Ed Woodward turned down chance to sign superstar for just £18 million

It has emerged that Manchester United turned down the chance to sign the youngster for just £18 million and he has gone on to become a superstar.

Manchester United have endured a terrible transfer window, one that has possibly left them behind their Premier League rivals, who decided to invest heavily. The club did manage to bring in Donny van de Beek, Edinson Cavani, Alex Telles and Facundo Pellistri while Amad Diallo is set to arrive in January. They did miss out on a number of their targets though.

Jadon Sancho was without doubt the club’s top transfer target of this window but they failed to reach a deal with Borussia Dortmund after refusing to pay their €108 million asking price.

As a result, Ed Woodward is not a popular figure at Old Trafford at the moment. As it turns out though, this window is not the first time that he has made a mistake.

As reported by The Sun, Manchester United had the option of signing Erling Haaland for just £18 million in January. Ed Woodward turned down the opportunity though because of the large agents’ fees and the demand for a £70 million release in his contract.

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As we know, Borussia Dortmund agreed to those terms and swooped in to sign the Norwegian wonderkid. The release clause is set to activate in 2022. Since then, he has scored 21 goals and provided 5 assists in just 23 appearances for the German side. Those are exceptional numbers for any player, forget one who just turned 20!

In hindsight, it was clearly a mistake on the part of Woodward. Haaland has emerged as an absolute superstar at Borussia Dortmund and do not be surprised if the biggest clubs in Europe come after him even before that release clause is activated.

It is just a tough pill to swallow that Manchester United could have easily signed him but decided not to. Another one in a long list of transfer mistakes made in recent years.