Ed Woodward attempts to defend Man Utd failures to sign Haaland or Bellingham
Manchester United were interested in signing both Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham long before the superstars joined their respective current clubs, with former Old Trafford chief Ed Woodward now giving his reasons why neither player ended up wearing red. Haaland had made his name with Red Bull Salzburg during the first half of the 2019/20 season and wound up joining Borussia Dortmund during the campaign's January transfer window. Bellingham emerged around the same time, starring for Birmingham in the Championship at the age of just 16. In the summer of 2020, he followed in Haaland's footsteps to Dortmund. That year, then United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer wanted both of them and also Declan Rice, but the club ended up with none of the trio earmarked by the Norwegian. "Ole wanted to bring down the age of the squad, so he identified three young players and told the club they should prioritise signing them," ESPN has been told by one of Solskjaer’s ex-teammates. ...