Club World Cup, beware: Hungry Erling Haaland is the big winner of Man City's early-summer spending spree

Erling Haaland spent the first part of his summer eating lobster while away on holiday. Then he munched Norway's World Cup qualifying opponents, scoring in the huge win over Italy before grabbing the only strike against Estonia to put his country well on track to qualify for their first global tournament since 1998.

Now, the striker will be licking his lips for another feast of goals at the Club World Cup, especially after Manchester City have assembled a deadly new attack around him by signing Rayan Cherki, Tijjani Reijnders and Rayan Ait-Nouri amid a £110 million ($149m) spending spree.

Haaland's two main passions are eating and scoring, but on the pitch he was made to go hungry towards the end of last season. He missed six weeks of action for City after suffering an ankle injury in late March, and when he returned in May, he seemed to lack his usual sharpness and, most worryingly, his appetite for finding the net.

Haaland failed to score in his first three games back and turned down the chance to take a penalty in the FA Cup final, leaving Wayne Rooney to suggest: "Maybe the thought of taking a penalty at Wembley might have been too much for him."

The striker was back on spot-kick duty in the final game of the season at Fulham as he helped clinch City's place in next season's Champions League. However, finishing third in the Premier League did not salvage what was "a catastrophic season", in Haaland's own words. But now he has got his appetite back at international level, the Club World Cup offers him and City the perfect platform to put things right.