How Man United fumbled Haaland AND Bellingham transfers as incredible alternate reality almost came to pass

Manchester United were right at the front of the queue with both Erling Haaland AND Jude Bellingham before they became superstars.

And their failure to land either still rankles with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Haaland and Bellingham are two of the best in the business having both risen to global superstardom at Borussia Dortmund before veering off into lucrative careers with Man City and Real Madrid. Dortmund signed Haaland from RB Salzburg in January 2020 and landed Bellingham six months later - paying a combined £41m and later cashing in for almost £150m in total.

But it could all have been so different...had United pulled the trigger on either player. That's the view of Solskjaer, anyway, who claims he recommended Haaland to Old Trafford chiefs twice - and they could have got him for as little as €8 (£6.8m) the first time. In a revealing interview, he told The Overlap: "I had Haaland in Molde, for two seasons. The summer before I got here (to Man United), I rang the club and said: you've got to sign this boy. He’ll be top class. That was June, July 2018, and they said no. They had enough reports on players.

"Then I became the caretaker manager, and Molde had sold Haaland to RB Salzburg (for just €8m). I tell the club straight away to buy him while he has a release clause. We knew that then, and no one else would’ve paid the money - €20m, it would’ve been a bargain. It was the club’s decision to not go for it then. We never made bids or went in for him, until after he started scoring for Salzburg." "By then, everyone was there. His release clause then was still good - €60m."

And then there's Bellingham, who United actually did take steps to sign while he was still at Birmingham City. But Solskjaer revealed the club just