When things are going great, everyone is one big happy family. But when results start to dry up, the postmortems are always full of speculation and reported issues. It’s a way of life in top-level football.
Manchester City are going through that right now. Despite four straight Premier League titles and completing the treble in 2023 under legendary manager Pep Guardiola, the team are having a very rough 2024/25 without Ballon d’Or winner Rodri.
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Guardiola ended uncertainty over his immediate future by signing a new contract, when previously he was set to be a free agent at the end of the campaign. But amidst big injury dilemmas and considerable changes in the boardroom, City’s quest to make it an unprecedented five EPL trophies in a row and perhaps also claim a second UEFA Champions League are already in serious jeopardy.
And with the January transfer window approaching, reports of key players wanting to move on while things are like this are at a fever pitch. The most fervent rumbling is that striker Erling Haaland wants to get away from Guardiola, with his own form dipping significantly from his established pomp.
So, what’s been said, what’s been claimed, where might Haaland go and who could replace him if he did leave? Here’s where things are at.
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Erling Haaland and Pep Guardiola ‘rift’ latest
Football365 went strong with the headline: Haaland ‘can’t stand Guardiola any longer’ as he ‘asks’ to exit from ‘soiled’ locker room. Their write-up cites “reports from Spain” as the source for this, as do other sites running similar stories. However, no specific Spanish outlets are mentioned by name, making the claim of a major falling-out between the two very difficult for anybody o the outside to verify.
Two of the sides who could be interested in a striker of Haaland’s reputation, and who can afford his salary, are Real Madrid and Barcelona. It does make one wonder about how reliable such sources are.
Nonetheless, if we are to entertain the possibility that Haaland does want a new club with Guardiola set to stick around, here’s why those two clubs seem logical destinations.
Erling Haaland to Barcelona or Real Madrid?
Barca will be looking for a long-term replacement for the prolific but ageing Robert Lewandowski, and the two certainly have enough similarities to make for a smooth succession plan.
It was reported by Sport in October that Barca president Joan Laporta is determined to bring Haaland to Catalonia, ideally in 2025 or 2026. Madrid, meanwhile, have serious attacking threats such as Kylian Mbappe and Vinicius Jr, but Los Blancos have had their fair share of games recently where the stars have not translated into the goals necessary to win important games. The Clasico defeat despite a strong first half and the missed chances before falling to Liverpool stick at the top of one’s mind.
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Haaland has himself been coming up short in recent games but still has an impressive haul this season. Prior to this campaign, of course, he had been an absolute free-scorer.
If the current slump is indeed down to reported issues with Guardiola that we can’t yet be sure are accurate or not, Haaland’s presence in an attacking trio to rival ‘MSN’ from a decade ago could put the defending European champions over the top. Alternatively, he could spearhead a new attacking unit at Barca that would pit him and Lamine Yamal in direct competition with Vinicius and Mbappe.
Who could replace Haaland at Manchester City?
Names linked with a move to City, should they end up needing another No. 9, include Viktor Gyokeres of Sporting CP — a player who has previously played in England and knows incoming City sporting director Hugo Viana very well from their time shared in Lisbon.
Gyokeres is also linked with Arsenal, mind you, who themselves want to find a reliable finisher to cap their fluid attacking play.
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Another name linked with the Etihad is a far less expected one, as they are reportedly keen on Brighton & Hove Albion’s 20-year-old Irish attacker Evan Ferguson. Ferguson has just one goal to his name so far this campaign and is likely to be regarded as January squad-bolstering as opposed to an outright Haaland successor.
F365’s Spanish sources have also suggested that Guardiola’s acceptance of City moving Haaland on comes under the condition that it doesn’t happen until the summer, giving them time to prepare a new front man for next season.
So, will Haaland leave Man City this season?
Between just how speculative everything on the subject seems to be so far, and the most believable part of it all being that such a move would not be allowed to happen at the halfway point of the campaign, it feels highly unlikely that the Norwegian finds a new club in January.
However, the idea of him succeeding Lewandowski at Camp Nou from the 2025/26 season does feel like one that would work for both the player and the Catalans, so cue six more months studying body language between Guardiola and Haaland to see if there’s a chance of all this becoming a reality…
