Erling Haaland sent cheeky reminder by new West Ham signing
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Konstantinos Mavropanos has arrived in the Premier League with a warning for Manchester City’s Erling Haaland. The West Ham defender aims to shut him down in England just like he managed to every time they met previously.
It is the second time the Greece international has tried to conquer England, having made just seven Premier League appearances during four years at Arsenal from 2018-2022. In fairness, much of the second half of that spell was spent on loan in the Bundesliga first with Nurnberg and then with Stuttgart.
It was with the latter – and also when Greece beat Norway in a 2021 friendly – that Haaland failed to find his way past him and onto the scoresheet.
“Yeah, I played against him a couple of times and of course he’s an amazing player and as I always say we will try to give our best to stop him,” Mavropanos said.
“It was good to have the challenge of stopping him. I think most of the games he didn’t score, yeah? Every game is different though, anything can happen in football.”
Manchester City is likely to be his home debut following his £19m signing on a five-year contract which was completed amid the euphoria of the 3-1 win against Chelsea at the weekend.
“The atmosphere was amazing, the fans were outstanding and the result was really good for the team,” he said. “It was amazing to be there and I cannot wait to be on the pitch to live this. I was lucky enough to watch this game as my first game and it was a big win, so I’m looking forward to being on the pitch.”
Mavropanos admits, though, he is still developing as a player – a factor Arsenal recognised when they insisted on a 10 per cent sell-on clause be put in his contract when they let him go to Stuttgart on a permanent basis last summer.
“I went through many stages and I had to go to Germany which was really good for me and my career, because it helped me to grow as a player and gain more confidence and get better as well,” he said.
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“So it was really good to be there. Since I was with Stuttgart, I really worked with myself to get better and improve. I was playing many games there and I gained a lot of confidence and I’m ready for the step again.
“I can say I am a team player, so I try to help the team directly and I like to defend all the time, as I’m a defender!”
He’s also scored a handful of goals, in fairness… something the 6ft 4in player wants to improve on with set-piece specialist James Ward-Prowse in the side.
“He’s a great player, first of all, and the calmness he has on the pitch is crazy,” Mavropanos said. “I’m looking forward to having some combinations with him.”
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