If Manchester United Signed Erling Haaland Nothing Would Change

As Manchester United continued to flounder with back-to-back defeats against Brighton and FC Bayern Munich fans the ire building against the club’s ownership was provoked further by the words of a former coach.

In his first in-depth interview since leaving Old Trafford nearly two years ago, Ole Gunnar Solskjær laid bare the limitations he believed had held him back.

The Norweigan complained that, unlike when he’d been a player for Sir Alex Ferguson’s all-conquering team of the 1990s and 2000s, the Red Devils couldn’t cherry-pick stars from rivals like it used to.

“The expectations are very high but we can’t live in the same era as when I played,” he told The Athletic.

“We had Arsenal and Chelsea as rivals towards the end. Now, most teams have money or even if they don’t, they don’t need to sell.

“Back then, Wayne [Rooney] and Cristiano [Ronaldo] were the best young players and we signed them. Now, United can’t just go and buy Evan Ferguson. We couldn’t buy the players I mentioned to the club.”

Asked to elaborate who exactly the club had missed out on the Norwegian reeled off a list of the the world’s best talent.

“Erling Haaland, before he made his Salzburg debut. Declan Rice, who wouldn’t have cost what he did in the summer. We discussed Moises Caicedo […] we wanted Jude Bellingham badly […] I would have signed [Harry] Kane every day of the week and my understanding was that he wanted to come. But the club didn’t have the budget with the financial constraints from Covid-19” he said.

Not all of these moves were non-starters because of the financial position, Solskjær explained that part of the reason the club missed out on Caicedo was because it didn’t feel there was the scope to let him go out on loan to develop and Bellingham simply rejected them.

But a revealing detail that has been seized upon by critics of Manchester United’s American owners, the Glazer family, was a previously unheard-of limit on signings each year.

“I can’t remember every signing I made, but I should because there was a cap on three main ones every season,” the ex-United coach added.

“I signed up for it when I arrived. I understood my remit and agreed to it. I can’t complain now and I’m not the type to moan after losing my job, but United have spent a lot more in the two summer transfer windows since I was there.”

It was interesting timing for Solskjær to claim he was not backed sufficiently as earlier this month a study revealed United had the biggest negative net spend on transfers of any club in the past 10 years.

Swiss-based research institute CIES Football Observatory found that despite investing $2.08 billion on new talent, the Red Devils only recouped around $600 million which meant the club had taken a billion and a half hit on the players it bought.

Examples of the team’s bad business are not hard to find.

Premier League record-breaking signing Paul Pogba was bought for $109.5 million in 2016 and left for free five years later.

The world’s most expensive defender Harry Maguire acquired for close to $100 million rejected a move to West Ham United this summer for half of that fee.

Only Romelu Lukaku who United signed for $91 million in 2017 generated a similar amount when he was sold to Inter Milan in 2019 and is by far United’s biggest sale of the past 10 years.

In the wake of the 3-1 home defeat to Brighton, it was also highlighted that the Seagull’s entire team was acquired for just $20 million not even a quarter of what Jason Sancho-a player exiled from the Red Devil’s first team currently-cost.

Comparisons with Brighton are, as Solskjær pointed out, unfair in that the Seagulls are operating within totally different parameters, they need to sell assets as a necessity and remain unbound by the expectations United have.

Generally speaking, bigger clubs should expect to spend more in gross and net terms as they can generate bigger revenues by sweating assets than smaller sides who tend to be reliant on player trading.

But there is one contrast between the two that is inescapable: improvement in player performance.

It’s demonstrably true that successive United managers are overseeing a decline rather than an improvement in the players at the club.

Since Sir Alex Ferguson left in 2013, next to none of the starting lineup have been coveted by another elite club, the days when Real Madrid sought to charm a star to Spain from Manchester are long gone.

This is despite the club acquiring stars with huge potential.

Lukaku, Maguire and Pogba all had genuine aspirations to be amongst the best in the world when they joined United, but it would be foolish to suggest any of them had succeeded in that goal.

The question Solskjær needs to ask himself is whether Haaland, Kane, Rice and Caciedo would have bucked that trend. The evidence is overwhelmingly no.

Change would not have come from simply having Harry Kane and Erling Haaland upfront, the environment and coach need to be able to improve players.

As the man himself acknowledges, Jude Bellingham’s decision to reject a move to Old Trafford “was probably sensible.”

The fact he acknowledges that is the biggest indictment you’ll get.