I was chatting to a Manchester City fan last week – one of those proper ones who loved the club well before it had money – and he was a bit worried that Erling Haaland would be rusty when the domestic season resumed.

Of course, I get where he was coming from.

With Norway not qualifying for the World Cup and with most of his City pals busy in Qatar, Erling spent a lot of time on his sofa during November and December, twiddling his thumbs and wondering if he might have been better playing for the country of his birth (okay, he wasn’t wondering that, but we can dream a little).

That prolonged period without kicking a ball in anger led some, my friend being one of them, to wonder if the 22-year-old striker might not be a little off the pace when domestic football resumed.

Yeah, right.

On his return to action, Erling scored a goal against Liverpool in the League Cup and then followed that up by bagging another two against Leeds in the league on Wednesday. So not only has he hit the ground running, he has continued his march towards smashing every scoring record that ever existed in English football. And probably creating some new ones too.

Erling’s brace against the club he supported as a young boy (because he was born in Leeds and his dad happened to play for them) meant he became the fastest ever player to reach 20 Premiership goals. And not by the skin of his teeth either: Haaland did it in 14 games when the previous record holder, Kevin Philips, took 21 matches to get there. By comparison, Premier League legends Andy Cole and Ruud van Nistelrooy took 23 and 26 games respectively.

Ominously for the rest of the Premier League, Haaland says that rather than being demoralised by missing Qatar, it has fired him up. “To watch other people score to win games at the World Cup kind of triggers me, kind of motivates me and irritates me. I’m more hungry and I’m more ready than ever,” he said.

Even more ominously, Erling’s manager reckons the player is still not up to full fitness. “He is still not at his best as he was at the beginning of the season,” Pep Guardiola said before laughing maniacally and running away into the distance.

It very much looks like my friend was worried about absolutely nothing if an unfit, out-of-match-practice Haaland is capable of scoring three in two games.

In last Sunday’s column I touched upon the topic of football’s GOAT. And you guys have continued the debate down below. I’m not going to add any more on the subject other than to suggest the whole Pelé/Messi debate could be entirely redundant in a few years’ time if Haaland continues what has been an incredible start to his career.

And, unlike those two usual suspects, he has already achieved incredible results despite playing for multiple clubs in multiple countries and being part of a less exotic national team.

A bit of food for thought there maybe...?

 

Football in mourning

You don’t need me to tell you that football lost a legend on Thursday. Possibly the legend.

There is nothing I can possibly write that would do justice to the player, his talents, his skills or his achievements. Everyone has been saying it, and many in much more profound ways than I can.

But for me the true measure of the man is the incredible love his family had for him. It doesn’t matter how many goals you score, how many World Cups you win, when your family shows you those levels of love and adoration right to the end, you know you got life right.

 

Your say

“James, as you know, England fans have had nothing to smile about over the past few decades but at least we had the football’s coming home song to keep us going.

“Thanks to you pointing out that the dates are wrong, I can’t even enjoy that anymore. Every time I hear it now I will be thinking we need to minus two years from the total.

“Without joking, I actually agree with you in that it doesn’t make much sense to be counting the years of hurt from the moment England won a trophy when it should be from the date when they started to lose them, over and over again.” N.G., e-mail.

 

“I read your article about who is the greatest footballer of all time in last Sunday’s newspaper and I agree that those people who are awarding this title to Lionel Messi are wrong to give him the award. That is simply because there is no way of ever coming out with an answer.

“As someone who works with statistics, I know they can be manipulated in many different ways to suit different arguments and that is exactly what will happen when you are arguing whether Messi or Pelé were the greatest.

“Also, football is not just about statistics, it also needs to take into consideration a number of other things like the era when the players played, who they played for, fitness and injuries, and the teammates they had. The list of variables is almost endless and every one of them will affect the player’s achievements.

“That is what makes this GOAT debate interesting but impossible to conclude. Of course, that won’t stop people having their opinions but there will never be any outcome that everyone agrees with.

“I suggest we stop trying to crown any one player as the GOAT and accept there will always be a small number of GOATs.” A. Richmond, e-mail.

 

“Why is it automatically assumed that any debate about the greatest footballers can only be about strikers or attacking midfielders? The only names you ever hear mentioned are Maradona, Messi, Pelé, Ronaldo, Eusebio, Cruyff, etc.

“Why don’t midfielders, defenders and even goalkeepers get mentioned in this conversation? Is scoring goals or doing assists the only way to be great? If so, who decided that is the case?” A. Darmanin, e-mail.

 

Happy New Year!

Let me take this opportunity to wish you all the very, very best for 2023. I hope it brings you everything you wish for in terms of health, happiness and, of course, sporting joy.

 

E-mail: james@quizando.com

Twitter: @maltablade