Manchester City’s kit is Irrelevant: Erling Haaland shines in all of them

After plenty of first-team changes over the summer as Pep Guardiola looked to rebuild and bring down the average age of his squad at Manchester City, there are significant improvements that can still be made as newbies settle into life at the Etihad Stadium.

As we head towards November, City sit fifth in the top flight table with five wins, one draw, and three defeats from the opening nine matches, whilst also picking up two wins and a draw from the opening three UEFA Champions League clashes of the season.

The club’s improving form will be delighting fans who like a flutter on football, and plenty of others will still be enjoying online gaming at a no wagering casino or one of the many other options available. But the recent victory over Villarreal gave rise to a story most Manchester City fans would not have paid attention to.

With the club sporting their brand new green fourth kit for the game in Eastern Spain, there were those that were wondering why they would not be seeing Pep Guardiola’s stars sporting the strip in Premier League action at any time this season.

The answer is pretty simple; for those who feel the entertainment value of the ‘beautiful game’ lies in rules and regulations, top-flight clubs in England can only wear a maximum of three strips in a single league season, as such ruling out the new gaming-inspired kit.

That means the green strip – which divided opinion upon its release earlier this month – can only make appearances in European competitions, and potentially the FA Cup provided the club make an application to the Football Association to request permission to use it.

All straight forward and perhaps all a little pointless in reality, but City were here last season with the Noel Gallagher co-designed ‘Definitely Maybe’ 30th anniversary Oasis tribute kit. Some may see sense in the restrictions as a means of stopping clubs from releasing endless limited edition kits that will rarely see the light of day – or perhaps the floodlights.

The Italian football federation has a far more relaxed approach and during the 2021/22 campaign, Napoli sported 13 different kits across the season which included four UEFA Europa League specific shirts, four different Diego Maradona tributes, and even a halloween kit.

Many would agree that such a move would be considered over-kill, even for the most fervent kit collectors. But that is the story we have, and perhaps it has aimlessly filled three minutes of your life, and now we can get back to the good stuff.

Having opened the scoring against Villarreal, the striking beast Erling Haaland made it 12 straight games in a row that he had scored in, and it seems as though he has taken to heart all of the talk of having a ‘disappointing’ campaign last term with ‘only’ 22 scored in the league.

22 in a single top-flight season is more than some strikers get in 24 months or longer, but finding the back of the net in 12 straight games is a phenomenal achievement and a testament to the Norwegian’s growing talent.

It is very easy to forget that Erling Haaland is still only 25-years-old and arguably is only just beginning to come into the prime form of his career. What we will be saying about him in 12 to 18 months, if he can maintain anything near this level of consistency?