Erling Haaland and Bernardo Silva represent latest Man City blows to Champions League rival

A lot can change in six months.

Last summer, it looked like Manchester City would lose out not once but twice to Real Madrid. The Spanish giants looked to be leading the race to sign Erling Haaland in 2022, with reports that it was a childhood dream of his to wear the famous white shirt at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu.

It also looked like Carlo Ancelotti's side had a chance of nicking one of City's premier talents from right under their noses. Bernardo Silva asked to leave the club for the second summer running, and Madrid was tipped as one likely destination.

Those headlines no-doubt delighted Florentino Perez, Real Madrid's egotistical president and ring leader of the failed European Super League project (which he insists is still alive and well).

Perez has long been a critic of City, claiming that the Blues and Paris Saint-Germain - relative newcomers to football's elite - will ruin the game with their 'new' money. Presumably, he sees no issue with his club's hoarding of Spanish talent over the decades, the hundreds of millions of pounds he spent on his Galacticos in the early 2000s or the financial inequality within La Liga that exists.

That City landed a blow to his Super League vanity project - billed as saving football rather than destroying it - by being one of the first clubs to pull out likely didn't do much to endear him to Pep Guardiola's side. Revenge would have tasted all so sweet to him.

But now it looks like Perez might get his revenge served neither warm nor cold. The latest reports from Spain suggest that Real Madrid is out of the running to sign Haaland this summer, with Los Blancos instead opting to bring in out-of-contract PSG star Kylian Mbappe on a free and pump funds into rejuvenating their