Leeds: Whites rejected ‘generational’ star for just £4m, now he’s worth £215m
Leeds United have suffered in their opening few fixtures in the Championship due to a lack of focal point up top, with the diminutive Wilfried Gnonto having had to deputise on occasion.
The Whites were admittedly profligate, having created plenty of chances, but were craving that hulking front man to bulldoze defenders and forge opportunities for his teammates, as well as be in the right places to finish off chances themselves.
Daniel Farke obviously understood this, acting incisively in the market to bring Joel Piroe in to answer their striking woes. The Dutchman had previously scored 19 and 22 in his last two league campaigns with Swansea City, so the expectation was that he would pick up where he left off in Elland Road.
However, the German clearly has other ideas, having trialled a deeper role for the 24-year-old in their 0-0 draw with Sheffield Wednesday.
Despite a natural striker having been thrust into the starting line-up, they once again fell victim to the same issues that plagued their first few fixtures.
It draws into question what the former Norwich City might do if he had one of the world’s best in that position, and whether he could conform to a similar structure as he seeks to lead his new side back into the Premier League.
Well, reports have suggested that such an eventuality could have been the case, with Manchester City’s Erling Haaland coming desperately close to an Elland Road switch years ago. It's a move that would surely have meant the Championship never even became a possibility again.
Did Erling Haaland nearly sign for Leeds United?
Having caught the eye as a youngster at Molde, already the Norwegian was drawing the interest of some of Europe’s top outfits. After all, as a hulking young forward who had scored 20 in 50 in his homeland, he was bound to leave for greener pastures eventually.
Although it would be RB Salzburg who were lucky enough to register his capture, handing him the perfect platform to begin his eventual rise to the top of the game, his agent Hayden Evans told The Athletic's The Phil Hay Show (via Marca) that things could have been very different.
He noted: “He was at Molde, around about 17 [years old], and he was ripping it up but also fervently following Leeds United. We spoke to Victor [Orta, Leeds' sporting director] and said, 'Look, I can bring Erling to Leeds and the rest will be over to you.'
"The best proof you can have [that a player wants to join] is to physically bring a player into the club, so we said we can do that. He said, 'Absolutely, of his age he's the number one in the world that anyone would want. If you can bring him to Leeds, we'll do the rest.'"
Given he was born in Leeds and had grown up as a fan of the club due to his father’s brief tenure there, it seemed like the perfect move for a side still stuck in the Championship following their 2004 relegation.
However, their financial troubles at the time proved to thwart them in ways far worse than the sales they were forced to make, which Evans would expand on: “It went quite well, we went back, but the bottom line was that [Molde] wanted around four million pounds. Leeds were not in the stable [financial] position they are in now and he was not going to play, even the talent he was, he was not going to play first-team football at that age.
"It was seen as just a step too far for a player at that time who would only play [for the] U23s, so we were back at Oulton Hall, it was all okay, [but then] Alfie opened up and said, 'I'll be honest with you, next week we're going to Juventus, who want him.'
"[There was ] a lot of truth about everything that went on and unfortunately then money talked. [Mino] Raiola came in and made the family a massive offer because he had a whole track of future transfers, clubs ready for everybody to earn fortunes with, and the rest is history."
How many goals has Erling Haaland scored?
Given how Haaland’s career has soared ever since his move to Austria, already this has proven to be a devastating error for Orta, who continues to add to his ever-growing embarrassing rap sheet even if he left over the summer.
He would move to Borussia Dortmund in a £17m move, which would have been vital funds to boost Leeds’ coffers; or, had they kept ahold of him, they could have sought to oversee his development and instead reap the rewards of his clinical finishing for themselves.
Just two years in Germany was enough to prove to the rest of the world that he was ready to step up to the elite level, scoring 86 and assisting 23 across just 89 appearances for the die Schwarzgelben.
Such form was not to come at a cut price, but the £51m that Pep Guardiola expended to bring him to Manchester has already proved a coup. The treble-winning number nine scored the most goals in a single Premier League term during his debut year, among the numerous other records he shattered, and has now amassed 68 goal contributions in just 59 games for the Sky Blues.
That fee has certainly already skyrocketed because of this fine form in the best league in Europe, with CIES Football Observatory now valuing him at a mouth-watering €250m (£215m).
As such, former Citizens defender Joleon Lescott has rushed to compare the youngster to some of the greatest forwards in the history of the game, such is his pedigree already.
He spoke to 90min just before their victory over Inter Milan to claim European glory: "I think the generation I played in, against the likes of [Didier] Drogba, [Ruud] van Nistelrooy, [Emmanuel] Adebayor, I think there's attributes that were probably more familiar because there was more of that type of striker.
"I think he's definitely a unique talent, generational talent. There's types of goals that not many forwards could score, and that's kind of why I've compared him to Zlatan. There's a couple in his catalogue that only he reaches, he attempts, he executes. That would be the closest comparison."
To think that Leeds actually had Haaland in the building, ready and raring to sign before having to reject him, will forever haunt the likes of Orta and those around him at the time. Their financial woes of the time were certainly debilitating to deal with, but this arguably marks their greatest failure in modern history, as the quintessential example of the one that got away.