This is a splendid post, PB, partly because it evokes memories of a whole flood of shopping trips to Cheetham Hill with my grandmother, who lived in Crumpsall, in the mid '50s but also because it nails Conn's problem. He is a golden ageist but, I suspect, only in the area of football, as you assert, correctly in my opinion. I first took issue with him in 2014, just before the League Cup final between two "grand old clubs" (though Conn never referred to either as such on that occasion), City and Sunderland. Conn had written an article bewailing many of the trends in football since he had first been a City supporter and, without saying so, he seemed to lay much of the blame exclusively at Sheikh Mansour's door. I don't remember a single mention of the Glazers or FSG or any of the impetus to change which had come from European competition. It was the determination of certain clubs to become or remain "European royalty" which had led to many of the changes he objected to most. But his view seemed to be the vey simplistic one that change had destroyed an idyllic, Corinthian world. My reply was based on the theme that time and change are never to be plotted on a straight line graph of progress or regression and that in the years since the 1970s (I think Conn's article took our "previous" League Cup final in 1976 as his starting point) there had been some massive improvements in football in England and that success for City was not necessarily a sign of decline and decay. I argued that where the football public had been let down and betrayed it was usually by UEFA, the FA and certain clubs not including City. It was not let down by Abu Dhabi or Sheikh Mansour, who had to operate in a context over which he had limited control. I'm afraid Conn has a blinkered vision which doesn't allow too much room for complexity and this is nowhere more clear that in his hiding behind the term "sports washing". So, thank you for a thought provoking (as usual!) contribution. And for stirring the memories!