Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has not taken kindly to the consistent links in the Madrid-based press connecting his star striker Erling Haaland and Real Madrid. Haaland has been touted as an alternative to Kylian Mbappe for Los Blancos, or a partner for him in the summer of 2025.
In recent weeks a number of reports have come out claiming that Haaland has a clause in his contract allowing him to join Real Madrid for closer to €100m than €200m, as well as further suggestions that Jude Bellingham was in frequent contact with Haaland to persuade him to join Real Madrid.
Asked about these links and whether he got the feeling that Haaland was unhappy, or could leave for Los Blancos.
“You have to ask the media from Madrid, maybe they have more info’ than we have,” he told MEN. “We don’t have that feeling.”
“He could not play for two months because he was injured but maybe the media from Spain, and especially Madrid, have more information than us. We cannot say he didn’t adapt quickly and he was not fine since he arrived.”
“It’s the level he showed since he arrived on day one. We cannot control what people say. When he’s unhappy, he will take his decision.”
While Xavi Hernandez’s frustration with the media pressure has been evident for some time, but Guardiola had a particularly spikey relationship with the press in Madrid while he was managing at Camp Nou. It is certainly not unheard of for Real Madrid to begin their courting of players through the media, as is the case for Barcelona.
