Learner Dad: Man United, Churchvilla and soccer loyalties

They might not be in Treble-winning form these days, but Man United still rule the roost for Learner Dad

My son asked me what was my favourite soccer team the other day. It was obvious he just wanted me to ask him the same question the way he posed the question. 

On cue, I said Manchester United and asked him what was  his favourite team. He paused and smirked. Then it dawned on me: he’s going to say, Liverpool. 

If you don’t know how soccer support works, this is a Shakespearean level of betrayal.  His friends at school are Liverpool fans now that the team is playing well at the moment  I reckoned he was going to take his lead from them instead of me and tell me that he is following United’s biggest rivals.

When he said Churchvilla was his favourite team,  I gave him a big hug. Not because he didn’t say Liverpool, but because he has more sense than his 55-year-old father. Churchvilla is the local soccer team here in east Cork, and he’s been playing with them for a couple of weeks. Their pitch is down a country road, with tall trees around three sides. 

My kid’s coach is a perpetually sunny dad from Birmingham. Churchvilla is a reminder that soccer or any amateur sport is more about laughing and lift-sharing and everybody gets a game than it is about Cristiano Ronaldo or some club owned by a petro-billionaire.

I’m delighted that my son loves Churchvilla, just as much as he loved the Pearse Celtic when we played with them in Cork city. But I still have plans to convert him to Manchester United. If nothing else, I’d fancy a day out to see United playing at home in Old Trafford and I want to bring him with me. (My daughter will be coming anyway – she’s always up for everything and hates missing out.)

But there is continuity to play for as well. I started following Man United in 1974 when Santa brought what my mother thought was a Cork GAA jersey for Christmas. An uncle pointed out it was a United jersey, and I’ve been glued to them ever since. 

I allocated clubs to my parents and two sisters to keep things interesting at home. My mother has never forgiven me for giving her Coventry City, except when the y won the cup in 1987.

My father got Derby County after their glory years had come and gone . He wasn’t having that and decided to join me as a Manchester United fan. Looking back on it now, it was a nice little bonding move. Even in the tricky teenage and early 20s years, when I was moving away from him, we always had United. 

Any squabble had to end when we sat down to listen to a United match, crackly and all as it was on BBC Radio Two long wave. He stayed a United fan until he died 17 years ago.

I’m stuck with United now. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but they’ve been various shades of dire since 2012, hitting a purple patch here and there to get my hopes up and then back to dire again. For some reason, this has made me follow their fortunes even more. 

I’m on the Manchester Evening News twice a day to soak up transfer rumours that probably started with a 14-year-old boy in Singapore.

It could be handy if I could share the pain with someone else, just like my Dad and I did during the 1980s when United would have struggled to beat Churchvilla. The thing is, I can’t force this on anyone. You have to feel it to get it.

Some of you may think I’m being sexist by not trying to get my daughter involved with United. But you don’t know my daughter. She is lots of brilliant things, I just don’t think that a sports obsessive is one of them. I could be wrong and she could start talking about some guy in the United youth team that deserves a shot for the first 11 – but I doubt it.

That sounds more like my son. But for now, I’m just delighted that he’s loyal to Churchvilla. We’re going down there for training later this evening. I’m looking forward to it.