THE VISIT

I went to see Grandad in hospital. He seemed as well as I’ve ever seen sat up in bed with tubes and wires going in and out of him he didn’t stop talking.
He told me stories he’s told me many times before and after I’d got back to his bedside from buying him a paper and a book of the puzzles he likes he told me one of them again.
‘City this size ought to have premiership football,’ he said.
I agreed with him. A top flight team would bring a lot to the city not least decent live football of a Saturday afternoon.
City have been responsible for some of the worst football I’ve seen in my career as a fan of the team local to where I happen to be living at the time. But this season the couple of games I’ve watched them play they’ve been well organised with a sense of purpose.
‘I think they’ve got a manager there now who can do something,’ says Grandad.
He talks about managers and players of an era was before I was born; of his trial for City Boys; and of playing for his school with a boy who later scored for a big London club.