Ole Gunnar Solskjær provides full details on Erling Haaland pursuit at Man United

Former manager Ole Gunnar Solskjær has revealed that he twice tried to convince Manchester United to sign Erling Haaland, but the club ignored him.

Solskjær managed Haaland for roughly two seasons during his time at Norweigan club Molde FK and played a big role in developing the 23-year-old into one of the greatest footballers in the world.

Speaking on the Stick to Football podcast, Solskjær revealed that during the final months of his time at Molde, he called United to urge them to sign the Norweigan striker.

He said: “The summer before I got here [United]. I rang the club and said: ‘You’ve got to sign this boy. He will be top. Absolutely top class.’

“That was June, July 2018, and they said: ‘nah, we’ve got enough reports.’”

However, this wasn’t the end of Solskjær’s pursuit of Haaland, as he also tried to sign the young superstar during his time as manager of Manchester United.

The 51-year-old added: “Then I became the caretaker and they [Molde] sold him so Salzburg.

“I tell the club straight away. Buy him. Straight away.

“Because he didn’t play for him for three or four months, just sign him now because he’s got a release clause.

“We knew that and no one else then would have paid that money. 20 million euros.

“It would have been a bargain. Even at that time with links to Alfie and City and Leeds, maybe I think…

“It was the club’s decision not to go for him then, we never made bids or never went in for him until after they realised when he started scoring for Salzburg but then Dortmund were there, Juventus were there, everyone was there.”

Haaland joined Red Bull Salzburg in 2019 for just €8.00m before leaving to join Borussia Dortmund at the end of that season for €20.00m.

After three massively successful seasons with the Bundesliga side, he joined United’s local rivals Manchester City after the Premier League champion triggered Dortmund’s release clause which is believed to have been £51m, rising to a total cost £85.5m including agent fees and signing bonuses.

Haaland has since scored 80 goals in 84 appearances for Manchester City and won five trophies including matching United’s 1999 achievement of winning the treble (the Premier League, Champions League and FA Cup), last season.