PORT VALE FORWARD Tom Pope rose to prominence when his side drew Manchester City at the FA Cup, an old tweet of his — in which he claimed he would score 40 goals a season if he faced City defender John Stones every week — recirculating on the internet.

And though City progressed to the fourth round with a 4-1 victory over Port Vale, it was Pope who to some extent had the last laugh over Stones; he netted the Valiants’ equaliser at the Etihad, a superb header which the England defender could only watch fly into the reigning champions’ net.

Pope’s Twitter account, however, may yet land him in some bother. The FA are considering an investigation after the 34-year-old posted a series of tweets linking the Rothschilds to “every bank on the planet.”

Asked by a fan to “predict the World War III result”, Pope tweeted: “We invade Iran then Cuba then North Korea then the Rothschilds are crowned champions of every bank on the planet.”

Rothschild conspiracies have been used throughout history as a means of smearing the Jewish community. Questioned over the potentially antisemitic nature of his response, Pope defended himself, tweeting: “How is it racist?? Seriously is someone out to destroy me or what? Someone asked how does WW3 end and I replied when said countries were invaded and they have all the banks!! What’s the problem with that? Seriously??”

In a separate tweet, he said: “They own the bloody banks! There’s no racial malice whatsoever and anyone would say the bloody same! I didn’t choose a side I merely stated they own the banks and that’s it!”

The FA are reportedly looking into the matter and may launch an investigation pending talks with both the player and his club.