It is a sight to be seen more and more often the length and breadth of the British Isles…
Lone men, and it is always men, wandering around the sites of old abandoned football grounds taking photos.
And making themselves feel sad…
Manchester City fans of a sentimental persuasion look away now.
Many thanks to Dave’s TV Sports on Twitter who sent us these two evocative images.
Although the site has been completely cleared, there is no mistaking the shade of blue that remains on a gate and fence post.
Here was Manchester City FC – 1923 – 2003.
We are now working hard on ‘Got, Not Got 2′ but you can still get last year’s model. (Cunning punk rock reference). Available from branches of WH Smith and Waterstones or online here…
Saw City tonk United 5-1 here (Mark Hughes still scored the best goal of the match, with a Rooneyesque overhead kick, only MH larruped it through the laces). City fans must love the suburban graveyard of a business park that the philosopher-kings who run the club have exiled them to. Btw, did you know that Kierkegaard is the Danish for graveyard?
Dear Dermot C – It’s a bit of both – I miss Maine Road and loved my trips to Anfield, Goodison and St James’s last season for the settings that each ground is in, being at those three kind of harked back to being at our old place. However, Eastlands isn’t any suburban graveyard – it is more urban than Moss Side. Moss Side has its issues but is a completely residential area whereas Eastlands (I refuse to call it by its new name) has warehouses, factories, scrapyards and other edge-of-city-centre stuff around it.
It isn’t as soulless as you suggest. We have been there ten years this autumn and while the first few years were a bit of an identity crisis – change of stadium, ownership and club badge within a five-year period – a bit bewildering in the sense that the only constant was the supporters – the time we’ve been there has given most supporters time to establish their own matchday rituals and although it’s only a decade, nothing on the grand scheme of things, there is a little bit of history there now. It was initially not permitted for the club to even have its name on the outside whereas now it is stamped with MCFC identity inside and out. It feels like home to me, and 24 years of my City-watching life were spent at Maine Road.