Chelsea delayed Erling Haaland transfer decision on the advice of their scouts
According to ESPN (h/t Metro), Chelsea decided against signing Erling Haaland because scouts expressed worries about his playing style. They were apparently concerned that his game style was unsuitable for the Premier League.
After a successful season with Red Bull Salzburg, Haaland joined Dortmund in January 2020- where he scored 85 goals in 88 games in all competitions until now. He now moves to Man City as one of the most exciting young players in the world.
Chelsea, Real Madrid, and Barcelona, as well as City’s main rivals Manchester United, were all interested in signing Haaland. Chelsea were interested in getting him before their major purchase, Romelu Lukkaku, last summer. However, Borussia Dortmund were unwilling to let go of their top player because they already lost Jaden Sancho to Manchester United that year.
Would Chelsea regret not signing Erling Haaland?
The accuracy of the scout’s analysis of the Norway international will be known in days to come as he will be playing for Pep Guardiola’s City next season. Those who have watched Haaland would know that he possesses good speed and dribbling skills for a player as tall as him.
It isn’t really known what put off our scouts about Haaland and if they were the ones who may have also analysed Lukaku’s playing style before we went all out for the former Inter Milan striker.
In Germany, the Dortmund striker was given a lot more time and space, allowing him to either sprint at players with the ball or attack holes behind the defence. He won’t be able to find that space or time in England, where teams are incredibly compact and play at a blazing tempo.
Although we never know what each player is capable of, some players, such as Cristiano Ronaldo, have demonstrated their ability to adapt to a variety of playing styles and produce excellent outcomes. We also brought in Christian Pulisic from the same team and he has had a fairly decent time under Frank Lampard and now, Tuchel.
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Perhaps delaying signing the Borussia Dortmund star, as advised by the scouts, was a sensible option because this would have then been the third summer in a row where we went out and got ourselves a premium striker.
That isn’t to say that this is the end of the road for the club when it comes to the club potentially signing a new attacker. But that player would certainly not be Haaland- not this summer, at least. It is, perhaps, best for the club to first figure out what to do with Timo Werner and Lukaku and then go out and sign a quality forward- if at all they want to.
