Erling Haaland at Manchester City: Who will have to make way for the Norwegian?

Man City Haaland
(Image credit: Getty)

Manchester City look set to win the race to sign Erling Haaland, according to the latest report on the Borussia Dortmund striker.

If it comes off and Haaland joins for £63 million, it will be a sensational coup for the Premier League champions and make them even more formidable.

But not everyone at the club is bound to be happy about the Norwegian's arrival, as he will be guaranteed a place in the team almost every match (notwithstanding Pep Roulette of course), relegating current starters to the bench or even forcing them to leave.

FourFourTwo took a look at the potential losers from the deal.

Gabriel Jesus

(Image credit: PA Images)

Gabriel Jesus

The Brazilian striker looks like having most to lose from Haaland's arrival. He has started just over half of City's Premier League games this season, and that's while being the team's only traditional centre forward. 

If he's struggling to hold down a place in the starting XI with no rival for his role, then imagine how few options he is going to get when the new kid on the block arrives at the Etihad.

Haaland's goal record is truly phenomenal, with 80 goals from 79 appearances for Borussia Dortmund in little more than two years, which makes Jesus's return of 88 strikes in 233 matches for City, across five years, look comparatively measly.

Jesus has by no means been a bad signing for City but with his contract running until 2023, it is difficult to see him staying beyond that date if he has to compete with Haaland on top of City's array of exceptional forwards for years to come.

Sterling Guardiola

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Raheem Sterling

Although Sterling is not exactly a central striker and won't directly be competing with Haaland for a starting berth, he too is not exactly a nailed on starter for Pep Guardiola.

That might be a crazy thing to say about City's joint-top scorer, but it's true.

Sterling has started 17 of the team's 28 league matches this season and has been left out of the line-up for the biggest games.

This was particularly the case earlier in the season when he started on the bench against Liverpool and Chelsea before coming on and was an unused substitute against Manchester United in November.

He got back in Guardiola's good books after that and enjoyed a good run in the team particularly around the Christmas period, scoring four goals in three matches, and then started in the wins over Arsenal and Chelsea.

But he was then surprisingly left out of the team for last week's Manchester derby and didn't even get to come off the bench to enjoy the 4-1 win.

His contract is also up in 2023 and the England star has dropped several hints that he would like to play abroad at some point.

With Haaland in the team it is hard to see him starting the biggest matches and how much longer will he be able to take not being involved when it matters most?

Mahrez

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Riyad Mahrez

The Algerian is City's other top scorer alongside Sterling, which is even more remarkable considering he has only started 11 league games this season.

He certainly enjoyed himself in last week's derby, scoring twice in the second half as City twisted the knife into United.

His time at City may have been marked by inconsistency yet Guardiola still trusts in him for the biggest games and he usually delivers.

But at the age of 31 and with 21-year-old Haaland set to land in the summer, how much longer will that be the case?

Mahrez is also out of contract with City next year and will almost certainly have to accept a reduced offer to prolong his stay at the Etihad. 

If he can get a better offer from elsewhere and a guarantee of regular football rather than feeding off scraps, he may well take it.

Richard Martin is an experienced football writer, editor and social media producer. Before returning to London, he spent 10 years in Spain as a football correspondent and has attended over 600 games across 16 countries, his favourite being Argentina. He has also worked for Reuters, The Telegraph, The Daily Mail, The Times and AS.