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Manchester United are reluctant to enter a bidding war for Erling Haaland this summer, with Manchester City emerging as favorites to sign the prolific Borussia Dortmund star.
United thought they had a deal for Haaland in January 2020, after manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer flew to Austria to chat with his Norwegian teammate, but the Red Bull Salzburg forward made a £ 19.5 million move to Dortmund.
City, Chelsea and Real Madrid will lead the Haaland chase if the 20-year-old leaves Germany in the summer, as he has scored 37 goals in 34 appearances for Dortmund and Norway this season.
United are still interested in Haaland, but will find it difficult to compete financially with their Premier League rivals in the current economic climate, especially as their £ 90 million buy-out clause can only be activated if the fee is paid in one installment. .
United are also wary of negotiating with the player’s agent, Mino Raiola, and his father, Alf-Inge Haaland, after the breakdown of their move to Old Trafford 14 months ago soured relations between the fields.
It is a sign of Raiola’s antipathy towards United that he is willing to bury the ax with Pep Guardiola (their long dispute dates back to Guardiola’s dispute with Zlatan Ibrahimovic in Barcelona) and discuss a change to City, where the father of Haaland. three years as a player.
It is understood that initial contact has been made between City and Haaland camp, although Chelsea also have the resources to strike one of the most important transfer deals of the summer.
Solskjaer worked with Haaland in Molde and recently admitted that he is still in contact with the player, but said United must be realistic about their transfer plans.
Meanwhile, City are trying to rectify problems with a surface at the Etihad Stadium that Guardiola believes has hampered his team in recent weeks.
The court was clearly a problem during last week’s 4-1 win over the Wolves and the City staff re-seeded earlier this week.
Sportsmail understands that Premier League leaders, whose acreage is the oldest in the division with Burnley’s, are planning to excavate and then rebuild the field this summer.
“They are working to find a solution, but the grass is not good,” Guardiola said. “The weather conditions here in England are tough, but there are stadiums where the grass is good. We were in London against Arsenal, we were at Anfield, even Old Trafford, and the grass was better than ours. We were in Budapest and the grass was incredible ”.
The city was due to carry out an expensive overhaul of the field last year and did not book any summer concerts in preparation, but that was ultimately delayed as a result of the pandemic.
Phil Foden admitted that a muddy top contributed to City finding playing from behind difficult during a 5-2 win over Southampton on Wednesday.
Famous for his attention to detail, Guardiola demands exact measurements of the length of the grass. When appointed, he asked for the Etihad and training pitches to be 19mm high, in line with those he had experimented with at Bayern Munich, before agreeing to a 23mm compromise to allow for rain and cold weather.
City have still managed to win 10 of their last 11 home games, only losing to rival Manchester United last week. They can go 17 points clear of their rivals with the victory at Fulham on Saturday night.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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