Haaland used an interview with Sky Sports on 8 October to urge Manchester City supporters to keep their composure after the Premier League’s independent commission found the club guilty on almost all of the 115 financial charges brought against it.
“We have to stick together, we have to stay with each other and we have to stay positive,” Haaland told Sky Sports.
“I care a lot about the city, I have to say. I care a lot about the fans because I’m a fan myself and I feel with them as well.”
Watching from Norway, sports psychologist Dag Sørum reads the body language differently. Sørum, who co-owns and directs the Norsk senter for idrett og psykisk helse (Norwegian centre for sport and mental health), told Nettavisen the 26-year-old striker had not been himself during the international break.
Read also: INEOS back Carrick despite United’s lowest Premier League points tally in 40 years
“I thought Erling looked affected in the national team matches,” Sørum told Nettavisen.
“To me it looked as if his thoughts were somewhere else, he was like a tenth or hundredth of a second too late or too fast in some movements.”
Rule W64 and no sanctions date set
The context behind the comment is the biggest off-pitch story in English football for a decade. On 29 September, the Premier League’s independent commission found Manchester City had breached rules from 2009 to 2018, including the use of what it called “sham” commercial contracts to artificially inflate revenues by more than £900m through secret funding from the club’s Abu Dhabi owners.
City have lodged an appeal, which goes to a private Appeal Board. No sanctions hearing has been scheduled and no punishment has been decided. Under Rule W64, the commission can fine the club, deduct points or expel it from the league, and finance analysts have floated points deductions of 40 to 60 as a plausible range, though that remains speculation until the panel sits.
Read also: Van Dijk holds back on Man City verdict – but makes one thing clear
Sørum: financial security matters most
Sørum’s reading is that the squad will be shielded from the worst of the fallout.
“What matters is that they have secure financial prospects. That means almost everything,” he said.
He suspects most senior players have contract protections against a sudden collapse in the club’s status, and he points to Cristiano Ronaldo as the kind of mental model Haaland may need to borrow: a player who, in Sørum’s words, has turned the pressure into fuel by telling himself that hostility means opponents are afraid of him.
Sørum has not spoken to Haaland. His assessment is an outside read, not a confirmed statement from the player or anyone inside the dressing room.
Fit for Anfield
Head coach Enzo Maresca, in his first season after replacing Pep Guardiola in the summer, said Haaland would be available for Sunday’s trip to Liverpool.
“He’s good, he went to Marbella, two or three days off, played golf, recovery. Ready for Anfield, he is good,” Maresca told reporters on 9 October.
Kick-off at Anfield is on Sunday, 11 October.
Sources: – [Enzo Maresca appointed Manchester City manager](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/6/29/enzo-maresca-appointed-man-city-manager-to-succeed-pep-guardiola) – [Man City appeal guilty verdict in Premier League breaches case](https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/50083711/man-city-financial-breaches-appeal-guilty-verdict-premier-league) – [What will happen to Man City after the Premier League’s guilty verdict?](https://www.aljazeera.com/sports/2026/9/30/what-will-happen-to-man-city-after-the-premier-leagues-guilty-verdict)
Read also: Bublik smashed five rackets, kicked his bench and then cut his own hand open in Shanghai
Read also: ‘Mikel, Mikel Merino. 100 per cent’: the Arsenal teammate Lewis-Skelly says is still underrated
