Staggering error sees Man Utd miss out on signing of world-beater by ‘one hour’

Manchester United made a huge mistake in their negotiations for a world-class star and this saw them narrowly lose out on his signing, a former scout has revealed.

Man Utd look set for a busy year in the transfer market now that stakeholder Sir Jim Ratcliffe has arrived at Old Trafford. The British billionaire is a lifelong fan of the Red Devils and wants to make them one of the best teams on the planet once again, no matter the cost.

Recent reports have suggested he wants to sign a new centre-forward, No 8, centre-half and right-back to take Erik ten Hag’s squad to the next level. Ratcliffe is happy with current striker Rasmus Hojlund, though he feels the Dane could do with playing alongside an experienced, Harry Kane-level attacker to achieve his full potential.

Man Utd are also stepping up their pursuit of a new centre-back. Sources have confirmed to TEAMtalk that Ratcliffe is a big admirer of Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite, though Ten Hag reportedly wants to go in a different direction by landing Bayern Munich’s Matthijs de Ligt.

Man Utd could have solved their striker woes for the next 10 years by signing Erling Haaland from Molde in January 2019. Then Man Utd caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was known to be extremely keen on his Norwegian counterpart, and the Red Devils held talks with Molde about a deal.

Ultimately, though, Red Bull Salzburg won the race for his signature. Man Utd again held discussions over Haaland’s potential capture when he decided to leave Salzburg in January 2020, but he instead joined Borussia Dortmund. Haaland netted a stunning 86 goals in 89 games for Dortmund before landing at Man Utd’s rivals Manchester City in July 2022.

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Bryan King, who was previously Tottenham Hotspur’s senior scout for the Scandinavian region, as well as a scout for Everton, has now explained exactly why Man Utd failed to snare the 23-year-old before Salzburg.

Incredibly, he claims that because several members of Man Utd’s staff were on holiday, they ended up contacting Molde just an hour late, which allowed Salzburg to pounce.

Man Utd ‘definitely’ should have signed Erling Haaland

“I said to Haaland’s dad that I’d love him to go over to Everton so we could have a look at him, and sure enough we managed to work it,” King said on The Inside Track podcast.

“He came over for three or four days and did okay, but the general opinion was that because of his size, would he be as effective?

“But Man Utd should have definitely signed Haaland. I know the chief Scandinavian scout at United and he worked really hard to get him over there.

“There was a mix-up at the end of the season and a lot of people were on holiday at United. They were told that they had to ring Molde at a certain time in the morning.

“The guy who was handling Haaland’s deal from Molde to Salzburg was Jim Solbakken and he has good connections with Man Utd. He said that if the call is not in by 10 o’clock, then Haaland will go to Salzburg.

“The people at United who made the call made it an hour late. They should have rung at nine but they rang at 10, which is 11 in Norway. That caused the deal not to go through!”

Solskjaer and Man Utd will have been gutted about failing to sign Haaland. After that blistering spell at Dortmund, he has since torn up the Premier League by scoring 36 goals in 35 games in his debut campaign. His overall season tally stood at 52 goals, as he helped the Citizens win an incredible treble of the Prem, Champions League and FA Cup.

Haaland has been limited to 22 games this term as he has suffered a foot injury. Although, he has still managed 19 goals in that time.

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