Barcelona stars plead for Man City ‘cyborg’ but chiefs ditch pursuit for £67m star ‘better than Haaland’

Barcelona will turn their attention to Sporting Lisbon striker Viktor Gyokeres over Man City striker Erling Haaland, according to reports.

The Citizens have made a perfect start to the Premier League season with Pep Guardiola guiding his side to four wins out of four against Chelsea, Ipswich Town, West Ham and Brentford.

Haaland has played an enormous part in securing those victories with his brace against Brentford at the weekend taking him to nine goals in four Premier League matches for Man City this season.

The hearing into the 115 charges leveled against Man City by the Premier League has begun this week and the uncertainty over the verdict has created lots of speculation.

As well as Guardiola’s future seemingly up in the air, a number of players have been linked with moves away from the Etihad Stadium if the Citizens, who strenuously deny any wrongdoing, are found guilty.

Haaland has been linked with imminently signing a new contract at Man City but that seems to have been held up by the Norway international insisting on a relatively low release clause in his contract so he remains fully in control of his future.

But Barcelona, who are far from flush with cash, look likely to move away from the idea of them signing Haaland with reports in Spain claiming that the Catalan giants are ‘willing to pay’ the €80m (£67m) release clause in Gyokeres’ contract at Sporting Lisbon.

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Barcelona are ‘planning to improve’ their strikeforce in the next summer transfer window and they are ready to ditch their pursuit of Haaland due to the ‘very complex operation’ and ‘high cost’.

The report describes Gyokeres as ‘better than Haaland’ due to his amazing goalscoring record in the Portuguese top flight, which has continued this season.

And Barcelona will move for the Sweden international despite Pedri and other players at the Camp Nou making it ‘clear’ to the hierarchy that they want to see Haaland ‘wearing the Barca shirt’ next season.

There is a ‘consensus among several players in the team about who should be the next big signing’ but Barcelona president Joan Laporta and sporting director Deco know it is ‘practically impossible to afford a signing of that magnitude’ next summer.

Barcelona head coach Hansi Flick ‘would be delighted’ to sign Haaland, while ‘heavyweights in the dressing room, such as Pedri , are already moving to influence the board’s decisions and make it clear that they need a player of his calibre.’

READ MORE: The ridiculous stats of Erling Haaland: More Premier League goals than Eric Cantona and Bradford