One of the best recent decisions that Man City made was to take the plunge on Erling Haaland as their main striker.
Though Pep Guardiola has been used to playing with a big front man – Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Barcelona and Robert Lewandowski at Bayern – he hadn’t really done so previously at City, so the experiment was always going to be an interesting one.
Safe to say after just over a season it’s a move that’s already paid off handsomely, and whether or not Guardiola extends his stay beyond 2025, the Norwegian hit-man has to become a fixture at the Etihad Stadium.
To that end, Gazzetta dello Sport are reporting that the club aren’t happy about the release clause that decreases year on year from next summer, and are preparing to extend Haaland’s contract for a further year – to 2028 – to keep the centre-forward from the clutches of Barcelona and Real Madrid. They’ll also remove the clause in the process.
From the players point of view, he’s at the perfect club to be able to realise all of his ambitions.
City won the treble at a canter last season and though they’ve lost their last two Premier League games, they remain the team to beat both domestically and in Europe.
With the current squad iteration too Haaland can’t fail to be served from either wing, and that makes his striking play a breeze, particularly when you factor in his own strength and movement in the important moments.
Well, the citizens have lost their last 2 matches with Haaland not being able to change that. When missing Kevin de Bruyne or other key players, Haaland doesn’t cut it, really.