Murtough must talk up Reds if he wants to be at head of queue for Erling
JOHN Murtough’s first summer as United’s football director is shaping up to be dominated by talk of Erling Haaland.
Mino Raiola is reportedly in England to discuss the future of Haaland, along with the player’s father Alf-Inge, after the duo did a similar trip to Spain on Thursday to talk with Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Raiola has previously said only 10 clubs can afford Haaland from Dortmund, with the German club’s asking price reported to be €150m.
It means Haaland will have his pick of Europe’s top clubs when he opts to leave for pastures new and any side hoping to sign the 20-year-old will need to mount a convincing argument as to why they are the right team to join.
For Murtough, that represents an interesting first test as United’s inaugural football director.
Speaking late last month, Haaland revealed the most important factor for him when selecting his next club - succinctly saying they must ‘want’ him. What ‘want’ means was left up to interpretation.
Raiola himself has perhaps offered a view of where Haaland sees his next club.
“With Haaland, everybody was wrong,” Raiola told the Athletic recently. “He did things much quicker than everybody imagined.
“Haaland is in front of his own development. He is ahead of his own schedule. This boy - I’m 100 per cent convinced and everybody’s convinced - can come to any club, wherever he wants, already on this level.”
It appeared to be Raiola talking up Haaland’s intentions to go to a leading club - one that is capable of winning silverware.
With United second in the Premier League, Murtough will likely have to show how the club intend to cut the gap on Man City and challenge for trophies, should they want to land Haaland ahead of other sides.
Part of that may well be showing the other signings United want to make this summer, with a central defender, such as Raphael Varane, also of interest.
Another area could be demonstrating how Ole Gunnar Solskjaer intends to use Haaland and pointing to a player such as Bruno Fernandes, whose creativity could well help the duo form a formidable partnership.
Yet one thing is for certain - for United to show they ‘want’ Haaland, they will likely have to spend a lot of money and use all their powers of persuasion.