I’ll admit, this Michael Owen to Manchester United story has got me excited.
I fell out of love with football some years ago now. I still follow it very closely, but not with the passion I used to.
Until I was 14, I used to eat, sleep and breathe football. I’d play it out the front until it was too dark to see the ball (I maximised playing time by the use of an illuminous ball), I’d talk about it all day in school and the highlight of my week was turning out for my Sunday league team.
My dad brought me up as a Manchester United fan – he had a season ticket in the 1970s and 1980s – and I followed them as best as I could in those pre-internet days. We couldn’t really afford to go to matches, so it was a special occasion when we did get to go. The first game I ever went to was against Spurs when United lifted the league title in 2000 I think it was.
Gradually, as I got older, the lure of football weakened, mainly because of a lack of connection with United. Although they were the nearest Premier League to me at the time (Wigan and Bolton are now the nearest PL teams), I couldn’t get the connection I’ve grown to have with my supported rugby league team, Widnes. Perhaps had my hometown had a team, football would have remained my life. As it was, that wasn’t the case.
Rugby league started to take over and football became less important. I began to get riled by the abuse Manchester United fans often get, and as I started university, I realised I was doing myself, football and United a disservice by claiming to be a supporter. Instead, I took an impartial view as I listened to stories of fellow students discussing the exploits of their local or hometown teams in the lower leagues.
I don’t know whether it’s the fact my new job revolves around football or whether it’s because I go past Old Trafford on the train every day going in to work, that all of a sudden I want my life to revolve around football again.
Maybe my lack of fondness for United has been as a result of the prima-donna, yet undoubtedly talented, Cristiano Ronaldo, and now he’s gone I can resume being a supporter.
Maybe I’m getting increasingly frustrated at the ineptness shown by the governing body of rugby league that prevents my team progressing anywhere fast.
Who knows.
It would be an awful lot easier if my hometown had a team. But as it is, my connection appears to be with United. And Michael Owen has seemingly reminded me of that.
The lucrative Premier League is expensive to watch. But it’s the best league in the world. Maybe I’ll be able to call myself a football supporter this time next year, rather than an interested onlooker.
For the past four years, I have worked on a Saturday, and thus football has been out of reach. Those days will soon be behind me. So Saturday afternoons may soon become the time for football.
My plan remains to visit as many grounds as I can next season, and Tranmere’s Prenton Park is pencilled in for my first visit of the season – it’s going to inspire a “Football Traveller” blog somewhere – whether it be on this site or Footy Echo.
