Sitting in Fergie’s seat is my Theatre of Dreams

ITTING in the seat favoured by Sir Alex Ferguson in the Manchester United dug-out in the Theatre of Dreams, I imagined the smell of embrocation and the roar of the crowd. It felt like I had come home. My daughter Siobhan was responsible. She had brought our three grandchildren over from Donegal for Lorcan’s 12th birthday and booked tickets for the Manchester United Museum and Tour.

“Do you mind taking Lorcan and Ruairi?” she said. Did I mind? I grew up in Timperley, a few miles down the road from Old Trafford, and went to college in Salford.

During formative years, I passed the ground every day on my way home from school and have been a red since the age of 12.

When I wasn’t playing football on a Saturday, I was watching United, the club for whom I, and every other youngster I knew, wanted to play.

Sadly, the scouts didn’t think I was good enough. But would the tour live up to my memories?

It did that and more and I had the added joy of re-living them with my 12 and nine-year-old grandsons.

The museum, on three levels, is breathtaking simply for the amount of silverware on display, but United’s history contains so much more, including the Munich air disaster in which 23 died, eight of them Busby Babes.

Our tour guide Billy Smith took us on the trip around the ground, into stands, changing rooms and the executive suite.

He formed our tour group into two teams and had the lads lead them out of the tunnel to pitch side whilst waving at the empty Stretford End. Good fun that made a great picture and video. He was erudite and passionate about the club and, even though a large percentage of the people on our tour were from overseas, his enthusiasm and humour were much appreciated.

At the end, he said: “If you’ve enjoyed the tour it would be nice to mention it on TripAdvisor, and my name is Billy Smith. If you haven’t, my name is David Moyes.”

We enjoyed it, Billy. It was brilliant.