However, they are not willing to spend too much to sign him. Maybe the reason why they made a statement like this (if it's not a rumour) could be that they are thinking of signing Harry Kane at the first occasion.
It means Man City prioritizes signing Harry Kane, while Haaland is only an alternative. The chance to sign Harry Kane can be bigger if he doesn't interested to stay with Tottenham anymore. But he may change his mind because now Tottenham has a reputable coach, Antonio Conte. With this situation, Man City may have a little obstacle to sign Kane. While for Haaland, I don't think Man City can sign him if they don't want to spend much money. There are too many clubs interested to sign Haaland, Dortmund management must ask for big transfer fees.
And the reasons why their priority is Harry Kane could be like this:
- Harry Kane would cost them much lower than Erling Haaland.
- Harry Kane is already very accustomed to playing in the English Premier League and he has had great statistics in the recent years. But they don't know if Erling Haaland would perform at the level he performs at Dortmund in the worst case.
Harry Kane is a very experienced forward and Manchester City would benefit from his experience a lot in the Champions League also.
Yeah Harry Kane have most experience with primer league but looking age is not priority by Manchester City because the same have higher value better buy Haaland although need adaptation with primer league game style. I am thinking Haaland is easy how to adaptation with primer league style game because he has strong and and full stamina playing in 90 minutes, many Bundesliga player looking well and have great performance playing on primer league.