Very late to this, as the revelation that Stuart Brennan was stepping down as City correspondent at the MEN is old news now. However, I was thinking about it this morning and I reckon he deserves much more praise upon his departure than he's actually had (he almost seems to have slipped away unnoticed).
I recall a lot of cynicism when he took the role about a lifelong United fan whose previous position entailed covering that club suddenly being assigned to report on the Blues. As I remember, he dispelled those doubts pretty quickly among most of us (admittedly, there's always the odd dissenter) and made a far better fist of reaching out to City fans than others of a red persuasion who've attempted similar.
To my mind, Stuart really earned his stripes during the whole Der Spiegel and UEFA ban affair. This was where legions of journalists laid bare their ineptitude and illiteracy when it comes to interpreting the business side of the sport together in most cases with their rampant, manifest bad faith in analysing anything to do with our club. Even Martin Samuel didn't seem to consider that we might not be guilty.
Stuart was almost a lone voice on our side among those employed by mainstream media outlets. In trying to counter the welter of uninformed ordure thrown at us over those years, he made himself a target for abuse from the WhatsApp group and I recall on a number of occasions admiring the way he stood up against vacuous but unpleasant hectoring and invective. I also admired that, despite his paper being owned by Reach plc - a bunch of clickbait merchants willing to pollute the MEN with anti-City nonsense - I never remember Stuart going down that road.
TL, DR - Stuart Brennan has been an excellent City correspondent of the MEN. I'm sorry he's no longer in the post and wish him well in whatever he does next.