Man City: World-record ‘Haaland plan’ includes Man Utd target as Barcelona ‘executes swap’ deal

Barcelona are ready to use one of their best players in an attempt to lure Man City striker Erling Haaland to La Liga, according to reports.

The Citizens have made a good start to the new Premier League season with the defending champions remaining unbeaten on 17 points.

Pep Guardiola’s side have won five and drawn two of their opening seven Premier League matches and are sitting in second place, one point behind leaders Liverpool.

Man City partly have Haaland to thank for their good start to the campaign with the Norway international bagging an impressive ten goals in the league this season.

Haaland has scored an impressive 101 goals in 108 matches in all competitions for the Citizens after moving from Borussia Dortmund for €60m in the summer of 2022.

The devastating form in front of goal that he has shown so far in his career means that every club in the world would like him in their side and Haaland is attracting interest from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

Previous reports have claimed that Haaland has already ‘rejected’ an offer from French giants PSG, while he’s unsure about a potential move to Real Madrid as he wouldn’t be the main star with Kylian Mbappe and other world-class players at the Bernabeu.

That means recent reports have suggested that Barcelona have the best chance of signing the clinical Norwegian and reports in Spain now claim that the Catalan giants have a ‘Haaland plan’.

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Joan Laporta has an ‘ambitious plan in mind for the summer of 2025’ with Barcelona president ‘determined to make the arrival of the Norwegian striker the big bomb of the market’.

It is understood that Laporta – who knows Haaland’s asking price will be huge – ‘has a card up his sleeve to lower the cost of the operation: include a Barcelona player in the deal.’

Long-term Man Utd target Frenkie de Jong is the ‘man chosen’ to be part of the operation with Man City showing an interest in the Dutch international in the past.

Despite De Jong being considered ‘a key piece in Hansi Flick ‘s current scheme, the need to make a signing of Haaland ‘s magnitude forces difficult decisions to be made’.

It is claimed that the Premier League side ‘would not be against the inclusion of Frenkie de Jong in the operation’ as Guardiola is a ‘great admirer’ of the Dutchman.

But Barcelona, who are planning to ‘execute the swap’, will still ‘need to make significant financial adjustments to carry out this operation’ and De Jong leaving ‘would not only make the signing of Haaland cheaper, but would also alleviate the team’s wage bill’.

However, our friends at TEAMtalk have reported that Man City ‘have ruled out a possible transfer exit for Erling Haaland any time soon’ with the Citizens ‘likely to demand a world-record fee’.