Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insists Man Utd will work with Mino Raiola to seal Erling Haaland

 

Red Bull Salzburg's teenage striker Erling Braut Haaland [Courtesy]

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer insists Manchester United are willing to work with controversial super-agent Mino Raiola in a bid to land £75million-rated teenage striker Erling Braut Haaland.

Raiola is the Dutch deal-maker who has been trying to force Paul Pogba’s departure from Old Trafford for the last 18 months – despite taking a £41million cut from the £89million transfer that saw the Frenchman arrive from Juventus.

He also represents top players such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Matthijs de Ligt and Marco Veratti.

Raiola is believed to be demanding £12m for brokering Haaland’s departure from Red Bull Salzburg in the coming months.

And Solskjaer wants Haaland, 19 – the son of former Norway midfielder Alf-Inge Haaland – to spearhead his forward line. Mirror Sport understands United are already in talks with Salzburg about signing Haaland.

But senior club sources believe it is highly unlikely that a deal will be struck during the January transfer window and that Haaland is a more viable target for the summer.

Now Solskjaer has removed any doubts that United would be willing to negotiate with Raiola.

He said: “Players can choose their own representatives.

“I had probably my best friend looking after me and it is so important that every player has complete 100 per cent trust in whoever represents them.

“Agents work for the player. The player is in charge.

“I don’t have any issues about who represents players because I don’t really speak to them. I have got nothing to do with the money.

“I speak to the players when I need to speak to them. I don’t talk through agents.”