A video of a Chelsea supporter expressing his doubts over whether Manchester City striker Erling Haaland will “live up to the expectation” is doing the rounds again and it’s absolutely priceless.
Blues fan and YouTuber Rory Jennings appeared on Sky Sport’s Saturday Social show back in August, just a couple of months after City signed the frightening forward from German side Borussia Dortmund.
Though it went viral at the time, with most fans finding his assumption that Haaland stood no chance of winning the golden boot laughable, it’s enjoying an even more hilarious half-life now the Norwegian has put up the kind of numbers he has.
Jennings said at the time that he was “so bored” of the discussion and excitement, insisting that the 22-year-old striker “isn’t the player everyone thinks he is” and to suggest he could win the personal accolade in his debut season was “outrageous”.
An often divisive commentator and content creator who regularly appears on ‘True Geordie’s watchalong show, The Kick Off (where he has also had numerous viral moments), he even went on to say that the mere notion was “disrespectful” to players like Harry Kane and Mo Salah.
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Rubbishing the possibility as a “ridiculous achievement”, he simply declared that Haaland “isn’t going to do it”. Well, this is awkward…
https://youtu.be/YkZPMwAJRjg?t=12
Not only is City’s new number nine already the top scorer in the Premier League with 14 but he also has double the amount of the second highest-scorer in Harry Kane after just eight games. Ridiculous indeed, Rory.
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Moreover, despite Jennings claiming that he is “wasteful” in front of goal at times and lacks the “build-up play” to play in Pep Guardiola’s side, Haaland has the most efficient strike rate of any player in Europe right now, averaging 1.89 goals per 90 minutes in the league alone.
Oh, and he’s also chipped in with three assists on top of that.
It’s safe to say that Rory received a fair bit of grief after his bold claim, to the point that even he had to hold his hands up and record an ‘apology’ video.
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We can only applaud journalist and co-host Ade Oladipo for being less smug than we would have been in this situation.
To make things even more hilarious, Haaland had scored six when he made this video around two months ago. He is now one goal away from the YouTuber’s initial prediction of 15 in the league and has already netted 17 in all competitions. Yikes.
City are currently second in the league with a whopping goal difference of +20 — nearly three-quarters of you can basically credit to just Haaland.
Don’t think you’ll find anyone tipping Kane, Salah or Son for the golden boot now, do you?
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 -
4th October 2022 
