Paul Wheeler

Why Blue?

I am a Londoner by nature, but I was born in Helsinki, Finland. At primary school in Richmond, Surrey, the majority of pupils were Chelsea supporters; I wanted to be different.

Watching Match Of The Day and The Big Match, I noticed that Manchester City didn’t seem to defend, they obviously just attacked. I liked their style and the colour of their shirts and at the age of eight my mother bought me a plastic football with a picture of Francis Lee on it. He looked like my friend Kevin whose parents ran the local pub.

The first football match I ever went to was a European Cup Winners’ Cup Semi-Final against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge where my dad and I ended up alongside the City fans. I remember the game well. I remember comparing Joe Corrigan to a gorilla as he swung on the crossbar during the warm-up. City lost 1-0, but I was not deterred and I returned home with a light blue and claret Cup winning rosette, a committed City fan.

I’d started playing football myself and was using Colin Bell and the like as rôle models. My father worked in the Foreign Office at the time and he was posted to New Zealand. Again, I was not deterred that I would follow City from 12,000 miles away and still try to emulate their brightest stars. My school in New Zealand was rugby-playing, but a friend of mine in my class played for a Wellington soccer club called Rarori Swifts. I was offered a trial and I’m not being modest here… I scored a goal from the kick-off whilst sporting the classic red and black striped City away kit. I had a successful career with the team and discovered that our coach ‘The Fuzz’ – an enormous man with a beard – was a Mancunian who also supported City. I joined the City Supporters’ Club in New Zealand and I didn’t know which were the most difficult to get to: the home games or the away games; I thought United fans were stupid. When City reached the League Cup Final in 1974 and lost 2-1 to Wolves I heard the result on the Sunday morning through the World Service. I also managed to introduce soccer to my school, Scott’s College, through a democratic process.

Back to England: boarding school and another rugby enclave. I introduced and organised soccer here as well and I was particularly pleased when Dennis Tueart scored the goal that won the League Cup in ’76, although a disastrous memory came when Derby County beat City 4-1 in a crucial League match and the Derby fans in my house taunted me as the radio commentary described the repainting of the penalty spot etc.

Since then I have suffered as City have. Life is not easy, but when your football team is not doing well it makes things worse. I was in Israel when Paul Power scored the winning goal against Ipswich in the 1981 FA Cup Semi-Final. We all know what has happened to City since, but I actually believe that City can make it to the Premiership in the first year of the Millennium. Here’s hoping…

N.B. This article also appears in the current edition of Bert Trautmann’s Helmet.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #492 on