When that question was put to McManaman, the former City star – who was speaking to GOAL courtesy of ESPN on Disney+, who will be showing Atletico’s trip to Sevilla this Saturday – said: “Maybe. Everybody’s got this mythical thing that Erling wants to play in in Spain don’t they.
“I mean whether Barcelona could even afford Erling is another question, so maybe they are playing the long game, I have no idea. Erling seems very, very happy at City – signed a huge long-term contract last year didn’t he.
“But I agree, I thought they were quite short up front last year and they went and won the league quite comfortably. Robert’s gone, Ferran’s gone, who is their centre-forward this year?
“I think [Karim] Adeyemi’s not really an out-and-out number nine, he’s more of a typical speedster isn’t he, you’ve got Raphinha, you’ve got [Anthony] Gordon, you’ve got Lamine [Yamal].
“Whenever I looked at Barcelona last year they did the same, the year before they did the same. I looked at various areas and thought they look short there, they look short there, and then they go and obliterate everybody.
“I look at Eric Garcia, he played about four or five positions last year and I’m thinking to myself ‘can he play there, can he play there, and actually he can, he can play bloody everywhere!’
“So they continue to surprise me, but I’m the same, I still think they need a positional number nine. Whether they have one in La Masia, coming up as a youngster who can do a job for you for maybe 10-15 games is another thing.
“Madrid have brought [Carlos] Espi, scored a few goals already, again a different type of player. But you know Lamine will get 20 if he stays fit, Raphinha will get another 25 if he stays fit, and Adeyemi I bet he’ll get 20, and Gordon will, if he plays enough games, get 20 goals. They tend to spread it around a little bit more evenly than Real Madrid.”
