Man City stance on Erling Haaland amid transfer reports

12.03.2022 - 14:39 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk

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