Jeff Hammond

Why Blue?

I was born in Manchester and my father was a City fan, so I became one as well. Although we moved to Shrewsbury when I was seven, we continued to support City. I have to say that my dad was mainly an armchair supporter, so we did not go to many games and as we did not have a car we pretty well stopped going altogether when we moved.

After I got married I rather lost interest, but after five years I begat two sons and much to my wife’s disgust, started to take an interest and became a City supporter once again. As a Father I failed miserably however, as one of my sons became a Chelsea supporter; we were living in Hertfordshire and one of his friends was a Chelsea supporter. The other one tended to follow success so he changed his allegiance to whichever team he felt fitted the bill at the time, but again I regret to say he never supported City. Even my dad was not 100% successful in leaving behind a family of City supporters. I have five nephews, three of whom support City, but the other two support, dare I say the word in what is a family news sheet, United.

I will not be as successful as my dad in leaving behind City supporters. I have one 12-month-old grandson who I am trying to teach as his first words ‘Up the Blues’, but as he is half American and lives in Hong Kong it isn’t easy, although I see quite a lot of him. I have another grandson on the way, but as his father is the Chelsea supporter and as he will live in Scotland, I have an uphill task. Quite what my long departed dad would think of the present situation I shudder to think. He would however comfort himself with what he used to say to me: ‘Don’t worry son you must remember that a better class of person supports City’.

First printed in: MCIVTA Newsletter #442 on