Tag Archives: Chants

The Origins of ‘Er-Ling, Erling Haaland’ Chant

A couple of days ago I posted about the birth of the MCFC Viking Call in 1976, well today lifelong City fan Bobby Ward has been in touch with a video he caught during City’s last home game of fans chanting a new Erling Haaland chant. Here’s the video (look out for the actions):

https://gjfootballarchive.files.wordpress.com/2022/10/img_4796-1.mov

The words, if you can’t work them out, are:

What shall we do with a big Norwegian, What shall we do with a big Norwegian, Can’t stop him from scoring, Erling, Erling Haaland, Erling, Erling Haaland…

The game v Brighton on 22 October 2022 ended in a 3-1 City win with Haaland scoring twice.

I’m always keen on the development of football chants, so if you’re one of the guys who started this please get in touch with your story of the chant, the actions and so on. I’d be happy to say more about it here. You guys were certainly persistent.

Manchester City Chants

Chanting at football games is rarely documented correctly with many myths, rumours and stories developing over the years. This feature is designed to give a potted overview of the development of singing at City.

I explained about some of the chants in this talk recently:

Now, for subscribers is an 1800 word article on the history and development of chants at Manchester City:

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Who Said City Couldn’t Play?

Over the years several Manchester City fans have asked me about an old City song that I’ve played at various talks and events I’ve staged. The song, ‘Who Said City Couldn’t Play’, was based on a popular tune of the period and was sung by fans in the 1930s, possibly even the 1920s.

Here for subscribers is more information on the song and a recording of fans singing it back in the 1930s…

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