Paul Gallagher

Why Blue?

I have a confession to make, I have not always been Blue.

I have not supported anybody else though!

I was born in Old Trafford in 1963. My (Irish) dad was a Blue when he married my English mother (a Rag who used to date one of the Scum players, Taylor I think?!) but he soon converted her. My older brother Carl, older sister Karen, my twin brother Andrew and myself were all subsequently born into the fold as was my younger brother Tony (he eventually turned and switched his support to Liverpool when they were doing well).

We moved to Ireland in the early 70’s and I subsequently lost the plot, I don’t know how it happened, it just did, I completely went off football of any kind. I think I discovered girls or maybe it was because we joined a local football team and I never got a game due to the fact that I was as useful as a glass hammer.

After a long absence I discovered the beautiful game again when I moved to London in 1990 in nice but strange circumstances at Highbury of all places.

A friend of my wife was on holiday in Menorca when she met a guy running a bar called Ronnie Macrae (who claims he used to play for Leyton Orient). He had apparently worked for Ladbrokes, orchestrating the construction of their betting shops in football grounds, and was very pally with the then Commercial Director at West Ham. To cut a long story short, they fell in love and he followed her to England to try to persuade her to return to Menorca with him. During his flying visit he called his mate at West Ham to find that he was then at Watford. We were invited to spend an afternoon in the commercial director’s box at Watford which we duly did, and saw Watford beat Birmingham 5-1 with Paul Furlong (then at Watford) scoring a hat trick. A great day was had by all so we arranged to go and see Arsenal take on QPR at Highbury (Ronnie was an Arsenal fan). I was amazed at the atmosphere at that particular game and recognized some of the players, Wright, Adams, Dixon for the Gunners and Ray Wilkins, Les Ferdinand and Darren Peacock for QPR.

I noticed that City were to play QPR at their ground the following week. (I think this was Micheal Brown’s début and he got sent off). I obviously was bitten again and am happily totally restored to City worshipping again. I was at Wembley thanks to my good friend Alex Bracey (a.k.a. MLI on Blueview) and have made many friends in recent times, thanks to MCIVTA and Blueview and will live happily ever after.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #516 on