You have got to admire the bravado and chutzpah of non-league Ashton United’s co-chairman, Jonathan Sayer.
Back in November of last year, the English seventh tier side cheekily released a statement on their official website which suggested they wanted to make a loan approach to keep Man City’s Erling Haaland fit whilst the World Cup – a competition the Norwegian wasn’t involved in – was going on.
It raised a few ripples of laughter in the footballing fraternity but nothing more than that, though, according to The Sun, there was an upturn in their social media followers.
Now, however, Sayer is looking to stoke the fires again and has been quoted by The Sun as saying that the offer, incredibly, still stands.
“The door is always open to Erling,” he said.
“To be honest, the door is open to his dad as well! I think he could do a job for us.
“The offer was genuine but we never heard anything from City, so it wasn’t a no. And at the game which would’ve been his debut, quite a few fans turned up wearing Erling Haaland masks. I’d like to think he was one but wearing a mask of himself!
“The impact has been positive. Our social media fallout almost doubled. So lots of new people found Ashton United.
“We sold extra shirts, including some to places that aren’t so near here. There might have been one or two sent to Norway, we definitely sent a lot to America and a few to France.
“But the interest it generated was huge, we even had TV in Australia wanting to speak to us.”
Although it’s all very tongue-in-cheek, Sayer’s grasp of what makes viral content could end up seeing Ashton United earn more fans around the country and the world than they bargained for.
It’s a brilliant strategy from the club, and is bound to get others talking, even if only to poo-poo what the club are doing.
The fact that people would be talking about it arguably makes it a win in the club’s eyes. All publicity is good publicity right?
