At the start of the season, some people wrote off Manchester City title's chances because the squad lacked an out-and-out centre-forward.
How foolish they were to doubt Pep Guardiola’s capabilities.
City did of course attempt to sign a striker but Daniel Levy and Tottenham blocked Harry Kane’s big move to the Etihad Stadium.
The club are often very savvy when it comes to transfers and it would surprise us if they relit the Kane fire after being burned last summer.
Now it seems the attention has turned to Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland. It goes without saying that Haaland in a City shirt, working alongside the current squad, would be simply unstoppable.
But, to make that deal happen, City and Guardiola will have to confront two familiar old foes in the form of Real Madrid and Mino Raiola.
In MEN’s latest Facebook Live, the City is Ours’ regular duo of Dom Farrell and Alex Brotherton discussed City’s striker hunt, including how much of a priority that should make Dortmund star Haaland.
DF: “He could follow his dad’s footsteps by playing for City but that’s a bit of a footnote on this one. He’s been an incredible goal machine at RB Salzburg and now at Dortmund - is this the number one candidate for City?”
AB: “I think it is. Obviously, last season the prime candidate was Kane and we all know how that one panned out. With Haaland, from a City fan’s point of view, he’s the main target.
“He’s proven at the highest level, he’s proven he can do in a good league, he's done it in the Champions League which is also an advantage he has over some of the other names being bandied around. You just need to look at his record. He's scored an incredible amount of goals.
“For Dortmund he’s nearly got the same amount of goals as appearances, which isn't very common for top strikers in Europe and we’ve seen various reports recently that City are very interested in him but they’re preparing for a big battle with Real Madrid. They see Madrid as having an advantage at the minute so we’ll have to see how it pans out.
“Obviously he has the release clause in his contract but it could end up a bit of a bidding war to see who can offer him the wages he wants. As we know City have a rigid structure when it comes to wages, so if Madrid come in offering astronomical figures City will probably be put off.
“We’ll have to see but Haaland is certainly my first choice and I think he’s a lot of City’s fans first choice as well just because we’ve seen how incredible he’s been over the last couple of years.
“The only question would be how would he fit into a Pep team because Dortmund don’t really play in the same way as City - positional play, keeping position. So he’d have something to prove in terms of build-up play, not necessarily being someone who just hangs around the box.
"But obviously if City signed him he’d be an out-and-out striker, he wouldn’t be asked to be a false nine or anything like that. It would be intriguing to see how he’d work under Pep.”
DF: “You doubt whether it would happen because for all the money that’s been spent at City, they’ve tended not to get involved in situations where there are bids and bids and prices go up. Generally they do their business away from these scenarios, but it comes down to if you’d make an exception for Haaland because he’s such an incredible talent.
“You’ve also got the whole Mino Raiola factor in there. So I think that’s the area that may stand or fall - if it becomes a situation with Real Madrid and Raiola that City tend to not be a part of.
"If those elements weren’t there we probably wouldn’t be [thinking about] alternatives.”
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