OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER is refusing to be drawn into a public battle to land Erling Haaland.
The transfer circus surrounding the young striker has begun again with his agent Mino Raiola and father Alf-Inge conveniently pictured arriving in Barcelona this week.
The pair also held discussions with Real Madrid and are expected in England TODAY to meet with Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool but NOT Manchester United.
SunSport understands United will not meet with Haaland’s agent, who also represents Paul Pogba, but are waiting in the wings and keeping tabs on his situation.
Solskjaer said: “Even though I worked with Erling it’s not right for me as Manchester United manager to talk about Erling, he will make his own mind up.
“I’m focusing on the next two months and whatever happens in the world of football there is only so many places anyone can go to and I just, focus on the ones who are here.”
Red Devils boss Solskjaer had talks with Haaland to try and encourage to move to Old Trafford last January from Red Bull Salzburg.
He chose Borussia Dortmund for whom he has scored a phenomenal 49 goals in 49 games making him the hottest property in world football right now.
Solskjaer thought he had an advantage in the race to sign him having worked with him at Molde.
And he still keeps in touch with the 20-year-old striker and has not given up on getting him.
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He admits, however, it will be difficult to do anything out of the public eye in his pursuit of the Leeds-born Norwegian international.
Solskjaer said: “I think the way the world works at the moment, you’d like to do all your business on the quiet and all your talks on the quiet but there are platforms everywhere, there’s news, the media make that more difficult.
“Who can you trust? Hopefully we can suddenly sit here with players no one has written about.
“We conduct our recruitment business, scouting, the players that we are interested in, we do it the right way I hope and feel.”
Haaland has a contract at Dortmund until 2024 but is understood to have a release clause in that.
The initial figure was believed to be around £64million but it is now understood that it could be nearer £100million.
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Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
