MICAH'S MAN OF THE WEEK

COULD it be anyone else other than Erling Haaland? What a coup — there is no other way of looking at what Manchester City have done in signing the Norway striker. The price tag — £51million — is a quite remarkable one for a player who might become the best forward in the world. It’s unbelievable business. I call it a coup because, at £51m, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich — and others in the Premier League — could have afforded him. He chose City and it’s a sign of where the club stand. I’m not going to call Haaland ‘the missing link’ and I won’t heap pressure on him by saying he is what City need to conquer Europe but I’m fascinated about the prospect of watching him develop under Pep Guardiola’s coaching. Big, powerful forwards haven’t tended to fit in Guardiola’s systems — think of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at Barcelona — and I want to see how Haaland (left) will press defenders and what his link-up play will be like. Give him time and, all being well, he will flourish.