Erling Haaland is celebrating one of the biggest contracts in the history of football - signed despite the threat of the club being punished if found guilty of breaching Premier League financial rules(Image: Visionhaus/Getty Images)

Erling Haaland contract is Man City's clearest hint yet over 115 charges verdict

Huge contract for the Norwegian striker follows Pep Guardiola's new commitment to a club to suggest any Premier League punishment might not be as severe as some people think

by · The Mirror

The numbers are staggering, the terms of Erling Haaland’s deal not far from being unprecedented in the history of truly elite club football.

But read between the eye-watering lines of the 24-year-old’s nine-and-a-half year contract and the implications might be even more significant.

This is a marquee player - a marquee player in a global context - believing in the long-term prosperity of Manchester City. This is a marquee player believing whatever verdict is handed down on the 115 charges of breaching the Premier League’s financial rules will NOT derail the annual challenge for the biggest trophies. This is a marquee player believing in success post-Pep.

Yes, one of the many ramifications of this agreement is that Haaland sees himself at the Etihad long after Guardiola has gone. City executives are preparing for life without the genius coach.

But Guardiola and Haaland will be in harness for another two seasons after this one and it does not take a great leap of imagination to suggest their new deals are signposts in the long-running legal case. The outcome of the independent commission’s hearing into the 115 charges is expected relatively soon.

It has been going on so long that speculation about the severity of any punishment - if City are, indeed, found guilty of breaches - has died down. But the threat of a points deduction that is draconian enough to ensure relegation is still there.

Yet the Haaland deal is not just an example of City going about their business in a typically emphatic way, it looks like a statement of intent. Never mind the looming verdict, they are saying, this is a club that will continue to flex its intimidating financial muscle.

Haaland will now be a cornerstone of the Man City project for the next decade( Image: PA)

Not only is Haaland being handed a ten-season deal that will be worth in excess of £200million, Guardiola already had a lucrative two-year extension and City are in the process of spending a big chunk of money on centre-backs Abdukodir Khusanov and Vitor Reis from Lens and Palmeiras, along with Eintracht Frankfurt striker Omar Marmoush.

They are rebuilding their dynasty, a dynasty of which Haaland will now be the cornerstone. Having scored 111 goals in 126 games across all competitions for City, Haaland will expect to break records.

Having won an FA Cup, a Champions League and two Premier League titles, Haaland will expect to win a lot more. Having collected 79 Premier League goals in two and half seasons, he will, no doubt, expect to become the competition’s record scorer if he stays fit for most of the length of this staggering deal.

Pep Guardiola recently committed himself to Manchester City until 2027 and Erling Haaland has now signed a deal that will keep him at The Etihad until 2034( Image: Getty Images)

Of course, contracts in football have never guaranteed a player stays at a club for a certain amount of time. If the right price comes in or a player is unhappy, they are there to be ignored.

But all the noises coming out of the Etihad tell us that Haaland really can envisage spending the rest of his career at Manchester City. And that tells you what the player thinks the verdict on the Premier League charges will do to the long-term success of the football club. Very little. Let’s wait and see.

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