Erling Haaland

[malg]

Is there a substantive reason why a lot of people on here are basically saying it's a done deal?

 

[domalino]

He's also younger than Phil Foden. At the same age as Haaland, Kane was yet to start a premier league game.

That's not even remotely true.

 

[AlanBalls]

when Haaland joins us.

This is all I read

 

[Kinkladze's crazy skills]

Phew...and breathe. You win the longest sentence on BM ever! Have you run out of full stops mate?
Otherwise, you say that 'Haaland's link up play is actually quite good with players close to him, his passing is alright too...' but that Dortmund 'have a massive over reliance on him being the spearhead of their quick counter attacks, that limits his link up with others and leads people to thinking he's a worse passer of the ball than he actually is'. Haaland's strength, movement, hold-up play and finishing aren't in question. However, your argument seems to be predicated on Haaland's unproven link-up play and passing ability which are generally considered to be a prerequisite in a Pep team (witness changes to Aguero's style of play). You may or may not be right but how can you possibly know Haaland is the better option in that respect if he doesn't currently have an opportunity to showcase these attributes in the Dortmund set-up (particularly given your faint praise such as 'alright' and 'quite good')?

Cheers always wanted to win something mate ;-)
What I mean with Haaland's link up play is our players tend to make more overlapping runs, they tend to support each other a lot more in attacks Dortmund aren't so great in the final third, especially this year it's shocking how much they depend on him they might be in serious trouble when he leaves.
I've seen quite a lot of example's of his linkup play further in back behind the midfield line drops deep, seen it much further up too whether quick one twos or playing others through who aren't as intelligent at making runs.

I've seen his linkup play in games I've watched live and on clips, he is capable of quick accurate one touch passes and laying it off for runners in the box. I've seen him play balls that that I think our players would better capitalise on, at least much better Dortmund's players currently do with him.
Given time it'll be right if you watched Harry Kane at Haaland's age he couldn't actually pass that well, he is much improved in that area and Haaland would learn to iron out any mistakes fairly quick under Pep I'm sure, plus his other positives on their own would help create more chances indirectly than Kane's passing does in my view.
Haaland has shown glimpses here and there what he's capable he ain't statuesque like Lukaku, I've seen enough to think if he needs to pass to a teammate here he'll be more than fine.
People are thinking Kane's passing would definitely go as well as it would for Spurs when we both play so differently, he's more than likely not going to be making some of his more impressive Spurs passes in a City shirt, it'll be mainly shorter ones those are the ones Haaland is more than capable of making.

It's never been a prerequisite of playing under Pep the passing style just preferable, Lewandowski is a fairly good passer but not even as good at passing as the Aguero Atletico signed from Independiente... If you watched him link up with Torres and then Forlan that's what Pep wanted him to do, think it was a case of Pep being unhappy that Aguero had become complacent and more Striker centric when he arrived, cos when at Atletico and playing against Barca/Real he was more than capable of being a false 9 in the Pep mode, he didn't do as much tracking back or drifting wide as he used to by the time Pep arrived, which is also why once Jesus arrived Pep benched him for a bit to get his point across, Sergio didn't add something new to his game but brought something back that Pep demanded.

 

[JDV]

He was the fastest to score 20 goals in the competition a few years ago.

From what I've read it's:

Kane - 20 goals in 24 games
Haaland - 21 goals in 17 games

I rate Kane, but Haaland for me is on another level.

Haaland is a big game player which is shown by his CL record + his goals vs Bayern. He has an intimidating presence on the field which I don't feel Kane has.

Also he has a tonne of speed which Kane lacks.

For me, Kane 3-4 few years ago would be a better conversation, but even then I would choose Haaland every time.

 

[Nicholas van Whatsisface]

Where is the line drawn for huge social followings? Kane's 28m on instagram, twitter and FB is insignificant but Haaland's 29m is huge?

Kane is 28, is England captain and has been playing in the most marketable league in the world for the last decade.

Haaland is 21, plays for Norway and for the wrong team in a one team league. Prior to that he played in Austria and Norway.

