. Pep Guardiola's side have a chance to match the 1999 treble-winning Manchester United squad's achievements of bringing home the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup.
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