Players can be exciting to watch in many different ways, but it’s been fascinating to see Erling Haaland’s development in recent years.
There’s nothing particularly fancy or creative about his game, but you just know that he is going to score a lot of goals and he’s relentless in his efforts to get in behind and get the ball in the net.
It’s amazing to watch and any club would be lucky to have him, so obviously Real Madrid have emerged as serious candidates to bring him in.
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They will need a long term successor to Karim Benzema and the Norwegian seems like a logical choice, but club legend Michel has urged them to break the Galatico habit and go in a totally different direction.
Some of his comments on Spanish radio were picked up by Goal, and you can’t really argue with his assessment here:
“I like Haaland a lot and he’s progressing very well. He scores goals from all over the pitch, not just in the area.
“But Madrid need an injection of four or five players. In the last two years they’ve lost in the second round of the Champions League. They need more stability and that’s achieved by strengthening the squad.”
It might be less exciting for the fans, but it’s something the club will need to do because of Zinedine Zidane’s over reliance on his veteran players.
It’s realistic to suggest that replacements will need to be found for Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Karim Benzema in the next couple of years, so there’s no point in having Haaland if the rest of the team isn’t good enough to support him.
The lack of a succession plan is also a worry in those areas in the pitch. Eder Militao, Ferland Mendy and Luka Jovic were all brought in to eventually take over from the veterans, but you wouldn’t trust any of them for a long run of games just now.
Real’s financial situation means they can’t go out and buy a new team of superstars so they may need to be sensible for a couple of transfer windows, but that will help them in the long run.