Yet Haaland has a larger following already.

I would suggest the potential for him to significantly outstrip Kane once he’s playing for one of the top teams in the World in the most watched League is pretty clear.

Kane has maxed out his appeal - Haaland is just getting started.

 

[BAB.DAB]

Where is the line drawn for huge social followings? Kane's 28m on instagram, twitter and FB is insignificant but Haaland's 29m is huge?

Spurs 180m fans worldwide
Dortmund 40m fans worldwide
Kane captain of England.
England has a higher population than Norway.
Premierleague has bigger worldwide audiences than the Bundesliga
Kane is also older than Haaland

 

[ScottSinclair]

Both Kane and Haaland would be unbelievable for us, and score so many goals it would be eye-watering. So would Benzema or Lewandowski for that matter just to drag them into the discussion. Hell, if we actually signed Ronaldo last summer I bet he would be terrifying in this team.

Luckily though since we most likely can just sign one of them it looks like we got the youngest one in the bag. His ceiling is huge.

It's not whether he is better than Kane(its debatable at this current stage imo, I rate Kane highly) or the likes of Lewa or Benzema. It's the fact that he is 21 years young and in the conversation among those absolute world-class strikers, when basically every other 20-something out and out striker on the planet currently carries huge question marks over their ability. Haaland is a goal machine with a mindset to match

 

[Xhavenjoe]

That's not even remotely true

Its not far off the truth. He scored his first premier league goal for spurs in 2014. He'd had a spell with Norwich before going on loan to Leicester when they were in the Championship.
Having said that his scoring record since then has been incredible.

 

[Kinkladze's crazy skills]

Steffen Karl scored a crucial goal for us. Immel was bad!

The main issue with Immel is he wasn't Tony Coton he was much much less and whether he betrayed us or not TC he was a top class keeper, we badly missed him it was like we willingly chose to get rid of Joe Hart at his very best, Eike Immel wasn't quite polystyrene wrists Claudio Bravo, we got someone closer to Willy Caballero level's than Bravo's that's no disrespect to Willy I'm just saying he was closer to him than Bravo.

Immel was not good but he probably took most his flak for not being Tony Coton as much as anything else and so would anyone else have, as bad as we were that season if Coton stayed between the sticks instead of Immel, we probably would've stayed up comfortably in the final stretch had we had a mostly injury free Coton.

Same goes for Beagrie he was also a massive loss, along with Paul Walsh too but without all that, we might not be where we're right now so every cloud has a silver lining... Even if ours were seriously dark for a while.

 

[west didsblue]

Its not far off the truth. He scored his first premier league goal for spurs in 2014. He'd had a spell with Norwich before going on loan to Leicester when they were in the Championship.
Having said that his scoring record since then has been incredible.

Far enough off the truth. At nearly 22 Kane had played around 100 league games (including loan spells) and had scored 38 goals. Behind Haaland but way ahead of none.

 

[FinallyGamble]

Haaland is a global superstar with a following to match.

Kane is a top Premier League player with nobody outside of Seven Sisters caring much.

The thing is multi-faceted for City when Haaland joins us.

Bums on seats from wider afield, social media recognition across all platforms, a proven Champions League record.

Haaland and Kane is like comparing a Ferrari with a Range Rover.

Both have their enthusiasts but one is a prestige supercar, capable of incredible things, and the other is a decent off roader who can occasionally bomb a bit in the fast lane, but breaks down more than it should for the price.

What a perfect metaphor.

 

[i8rags]

This goals for games bollocks is just that, either could play the bottom four in coming weeks and grab multiple hat tricks, or do fuck all, end of the season is when it matters and even then if pep fancies him we’ll have a go.

 

[Maine Rd]

Just reading this thread and there are going to be some seriously pissed off blues when he signs for Real Madrid. They want him so they will get him, unfortunately that’s just how it has always worked. He’s too big a player for them to miss. Alvarez will be the one for us, we will be fine.

