Why Manchester City will be Real Madrid’s biggest competition for Haaland
Ever since Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure, Real Madrid have been edging closer to a squad overhaul, which allows them to let go of the old guard, and helps them free up the budget to bring in some fresh new talent that would lead the club forward.
The operation has been in process for a while. Real no longer have Sergio Ramos or Raphael Varane. Marcelo is no longer a starter at the club. Gareth Bale, though troubled by injuries, is by no means a guaranteed starter. Real are looking towards the future, and the transfer window of summer 2022 is going to be the most crucial one that Real Madrid have had in years.
We’d now be looking at hopefully a defender joining the club, a new midfielder that could replace Toni Kroos when it’s his time to retire, and a couple of forwards by the name of Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.
Real Madrid are going to try to sign both Mbappe and Haaland next season
I think it’s fair to assume that Real’s chances of bringing Kylian Mbappe to the Santiago Bernabeu are very high. You know what happened in the summer, and you know that his contract expires next season. The fact that he has rejected such huge contract extension offers from PSG has presumably made other clubs think that there is no chance of him joining any club other than Real Madrid.
As for the other player, now this is where it gets a little tricky. Real Madrid surely would love to have a player like Erling Haaland in their squad, but the competition for the Norwegian is a lot more than it was for Mbappe. That’s because Haaland has never really been as open and vocal about his desire to play for Real Madrid as Mbappe. That’s not to say he wouldn’t want to play for Los Blancos one day, but there are other clubs and other projects that he might be more interested in.
Manchester City need Erling Haaland to truly become the best team in the world
One such project could be that of Manchester City. They’ve built a fantastic team, one that is almost good enough to win the Champions League. Almost is the keyword, here. They got to the Champions League final last time around, but due to a lack of a consistent goalscoring presence, and Chelsea’s incredible defensive showing, City had no chance of winning. Fast forward to the 2021-22 season, City still don’t have a consistent goal scorer.
You can play false nines however many times you want, but none of those players is truly good enough in front of goal to be able to replace the threat that players like Harry Kane or Erling Haaland possess. A consistent finisher is one of the only pieces left in the jigsaw for Manchester City, and one can only assume that after the Harry Kane situation, City would turn their heads towards signing Haaland.
Currently, Manchester City have a much better team than Real Madrid, and they have so many chance creators, it’s actually frightening to think what all Haaland would be able to do in a team with City’s quality. That, I think, makes them Real Madrid’s biggest competition for the Norwegian’s signature.
We know perfectly well why PSG are not the biggest competitors, even if Mbappe leaves next season, and that is because of the way the Frenchman’s requests were handled by the club, and the lack of competition in the league for PSG.
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It will depend entirely on Haaland, but this storyline is one to keep an eye on for the next year or so, because it’s about to get so much more interesting.