Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, a former manager of Manchester United, has revealed that the team declined to spend £4 million on Erling Haaland in 2018.
Since that rejection, Haaland, now 22 years old, has developed into one of the world’s top footballers.
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The Norwegian international was named the Footballer of the Year by the Football Writers’ Association (FWA) on Friday after scoring 51 goals for Manchester City this season.
After mentoring Haaland at Molde, Solskjaer, who led United from December 2018 to November 2021, had firsthand knowledge of his extraordinary talent.
He pleaded with United to pay a relatively low price for the youngster, but club officials refused.
The shocking disclosure was made by Solskjaer in an interview with The Sun, “I got in contact with Manchester United because we had this talented striker who they should have had. But they didn’t listen, unfortunately. Four million, I asked for. But they never signed him. Four million!”
United’s refusal to sign Haaland encapsulates their haphazard transfer strategy under former manager Ed Woodward.
During Woodward’s tenure as manager between 2013 and 2022, they decided to pay large transfer fees for established players rather than make investments in young players.
Even though they were signed for sizable transfer fees and/or lucrative contracts, players like Angel Di Maria, Victor Lindelof, Paul Pogba, Romelu Lukaku, Alexis Sanchez, Fred, Harry Maguire, Donny van de Beek, and Cristiano Ronaldo fell short of expectations.
Speaking about the Man United takeover, Ole said it was high time the Glazers sell the club to a new owner.
According to him, Old Trafford and the Carington Training Complex are lacking behind in terms of facilities. Adding that the club must catch with other clubs doing well.
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“It needs to be done, Old Trafford is neglected. The training grounds has been neglected. We need to catch up with the other teams,” Ole told The Athletic.
Speaking on news of Sir Jim Ratcliffe preferred by Glazers to takeover the club, he said “O’m not sure he can get the whole lot [club], I think he wants only 51%, it’s a difficu;lt one.”
