Martin Odegaard has joked that if Borussia Dortmund striker Erling Haaland comes to England, he has to come to Arsenal.

Erling Haaland has been strongly linked with a move to Manchester City in recent weeks, but Norwegian teammate Martin Odegaard says the striker should join Arsenal instead.

“He’s a good guy, a good friend of mine,” Odegaard said. “A great player as well, of course. So we’ll see what he will do, I don’t know.

“If he’s coming to England, he has to come to us [Arsenal] of course. I don’t know what he will do.”

In all seriousness, there seems little chance that Haaland goes anywhere except Manchester City at this point.

David Ornstein recently reported that the players has approved the move and agreed initial personal terms, and whilst the move will take time, it looks like an inevitability.

Then there’s the fact that Arsenal are making serious efforts to sign Gabriel Jesus, a move seemingly predicated on the fact that City are looking to replace Jesus with Haaland. If Haaland doesn’t join City, Jesus will surely stay.

The odds that this is all a smokescreen so that Arsenal can swoop in and take Haaland instead seem incredibly slim – even with the recent photos surfacing of the striker in an Arsenal shirt as a child.

That’s probably not going to stop the Arsenal fans getting excited about “agent Odegaard” bringing Haaland in.

We all know the Gunners need a striker, and a 21-year-old with 25 goals in 27 games this season certainly fits the ball. It’s just probably not going to happen.