365 days. 52 goals. Nine assists. Three trophies.
It's hard to argue that Erling Haaland's first year at Manchester City has been anything other than an unprecedented success. He's smashed almost every record he could, leaving only a few niche accolades to claim.
No City player has scored more in a season, no Premier League player has scored more in a season, and Haaland collected a clean sweep of club, league and PFA Player of the Year awards.
For those doubting Haaland's suitability for City - even recently - the Norwegian has emphatically silenced those concerns. His record for 2022/23 ends at a goal contribution every 67 minutes, meaning that £52m fee has already been divided into just £776,000 per goal from the striker.
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Haaland announced his arrival at City with a throwback picture of himself in a sky blue kit after father Alfie played for the club when he was born. That was on June 10 2022, and exactly a year later he was lifting the Champions League trophy in Istanbul. The transfer was officially confirmed on June 13, with Erling and Alfie reflecting on Haaland Sr's career and Haaland Jr recreating an iconic photo from his teen years in a City top.
It's been a year that nobody could have imagined in their wildest dreams - although it didn't get off to the best start.
Concerns over Haaland's fitness meant that he wouldn't train for the first week of pre-season training, instead being eased into action ahead of the two friendlies in the USA. As crowds were anticipating his debut in Houston against Club America, Haaland arrived in casual wear rather than a club tracksuit, and wouldn't change into his kit that night despite being named on the bench.
Never fear, as Haaland would make his debut a few days later in Green Bay. Fittingly, his season started as it ended - with a thunderstorm. The Wisconsin storm was far worse than the Manchester one on Monday for the treble parade, with play suspended for over an hour as thunder, spectacular lightning and a deluge of rain battered Lambeau Field. It had only taken Haaland seven minutes to score his first goal for the club, though, converting Jack Grealish's cross against Bayern Munich to get off the mark before the players left the field.
After that fixture, cut to an 80-minute game after the delays, Haaland was mobbed by the world's media as he described Pep Guardiola as 'crazy' in training, and struck a confident tone. He must have known what was coming.
Haaland would fly off the starting line in the Premier League, although not after a quiet game in the Community Shield against Liverpool first. One very bad miss from six yards drew ridicule from opposition fans, especially those of a Liverpool persuasion, as they confidently predicted that goalscorer Darwin Nunez would outscore City's marquee signing. The less said about those predictions, the better.
The 'real' Haaland emerged a week later at West Ham, winning and dispatching a penalty, before running onto a perfect Kevin De Bruyne pass to finish for his second in a 2-0 win. That version of Haaland wouldn't look back.
An assist next time out against Bournemouth was the only blank in his next ten outings, where he scored 17 times. Back-to-back hat-tricks saw Haaland inspire a comeback against Crystal Palace and rout over Nottingham Forest, before a Manchester derby treble in his third home league game in a row. He described his acrobatic finish against Borussia Dortmund as his favourite of his total 52.
Liverpool would stop Haaland scoring again, but after an injury setback he came off the bench to score a 95th-minute winner over Fulham from the spot. The celebrations from Haaland, Guardiola and the City fans were on par with some of the end-of-season scenes. Guardiola called the win his 'best moment' at City, although that may have been surpassed this month.
After a break for the World Cup, Haaland finally scored against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup, and netted twice on an emotional first outing at Elland Road - he was born in Leeds and holds a similar affection for them as he does City. Maybe the season began to catch up with Haaland, as he would start to spread his goals out a little more, going three games without scoring for the first time in January.
A goal in the comeback win over Tottenham - famous for Guardiola's 'happy flowers' rant - got him back on track, and a fourth hat-trick of the season against Wolves also got the rhythm back - before another run of one goal in six saw the external concerns reappear. His miss in the draw at Forest, akin to the Liverpool effort, and a frustratingly-quiet outing at RB Leipzig raised more questions of whether City were doing enough to get Haaland involved.
A theme throughout Haaland's season was his number of touches, apparently a concern despite his record-breaking scoring, and his overall involvement was improving throughout the season. After getting back on the scoresheet at Bournemouth, Haaland assisted against Newcastle and then embarked on a run of 15 goals in seven games.
That spell included a ridiculous five-goal haul against Leipzig in the second leg, and three in the next home game against Bournemouth.
A goal in the crucial Premier League win over Arsenal was coupled with a clever assist for Kevin De Bruyne. His two goals and assist in the two Champions League quarter-final legs against Bayern Munich were further examples of his improvements in coming deep, stretching his centre-backs, and allowing others to exploit the space he left behind. A record-equalling 34th league goal of the season at Fulham was the headline-grabber, but his build-up play was the real success story that day.
Haaland chipped a delightful effort over Lukas Fabianski to break the Premier League record outright against West Ham, but he would only record one more goal in his final eight games of the season. He failed to score against Real Madrid, Inter Milan or Manchester United in the crucial treble-winning games, and his five-game run at the end of the campaign is his longest for five years.
Is that a concern?
In short, no. He spoke after the Champions League final of preferring to win the trophies rather than scoring goals. Haaland's involvement and performance level hasn't dropped in the last weeks of the season, and if anything his play has become more intelligent. He was involved as Ilkay Gundogan fired in after 12 seconds vs United, and since his assist vs Bayern he has averaged an assist every 4.6 games, with the figure once in every 6.5 games before that.
He scored in the parts of the season when City weren't at their best to get them through, and others took over towards the end of the season after Haaland had put them in the position to win titles.
In the middle of celebrations in Istanbul, Haaland looked genuinely interested when listening to Thierry Henry's constructive criticism about his runs on his weaker side. He has regularly pledged to improve, and the transformation from the early stages of the season - when he was touching the ball a handful of times - to now is a sign of how much better he can get.
His range of goals show his range within a generally-restricted area of the penalty box. There have been acrobatic finishes, emphatic ones, clever, deft touches, ruthless strikes and a lot of poacher's finishes. The sight of defenders on the floor as Haaland wheels away has become a common one.
However, the fact that only one goal of his 52 came from outside the box could also open up a new avenue for more goals to come. His quiet end to the season saw him only slip behind an average of one goal per game midway through the Champions League final. That's hardly a pressing concern.
Guardiola confidently brushed off a question of whether he has any concern over Haaland's form before that, and the striker should come back firing after a few weeks off this summer. The fact he has missed just four games with injury all season is a huge success given his previous record. He declared this weekend that winning the treble has only increased his hunger to add more medals to his collection.
So did Haaland pick the wrong club? Of course not. Nowhere else would he have won the treble. City won the treble because they integrated this world-class striker into the team, not just because he was scoring the goals, and not because of any other reason.
With the shoots showing how Haaland can get better, he will target the breaking of his own records next season. After telling Grealish not to party as much during the season, he earned the right to be right at the centre of the party after securing the treble. Haaland arrived on stage in Manchester on Monday topless, drenched after a thunder and lightning storm.
It was a fitting end to a season that started in the same fashion in the USA. Expect more spectacular feats next year. And the year after that.
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