Gary James the City tour guide!! Was Gary James on the Stretford End in the 70's or 80's? Or the away end at Anfield as darts rained down, or being baton charged by Liverpool supporting coppers. You don't need to take my word or Gary James word for it. Just ask any United fan over the age of 45. This non rivalry nonsense has been created and manufactured to fit into your own narrative, but none of you were actually there, and I don't even know why it's an issue all of a sudden. You want me to say that City have always been the ones that I fought with and hated, but it isn't true.
When I was a kid I could tell you every City fan who lived on my street or in my year at school. It was never violent or ugly. City scouts used to watch us playing matches on fog lane, I even attended the Mark Lillis soccer school in the summer once, and City players used to come to our school and we were always respectful to them. Paul Simpson walked his dog on Heaton Mersey common and Alex Williams lived in that 70's estate behind the Dog and Partridge on Didsbury road. We used to go to functions at the social club at Maine road. City were always part of where we grew up, as were United, but it was always a different type of rivalry. It didn't matter what feats United achieved currently or in the past, there was always a Blue in the corner of pub who would say "stuffy goal that by Cantona. He was trying to cross it...ee's not fit to lace Colin Bells boots."
It wasn't an evil or deeply hateful relationship, it was always good banter. It still survives to this day, sometimes on these pages. Now you can read what you want in a book and believe that, but I know what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.
