By the time Pep Guardiola leaves Manchester City, where his players rank amongst some of the Premier League’s absolute greatest will be interesting to see.
With Guardiola’s side still dominating English football, the greats in his team have not given the masses the required time to reflect on their respective legacies.
Two players who played for Manchester City during the Catalan’s time in charge are Sergio Aguero and Vincent Kompany — who have been inducted into the Premier League Hall of Fame.
However, both Aguero and Kompany spent several years at City before Guardiola’s arrival in 2016.
It could be argued that the pair were at the peak of their powers under Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini.
Considering Erling Haaland is continuing to set unforeseen standards in the Premier League, it seems guaranteed that his legacy will age fondly with time.
Scholes makes bold Erling Haaland claim
The £51 million man has had an impact not many players have had on English shores.
As per Squawka, Haaland has scored 100 goals in his first 105 games in a City shirt — equalling Cristiano Ronaldo’s record for being the fastest player to reach a century of goals for a team in the top five European leagues in the 21st century — stressing how prolific he has been so far.
The 24-year-old continues to set feats some of the all-time great goalscorers were not even close to doing during their time in England.
Haaland is contracted to Manchester City until 2027 and he could break another pile of records if he decides to stay at the club until then.
Paul Scholes had his say on whether the former Borussia Dortmund goalscorer is the deadliest striker the Premier League has ever seen.
On The Overlap, Scholes initially claimed that Haaland still needs to spend more time in England to be worthy of such status.
“He’s looking that way, isn’t he? I think we’ll still need to have him for another three or four, five years.”
“But yeah, we were just saying in there, when he goes through, you never actually think he’s going to miss. There’s not many forwards, I played with some unbelievable centre-forwards, Andy Cole, Dwight Yorke, Ruud van Nistelrooy, I probably felt was the most ruthless finisher and best finisher I played with.”
Paul Scholes added that Haaland is not far off the greatest number nines in Premier League history.
“But it’s just having that confidence within somebody where you think, it’s going through and some forwards that go through and have chances, you think, not sure. Haaland, it’s a goal.”
“Like I said a minute ago, I think it’s too early to say, I don’t think you can say he’s nowhere near it though. Just because of the fact that he’s scored 100 in [his first] 103 [105] matches, it’s ridiculous!”
Erling Haaland is not far off being the Premier League’s greatest
Considering Haaland is only in his third season at the Etihad Stadium, it is understandable why he is not viewed as the undisputed best striker in the Premier League.
The likes of Alan Shearer, Thierry Henry, Sergio Aguero and Harry Kane to name a few spend several years in England and dominated proceedings.
With their respective goal records and longevity as Premier League players, perhaps Paul Scholes feels it might be premature to claim that the Norwegian has already outdone them.
However, as Scholes stressed, Haaland is not far off the claim of being the league’s best-ever striker.
With the Manchester City marksman’s goalscoring record, the fact that he has won a treble and two league titles and his completeness as a centre-forward, the division has not seen many better strikers than him.
Some might feel that Haaland has outdone every other striker in Premier League history based on how high he has raised the bar.
But if the Leeds-born hitman stays at Manchester City for several more years, he could put an end up to such debates once and for all.
