Contrary to the song, my Father did not say to me one day ‘is it red or blue for you, and if it’s red you’re out the door and we won’t see you no more’.
Despite both him and my Mother being Blues (and all my grandparents), he told me to take my time thinking about who I wanted to support. Rather than making me support City like he and Mam do, he actually asked me what team I wanted to go and watch and what shirt I wanted to wear.
He has always maintained that brainwashing young children into what the adult wants them to be like is the wrong way to bring a child up. He was open to let me be a City, United or Altrincham fan. It was up to me.
Same for everything, despite him being a staunch atheist, he sent me to a CofE primary school because it was a good school and he let me work out for myself there is no god and religion is bollocks (which I’d worked out by the time I was about 8), just like he let me work out for myself that City were the right team to follow.