Rasmus Højlund has been at Old Trafford for over a month now but in a rather surprising commercial cock-up for a club as financially driven as Manchester United, they haven’t been able to sell his official replica shirtat the stadium’s Megastoreuntil now.
Just think of all those shirt sales that have been scuppered.
The Dane was one of United‘s biggest signings of the summer, with the club having been in need of a player who can more regularly fill the role of a traditional number nine. Although that number still remains with injury-prone Antony Martial and the new boy has been given the recently vacated 11 shirt, it turns out it was the letters that were actually the problem.
Although his shirt number was only just announced on 3 September, even after the fact, fans still weren’t quite able to purchase the kit for another reason. You’d think they would have thought ahead — it’s not as if they didn’t know he was coming…
Born to be a Red 🇩🇰🔴
🎥 Watch exclusive behind-the-scenes footage of Rasmus Hojlund's first day as a United player with the Inside View 👇@TeamViewer ↔️ #BringingYouCloser
The fact they did all this promo of him in the new kits but didn’t remember to order the right letters is just funny.
As per a report by MailSport, the only reason Man United couldn’t sell Rasmus Højlund replica shirts from the Megastore was that they literally didn’t have the right letters: specifically, the ‘ø’ characters often found Danish and Norwegian names as well as Faroese and Southern Sámi words.
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While other retailers around the country presumably had no problem selling shirts with his Premier League printing since there are several Scandinavian players with the same letter in their name — Martin Ødegaard and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg being two current ones that come to mind — it appears one of the biggest clubs in the world forgot to order them in-house.
We’re sure a few people who were desperate just settled for a regular ‘o’ as well. Victor Lindelöf hasn’t had an umlaut (ö) on his shirt in more than half a decade at the club now.
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The 20-year-old striker’s signing was reportedly agreed on 31 July, so it’s not like they didn’t have enough time to make sure the club shop was stocked up with the right letters and fonts.
Unsurprisingly, many have mocked the club for what some fans have labelled an “embarrassing” and “amateur” gaffe, with one person slamming Old Trafford‘s in-house United Store for their “incompetence” after they were unable to purchase the kit for a relative’s birthday present.
Responding to the outlet, the Man United have now assured that the øs have now been delivered so supporters can finally purchase an official Højlund shirt at the Megastore from this week onwards.
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The new centre-forward made his debut in the late 3-1 loss to Arsenal last month. Despite failing to get on the scoresheet, plenty of fans are already getting excited by the youngster’s attitude after a clip of him whipping up the crowd after Denmark’s 1-0 win in a Euros qualifier went viral:
🎙️ | Rasmus Højlund to Denmark fans:
“I heard you all game and your passion is everything in football, we are going to the f*cking Euros! F*cking come on!!” ❤️🇩🇰
Featured Image — Rasmus Højlund/Manchester United (via Instagram)
Sport
Details released of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners while Mayor
Emily Sergeant
Details of Andy Burnham’s meetings with Manchester City owners during his tenure as Mayor of Greater Manchester have been released.
In case you need bringing up to speed on the situation a little first, Manchester City was found guilty back in September all of its charges related to the Premier League’s financial rules over a nine-season period, and on top of that, was also found guilty of the majority of charges in relation to its failure to co-operate with the League’s investigation.
According to the Premier League, the independent Commission found that Manchester City had arranged so-called ‘sham’ commercial deals with a number of its sponsors.
These were part of a disguised funding scheme – with those sponsors only required to pay a portion of the relevant sponsorship fees.
The remainder was then funded by Abu Dhabi United Group Investment & Development Ltd (ADUG), which owned the club.
The Commission also concluded, as quoted by the Premier League, that the club had ‘made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate the Premier League investigation’.
Within the past week or so, it has since come to light that now-Prime Minister Andy Burnham had dealings with Manchester City during his tenure as Greater Manchester Mayor, and Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has now issued a public statement, giving details on the matter and what these ‘dealings’ entailed.
A spokesperson for GMCA confirmed that Burnham had a ‘formal meeting’ with Man City Chairman, Khaldoon Al Mubarak, back in October 2021.
The statement reads in full: “In October 2021, Andy Burnham, in his role as Mayor of Greater Manchester, had a formal meeting with Khaldoon Al Mubarak at the UK Government’s Global Investment Summit arranged by the Department for International Trade.
“In his capacity as Mayor, he was a guest of Manchester City FC at home matches on a small number of occasions, including attending Vincent Kompany’s testimonial match in September 2019, where he met the Chairman informally in the stands. These have been declared in the usual way.
“Also during his time as Mayor, representatives of Greater Manchester sporting clubs would routinely join business delegations as part of Mayoral international visits.
“This included representatives from Manchester United travelling to Austin and Dublin, Lancashire Cricket Club joining a delegation to India, and Manchester City FC staff supporting visits to China and Japan.”
Featured Image – Lauren Hurley / Number 10 Downing Street (Press Image via Flickr)
Sport
Multiple arrests made for ‘tragedy chanting’ and police officer assault as Man City defeated Liverpool
Emily Sergeant
Multiple people were arrested over the weekend as Manchester City defeated Liverpool in a Premier League clash.
Merseyside Police have confirmed that a total of 10 people were arrested during the policing operation at Liverpool’s home ground of Anfield as they hosted Manchester City on Sunday 11 October.
One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting a police constable, five were on suspicion of tragedy chanting, one on suspicion of being drunk and disorderly, two for affray, and one on suspicion of throwing items onto the pitch.
Police are now appealing to the public, and are particularly looking to speak to witnesses of the assault of the officer.
At around 6:35pm, as fans left the stadium, a police officer sustained a ‘serious facial injury’ during the arrest of a man on Anfield Road, and was subsequently taken to hospital for treatment but is now recovering at home.
Investigating officers are now conducting enquiries, speaking to witnesses, and analysing CCTV and camera phone footage.
Chief Inspector Leanne Hobin said it’s ‘extremely disappointing’ that an officer has sustained a serious injury while carrying out their duty.
“I hope the arrests send a clear message and act as a deterrent to others,” Chief Inspector Hobin continued. “Anyone who engages in this abhorrent behaviour risks ending up in custody and getting a criminal record.
“Despite the actions of a few, the overwhelming majority of the 60,000 fans in attendance behaved well and I want to thank them for their co-operation.”
Manchester City ended up defeated Liverpool 3-0 during the Premier League clash at Anfield.
Danny Jones -
11th September 2023 
