Erling Haaland transfer would set Kevin de Bruyne up for his best-ever Man City season

Multiple reports this week have claimed that Manchester City have agreed to personal terms with Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland. While the club have not commented and MEN Sport understands that an agreement is close rather than finalised, it appears increasingly likely that the highly-sought after striker will be playing at the Etihad Stadium next season.

At just 21-year-old Haaland is already an elite striker, having scored a remarkable 82 goals in 85 matches for Dortmund over the past two years. He would no doubt score plenty of goals in sky blue, but an even more frightening prospect for opponents is the way he could enable Kevin de Bruyne to enjoy his best-ever season at City.

After injury, Covid-19 and a string of rusty performances caused De Bruyne to have a slow start to the season, the Belgian midfielder has come into his own since the start of 2022, and is arguably now City's most important player.

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The number 17 has scored 14 goals in all competitions so far this season, meaning he is on track to surpass his best single-season tally of 16 that he scored in 2019/20. However, more importantly than the number of goals is the knack he's developed for scoring important goals in crucial moments.

This campaign De Bruyne has scored decisive goals against Liverpool, Chelsea, Atletico Madrid and Manchester United, although with Haaland leading the line he might not need to make that kind of contribution next season. Where he might become more involved next term is the assists charts. Despite his other-worldly delivery and unique vision, De Bruyne has only assisted three goals in the Premier League this season. In 2020/21 he