I was always worried that when I had a child would I be able to influence him or her to be a Manchester United fan. Boom, the first nephew came and he was the perfect experiment. As early as age 2 my first assignment was to ensure the name Manchester United got stuck with him. It wasn’t a difficult task as every team seemed to be Manchester United to him for a few years.
When he was 5, I was in Aberdeen and his mum sent me a picture of him sporting a Manchester United jersey with the number 5 and his name written behind. I asked his mum if he was still a Man U fan and her response was before, was I not the cause. I was happy.
His first real test came after Sir Alex Ferguson stepped down as manager. The team wasn’t performing as it should and for a couple of years no trophy. My fear was my nephew will dump the side and move on to a team that was doing better than our beloved Manchester United. I thought wrong, he didn’t jump ship. Some of his parents’ friends have tried to get him to dump Manchester United by buying him Chelsea and Arsenal jerseys but the young man made it clear he was going nowhere. Can you imagine, I even understand Chelsea, Arsenal too wants to chook head. Shior.
The young man is still a massive fan of the Red Devils. His display picture on his WhatsApp has the picture of Bruno Fernandes hoisting the English Premier League trophy. This has been his display picture since October, 2020 despite not having a good start to the season. You will recall it was also in October Tottenham Hotspur beat Manchester United 6:1 at Old Trafford.
I mean if this isn’t the definition of a die-hard fan then what is. If I ever for once thought of leaving Manchester United as a fan, thoughts of my nephew erases that thought. He’s 15 now.
Manchester United till I am OLD and GREY, till my DYING DAY.
CHEERS!!!
