According to The Chronicle, Newcastle missed out on the chance to sign forward Erling Haaland for a bargain price back in 2018.
Lee Ryder has revealed that Toon scouts went to watch the Norwegian in Molde’s Europa League Qualifier back in July 2018, insisting that we held serious interest in Manchester City’s new superstar signing just a few years ago.
The asking price back then was a reported £7million – a figure Mike Ashley may have been reluctant to pay for a 17-year-old who was unproven in the top flight at the time!
Only a month later he was snapped up by RB Salzburg and, after just one successful season in Austria, would sign for Borussia Dortmund in 2020 – where he went on to score 85 goals in 88 appearances for the German side.
The future now looks very bright for the 21-year-old who completed a blockbuster move to Man City just yesterday, with Premier League pundits expecting him to take England by storm next season.
If nothing else, this highlights how out of touch we were with the rest of the footballing world during the days of Lee Charnley and Mike Ashley, with it well documented that they also blocked former scout Graham Carr from pursuing the likes of Dimitri Payet, Raphael Varane and Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang before they made it big.
Thankfully, with an ambitious and eager to learn new regime in place, we hopefully won’t make these mistakes again!
