All of this meant that Bert began the 1949-50 season as a member of the St Helens Town squad. He would not be there for long. Within months, Manchester City, looking for a long term replacement for the excellent Frank Swift, came knocking on the door. Trautmann signed as an amateur for Manchester City on 6 October 1949 – for nothing.
This unleashed the floodgates on a torrent of anti-German sentiment, which lesser clubs might have taken as a sign that it was a mistake to have signed a German Prisoner of War as their future goalkeeper. Some Manchester City fans even returned their season tickets. Hate mail, protests and petitions all indicated that a German was not welcomed by a significant proportion of the local population.
However, some fans though differently, one wrote to Trautmann:
"I don’t give a *%$^ what you are or where you come from as long as you can play football…"