What Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich thinks about Erling Haaland transfer amid Man Utd duel

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Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich is reportedly ‘infatuated’ with the idea of signing Borussia Dortmund frontman Erling Haaland in the summer transfer window, but will face fierce competition from the likes of Manchester United and Manchester City for the Norway international.

Haaland is the most prized player in world football at present with Real Madrid and Barcelona also eager to land the £130million-rated 20-year-old.

The Norwegian has scored 49 goals in 51 appearances for Dortmund since joining from Austrian champions Red Bull Salzburg in January 2020.

Due to his contributions Dortmund are desperate not to lose Haaland but may have their position weakened if they do not qualify for next year’s Champions League.

Even if they do qualify, via the Bundesliga or by winning this year’s European Cup, Dortmund are expected to have to fend off clubs of which Chelsea are expected to be one.

And 90min say Abramovich is fixated on signing Haaland this summer even though he will have to near double Chelsea’s record transfer fee to land the striker.

Dortmund want £127m (€150m) for Haaland’s signature but it remains to be seen whether clubs will engage in a bidding war for the player’s services.

Nevertheless the Scandinavian striker is Chelsea’s summer priority and they could even pursue Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero in addition, with the Argentine a free agent.

Inter Milan’s Romelu Lukaku, the former Chelsea striker, is mentioned as a potential plan B if the Blues are beaten to Haaland by United, City or one of the Spanish giants. 

Chelsea, bankrolled by Abramovich, will be confident of putting together a package to rival any of those clubs however.

The Londoners are arguably in the most need of any of those clubs for a new centre-forward with their top goalscorers in the Premier League this term Jorginho and Tammy Abraham only on six goals.

Kai Havertz and Timo Werner have endured difficult debut seasons at Stamford Bridge and have struggled to provide the goals to fire Chelsea into title contention.

Chelsea, according to 90min, do not see either as out-and-out strikers and therefore want to continue to strengthen despite spending north of £200m last summer.

But Thomas Tuchel, only under contract until June 2022 after replacing Frank Lampard back in January, will be judged on his ability to rival City for next year’s crown.

And having Haaland at his disposal would greatly improve his chances of doing so given the Norwegian has scored 33 goals in 33 games for a struggling Dortmund side this year.

BT Sport pundit and Man United legend Paul Scholes expects it to be a straight shootout between his former club and Chelsea to land Haaland in the next transfer window.

He said: “I think it’s about the club that can pay for him though, I don’t think there is too many of them. Real Madrid or Barcelona, all the noises you hear, they probably couldn’t.

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“City don’t look like they want to pay. To be fair, with Guardiola, they very rarely play with a No 9 anyway, even when he’s had Aguero and [Gabriel] Jesus, hes hardly played them.

“So is he the type of player Pep Guardiola wants? I’m not sure it is. It’s a player United will be desperate for, a player Chelsea will be desperate for. They’re probably the two clubs that would be able to afford to pay that fee.”

Asked about links to Haaland and Aguero earlier this month, Chelsea boss Tuchel was coy and said: “I will not answer that out of respect for the player and Borussia Dortmund

“There is big news around him and his agent. It seems like they are creating a race for the player and I will fully accept this a player for Borussia Dortmund, a promising player of course.

“He isn’t our player and is not in our squad. So, we will not comment on anything else regarding Haaland.

“You can ask about Aguero too but it’s the same answer as Haaland. We have full respect for Manchester City and for Sergio Aguero, who is a big player for them. There are no words needed for me about the achievements of this guy, he is a world-class player.

“But we have three competitions in which we are in with Manchester City so I will not speak about their player.”

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