 

[Matt.D]

Just reading this thread and there are going to be some seriously pissed off blues when he signs for Real Madrid. They want him so they will get him, unfortunately that’s just how it has always worked. He’s too big a player for them to miss. Alvarez will be the one for us, we will be fine.

Nothing is ever done until it’s done. And normally I would absolutely agree that this is not the kind of signing city will pull off. He could obviously still sign for Madrid or any other club but right now there’s a lot of things in our favour over Madrid and a lot of things that currently point to us over Madrid.

- Madrid have daily newspapers dedicated to them and all we’ve heard last 6 weeks is reasons why they’re struggling to sign him or how they’re pessimistic and citing city’s money. If Madrid thought he was going there then there would be daily noise about it, right now that’s not the case, suggesting they think he’s going elsewhere but that could of course change.

- the lads had his stepping stone move and wants to win right now. City, with him in the side are set up to be serious challengers for every competition. Madrid are miles off the champions league atm and need a midfield overhaul.

- Benzema. Madrid and their fans love him. He’s still at a high level. Even if he was benched because of Haaland, 1 or 2 bad games and the Madrid fans and media would be demanding Benzema plays.

- premier league is currently much stronger than la liga. Most of the best players and all of the best coaches are in England.

- Pep Guardiola. If Haaland sees himself playing in both England and Spain during his career then he would never have the chance to work for Pep again.

- City can better any wage offer Madrid make.

- If he signs for Madrid this summer his signing would be overshadowed by Mbappe, who Madrid have been in love with for years. If they won the champions league with them 2 in the side, Mbappe is the poster boy who would no doubt take the Ballon Dor. Haaland is a generational talent and you get the feeling he wants to be recognised as the best in the world as well as winning team trophies. Mbappe would get a huge signing on fee and wages for going there on a free, if they can’t match or get near that for Haaland do you see him and his entourage being happy with that?

- City have proven track record of letting players leave who want to go. If he decides he wants Spain in years to come and brings an acceptable offer, we’d let him go.

- Ian Harte says he’s speaks to Alfie regularly and they already know where he’s going. The decision has been made. I see no reason for him to make that up. If that’s true and he’s going to Madrid - do you believe the Madrid media would not be all over it? Whereas city would say nothing.

I’m still cautious about it but believe we are favourites to get him.

 

[skillman]

Both Kane and Haaland can be brilliant, not just one of them, as TH said. Kane excels in certain parts of his game more than Haaland and visa versa.

I’d be happy with either (obviously) but happier with Haaland.

 

[Deleted member 87819]

Just reading this thread and there are going to be some seriously pissed off blues when he signs for Real Madrid. They want him so they will get him, unfortunately that’s just how it has always worked. He’s too big a player for them to miss. Alvarez will be the one for us, we will be fine.

He will not sign for Real Madrid, my friend, you can take it to the bank. In fact, it takes an immense lack of self-confidence to still not understand the signs out of Madrid.
Alvarez is a Ferran Torres replacement who could eventually turn into a major player in our machine (as Ferran also could have), but the idea that a club our size would sign a player who hasn’t started a single game against an European club or even European national team to be the main striker is crazy. Even a club like West Ham (with respect to them!) wouldn’t do that. That’s why Pep talked about us trying to sign a striker in the summer long after Alvarez had been announced.

 

[FantasyIreland]

Just reading this thread and there are going to be some seriously pissed off blues when he signs for Real Madrid. They want him so they will get him, unfortunately that’s just how it has always worked. He’s too big a player for them to miss. Alvarez will be the one for us, we will be fine.

I suspect you always have a tub of vaseline within easy reach.

 

[samuelyeboah]

And Kane has link up play and creativity Haaland could only dream of.

They're different types of striker but one is not more marketable than the other.

Again, no clue why people talk about haalands link up play and creativity negatively. Just completely untrue

 

[Dobsy]

That's not even remotely true.

Double checked and d
first start in a PL game was aged 20 years and 8 months. So I hold my hands up I'm off by just under a year. Still the point stands that at the same age Kane wasn't achieving what Haaland is achieving.