Pep Guardiola casts doubt over Erling Haaland future amid Barcelona interest | OneFootball

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has cast an element of doubt over the longer-term future of star striker Erling Haaland amid ongoing links to La Liga by Spanish media.

The Norway international has once again been at the centre of the Premier League giants’ fine attacking play this season, and has arguably prevented an early collapse in performance standards single-handily.

As is usually the case at the Etihad Stadium, Erling Haaland is by far and away the club’s leading goalscorer at present, offering 11 goals across competitions with the side’s next top-scorer being Burnley’s Maxime Esteve courtesy of two own goals in a 5-1 defeat for the Clarets.

And while the 25-year-old has always been tied to a feeling by the media that his career would take him to various destinations across Europe with City viewed as a short-term stay to some extent, a new 10-year contract signed earlier this year went a long way to dispelling such myths.

Nevertheless, the public show of commitment to Manchester City’s long-term future was not enough to end media gossip tying Haaland with transfer interest from Spain’s biggest clubs, most recently FC Barcelona.

Speaking during his pre-match press conference ahead of City’s final outing before the October international break, Pep Guardiola was quizzed on the latest suggestions from Spain which have pointed out that Erling Haaland remains the ‘dream signing’ of Barcelona president Joan Laporta.

“Can you tell me one club who would not want Erling Haaland as a dream [signing],” Guardiola rightly pointed out in response.

“Understandable Barcelona [want] Erling as a dream and all the teams around the world, so… If Erling was not with us it would be a dream of Man City to have Erling.”

However, Guardiola continued with an element of doubt, “What is going to happen? Honestly, I don’t know. I know [he has] a long contract here and I think he’s doing really well, scoring a lot of goals, and I have the feeling that the team helps him a lot and makes a lot of actions for him to be able to score goals.

“And we play better and better to create more chances to score more goals; this is what happens. Always I want the team to concede less and create more. And after, it’s only a game. Football, you can create more and concede less and lose the game or not win.

“It’s the only sport in the world. Golf, basketball, handball, tennis – if the statistics are better, you win. 10 to 10, 100%. In football, no. That’s why if you create 19 shots and it’s not enough, you have to create 25, if it’s not enough it has to be 35. And this is what we have to do.”

Further quizzed on whether Haaland’s long-term contract proves exactly where he sees his future, the Manchester City boss continued, “I think Erling is not stupid enough to sign something he would not like to accomplish. That’s for sure. But, football, who knows what is going to happen in the next time. Nobody knows.”

For now, Erling Haaland’s full attention will most likely remain firmly on his on-field commitments, as Manchester City continue to go in search of finding their form and performance standards of old, following a hugely problematic 2024/25 campaign.

August brought about concerns that such levels were once again going to be beyond the club’s reach, particularly in light of consecutive defeats at the hands of Tottenham and Brighton & Hove Albion.

However, a new-found optimism would emerge following the September international break and City’s run of positive outings across competitions that have maintained an unbeaten record coming into the weekend’s action against Keith Andrews’ side.

While Pep Guardiola may be hoping that the upcoming break could present an opportunity for Haaland to rest, some element of the Catalan’s thinking may revolve around the striker maintaining his scoring form for his country, before returning to Manchester City action in mid-October.