Erling Haaland told he is NOT one of Premier League's 10 best ever strikers

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Troy Deeney has snubbed Erling Haaland from his top 10 Premier League strikers and claimed the Manchester City star "still has a long way to go."

The ex-Watford man was going through the best frontmen to play in the top flight since 1992 and included the usual suspects like Alan Shearer , Wayne Rooney and Thierry Henry , with the Arsenal man coming in as his top pick.

Haaland has only been in the Premier League since 2022, but in his first year broke the record for goals in a single Premier League season. He scored 36 that campaign and has followed it up by notching 27, 22 and 27 in the years that have followed.

They have landed him three Golden Boots in four years and the Norwegian now boasts 112 goals in his four seasons, but Deeney still wants to see a lot more and has named the likes of Robbie Fowler and Jermain Defoe above him in the list of greats.

He told talkSPORT : “He is a freak… I also think there’s still a long way to go. Haaland’s not in there, not yet, no. A lot of it for me is about feeling as well, what players made you feel when you watched them.”

After making his controversial claim Deeney went on: “I think this season is going to be really interesting. The seasons he’s been at City, they have been unbelievable anyway and he’s been a piece to that, an additional piece. It’ll be interesting now they’re not favourites to win it.

“Can he carry the team a little bit? I’d like to see him drag this team forward. When he played against Arsenal, against Gabriel, I was like ‘wow’. He dragged the team to win that game, I’d like to see that more.”

After naming a top three of Henry, Rooney and Shearer, Deeney had Andy Cole in fourth. His fifth to nine was in no particular order but included Harry Kane, Sergio Aguero, Luis Suarez, Fowler and Defoe - Aguero the only one to have won the Premier League. Kane left when he was only 47 goals shy of Shearer's total but has since added numerous honours to his CV at Bayern Munich.

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He said: “Henry, you watched him and you were like ‘wow’, you’d never seen anyone that quick, he had that finish into the bottom corner. Rooney, as a kid, he was one of the best players I’d ever seen, he could do it all.

“Shearer, it’s obviously goals. Cole is the most disrespected striker in Premier League history. He’s never in anybody else’s top 10. He scored over 180 goals. Defoe did it for so many years, Aguero was unbelievable.”

Deeney didn't name a 10th on his list, but stopped short of including Haaland. Alongside his historic exploits he's also got eight hat-tricks - only Aguero, Fowler and Shearer have more.

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