The barriers that Real Madrid’s biggest competitors for Erling Haaland are facing

Real Madrid are one of the favorites for the signing of Erling Haaland – a dream destination for the player, actually – according to reports across the web not too long ago.  But, they are obviously not the only team that’s interested in signing the Norwegian. But the other teams, as well as Real Madrid, don’t come with problems of their own with regards to signing Haaland.

Dean Jones from Eurosport recently did a piece on who he thinks has the biggest chance of winning the race for Erling Haaland. He talked about various clubs, ranging from Real Madrid to Bayern Munich, and talked about the obstacles that those clubs face in signing Haaland.

Now, I think that, at the end of the day, it comes down to essentially three clubs, which are Real Madrid, Manchester City and Manchester United.

Manchester United’s crisis has given Haaland a lot to worry about

Manchester United, as everyone knows by now, are seeing a crisis at this moment. After spending millions of euros in the summer on the signing of Jadon Sancho, Raphael Varane and Cristiano Ronaldo, Man United find themselves in 8th place on the Premier League table, 12 points behind leaders Chelsea. Haaland’s camp, according to the writer, believes that the whole managerial situation at the club needs to be sorted out first before they can consider moving to Old Trafford, along with the struggles of Jadon Sancho being seen as a red flag.

It’s really odd to see a team that good struggling this much, and a lot of that has to do with Ole Gunnar Solksjaer, who has now left his position, with Michael Carrick overseeing games on an interim basis. They have now identified a coach that will help them finish the season properly, and from then they’ll look at options in the summer. That’s actually where the whole Pochettino-Zidane case started. The next eight to nine months are crucial for Manchester United, not just for Haaland, but for their own sakes.

For Manchester City to sign Haaland, it essentially depends on how long Guardiola stays as coach

Now, if we look at the blue side of Manchester, they aren’t in such a situation. They’re second in the Premier League, and are playing some good football under Pep Guardiola. It’s obvious that they need a striker, so going for Haaland would make the most sense. But, Haaland, according to this article, is thinking of how long the Spanish coach would be available, and how he, or any other coach would plan to incorporate him into their style of play.

Guardiola has said recently that he does plan on coaching a national team at some point, and he does not plan on continuing at Manchester City for a very long time.

Guardiola is obviously a fantastic coach and would be able to integrate Haaland into the line-up, but the issue is whether Haaland would be willing to play for Manchester City in the post-Pep era. It’s a tough situation for a club that so desperately needs a scorer to finish all the million chances that they create.

I think that a clinical striker, along with some experience of going deep into the Champions League knockout stages are the two things that Manchester City need to win it all, and since Guardiola only has the big-eared trophy missing from his Man City trophy cabinet, I can imagine he’d try to convince Haaland to join him at City, for however long it may be, with all he’s got.

But, from what we can see, the chances look slimmer than initially assumed, at least according to this report. Real Madrid can definitely land both Haaland and Mbappe, and they’d be especially pleased with the way things are going for their competitors. Of course, there are a few wild cards that could possibly try to get Haaland – and that doesn’t exclude the Norwegian’s current club – but I think that out of these three clubs at least, the chances for Real Madrid to win the race for the signature of Haaland have never been higher.