Steve McManaman Doubts Barcelona's Haaland Pursuit

Steve McManaman is not buying into the idea that Barcelona are quietly clearing the decks to bring in Erling Haaland – and he is even less convinced they could afford him.

The former Manchester City winger, speaking to GOAL on behalf of ESPN on Disney+ ahead of Atletico Madrid’s trip to Sevilla, was asked whether Barca’s current squad build suggests a long-term plan to lure the Norwegian away from the Etihad. The theory is simple: trim the number of orthodox strikers, wait for the right moment, then go all in for Haaland.

McManaman is unconvinced.

“Maybe,” he said. “Everybody's got this mythical thing that Erling wants to play in Spain, don't they? I mean whether Barcelona could even afford Erling is another question, so maybe they are playing the long game, I have no idea. Erling seems very, very happy at City – signed a huge long-term contract last year, didn't he.”

If Barcelona are plotting, they are doing it with a squad that, on paper, looks light through the middle. That is nothing new to McManaman. He felt they were short up front last season as well – and they still cruised to the title.

“I thought they were quite short up front last year and they went and won the league quite comfortably,” he said. “Robert's gone, Ferran's gone, who is their centre-forward this year?”

The names he rattles off tell their own story. This is a team built on movement, pace and interchange rather than a classic penalty-box predator.

“I think [Karim] Adeyemi’s not really an out-and-out number nine, he's more of a typical speedster, isn't he,” McManaman explained. “You've got Raphinha, you've got [Anthony] Gordon, you've got Lamine [Yamal].”

That blend has fooled him before. Every time he studies Barcelona, he sees holes. Every time, they make those doubts look foolish.

“Whenever I looked at Barcelona last year they did the same, the year before they did the same,” he admitted. “I looked at various areas and thought they look short there, they look short there, and then they go and obliterate everybody.”

Eric Garcia is his favourite example of how Barca bend positional logic. A defender by trade, he became a tactical Swiss army knife.

“I look at Eric Garcia, he played about four or five positions last year and I'm thinking to myself ‘can he play there, can he play there,’ and actually he can, he can play bloody everywhere!”

That flexibility keeps surprising him, but it does not change his core concern. For all the clever rotations and versatile forwards, he still sees a missing piece.

“So they continue to surprise me,” McManaman said. “But I'm the same, I still think they need a positional number nine. Whether they have one in La Masia, coming up as a youngster who can do a job for you for maybe 10-15 games, is another thing.”

While Barcelona juggle options and wait on academy answers, Real Madrid have already added another weapon to their own attack.

“Madrid have brought [Carlos] Espi, scored a few goals already, again a different type of player,” McManaman noted.

The contrast lies not in star power but in distribution. Barcelona, in his eyes, will rely on a committee of scorers rather than one Haaland-style phenomenon.

“You know Lamine will get 20 if he stays fit, Raphinha will get another 25 if he stays fit, and Adeyemi I bet he'll get 20, and Gordon will, if he plays enough games, get 20 goals,” he said. “They tend to spread it around a little bit more evenly than Real Madrid.”

So the myth of Haaland-to-Barca lives on in whispers and long-term fantasies. On the pitch, though, McManaman sees something far more immediate: a Barcelona side still hunting that pure No.9, yet somehow ruthless enough to blow teams away without one.