Do Not Sell My Personal Information
A football scout has opened up on how Arsenal missed out on the signing of goalscoring sensation Erling Haaland.
THE LOWDOWN: EARLY STAGE
Erling Haaland was reportedly offered to Arsenal and a host of Premier League clubs when he was just breaking through the ranks at Norwegian side Molde.
Arsenal scouted him heavily at the time but decided not to sign the then 17-year-old because he was seen as a target man by the North London outfit.
The man, who recommended Haaland to Arsenal, Liverpool and Manchester United at the time has now made some revelations about the deal at the time.
THE LATEST: MISSED OPPORTUNITY?
Former chief scout at Molde, John Vik, has revealed how EPL sides (including Arsenal) judged Haaland solely as a target man and failed to see his huge potential.
He tells The Athletic: “I think they (the English scouts) looked at him as a target man because he was so big.”
“I kept telling them, “He’s not a target man – if you’re going to judge him that way, you’re going to be disappointed”, I remember one occasion when the team were out in Spain.”
Haaland has taken the Premier League by storm this season as he has scored 13 goals and one assist in nine games across all competitions.
Adding: “When they were seeing a big striker like Erling, they were seeing a target man and I think they forgot to look at what else he could do.”
“Liverpool could have got him. Arsenal could have got him. Everyone was there to watch him but these clubs were seeing a No 9 who was tall and broad and, “Oh, he’s going to be a target man”. I couldn’t for the life of me see why they had narrowed him down that way.”
THE VERDICT: IT HAPPENS
Arsenal can’t be accurate with all their scouting every single time. The club has experienced more scouting success stories in the world than failures, so missing out on Haaland is one of the rare times the club has done that.
Between the time he was offered to Arsenal and now, Haaland has moved from Molde to RB Salzburg, then Borussia Dortmund, which aided his development before his summer move to City; so this may not have happened if he joined the Gunners earlier in his career.
