Erling Haaland is “really special”, admits Owen Hargraves, but Bayern Munich will not be joining the clamour for the Borussia Dortmund striker as they have no place for him in their side.
The Bundesliga champions favour a lone striker system and currently have the prolific Robert Lewandowski to fill that role.
The Poland international is now 31 years of age, but he is showing no sign of slowing down and will not need to be replaced for some time yet.
That means Bayern will resist any urge to try and lure another domestic rival away from Dortmund.
Lewandowski made that move back in 2014, having become a free agent, and has gone on to plunder 231 goals in 276 appearances for Bayern.
Haaland is just starting out down a path that he hopes will prove just as productive, with the 19-year-old already past the 40-goal mark for 2019-20.
Hargreaves admits the Norwegian youngster is destined for the top, amid talk of interest from Real Madrid, but cannot see a door opening up at the Allianz Arena any time soon.
The former Bayern midfielder told FourFourTwo: “Haaland is really special - he makes goalscoring look easy, and it’s not.
“His goal against Schalke, with the ball coming across him, it just looked so comfortable. He’s ridiculously good, although Lewandowski’s pretty good too at Bayern - he scored his 40th goal of the season at the weekend.
“So even if you could add Haaland, he wouldn’t get into Bayern’s team right now, just because of the way they play with one up front.”
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It is not just up top that Bayern are well-stocked when it comes to world-class talent, with the Bundesliga giants boasting a star-studded squad.
Hargreaves sees that leaving them with no weaknesses, with exciting Canada international Alphonso Davies another of those to have unlocked his full potential to become a senior superstar.
“Bayern don’t really have any weaknesses, which is amazing considering everybody said they’re in transition, after [Arjen] Robben and [Franck] Ribery retired,” added Hargreaves.
“They are slightly in transition, but if you look at the team, it’s an unbelievable starting 11.
“A couple of years ago, people said that defensively they weren’t as strong or as quick, but now [David] Alaba is playing as a left-sided centre-back because of young Alphonso Davies, who makes the left-back position look effortless - he has the potential to be one the best in the world there. Bayern have got experience, skills, speed, flair players, creativity - they’ve got a lot.”
Bayern returned to action after a coronavirus-enforced break with a comfortable 2-0 victory over Union Berlin and remain four points clear of Dortmund at the top of the table with eight games remaining.