Steve OBrien

Why Blue?

Hello chaps and chapesses; I have been a lifelong (38 years old – feels more like 78) loyal but nowadays exiled fan (wilfully and almost happily stuck in the USA – the Galapagos Islands of team sports). I’ve also been a regular McVittee viewer for a good while but this is my first contribution for over two years.

The reason I speak up now is because two weeks ago, 29th November, my wife gave birth to a beautiful baby girl. I must admit right now that I was hoping for a girl if for no better reason than the moral dilemma attached to my City obligation as a parent. Maybe my daughter will obsess less about football than a son.

Unlike many around here, I grew up (in Glossop) the lone Blue in a family of rrrrr…Reds (sorry!). Even long before thinking of having a family of my own, I had to wonder about my selfishness in bringing the poor little one up in my footsteps. Hey! We Blues might tread the moral high ground in the face of Satan’s fickle minions but I’m not still sure how long the test has to last. I mean, I’m sure it is not mere coincidence that I’m a perpetually miserable sod whilst my mum, dad and only brother are happy-as-bl**dy-Larry about life in general.

Nevertheless, I was fully prepared to let my little bundle of newborn nappy-fills, tears, screeches and even a lot of joy, Kayleigh, choose her own path in sporting fandom (although Yank sports were and are even less an option than the Rags)… and that democratic theory lasted until she was born. She arrived I kid you not on a blue moon. If that isn’t a sign from above, then I know not what is! Sorry Kayleigh but I left it to the higher powers and they responded City.

Please see this as either a celebration or (more likely) a public apology to my tiny little love, depending on our form over the next twenty years or so.

Cheers and merry Christmas everyone,

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #769 on