May 2026. Stockport.
Back from Romania, we dashed off to Stockport the next morning to help Matt and Emma with their move from central Manchester (Emma’s Dad had already done the hard yards) to Heaton Norris.
Just look at the stress on Matt’s face on the Magnet’s balcony;
Yes, we turned up just in time to pick up the garden bench from Argos and buy a power drill and take them for a pint. Matt had the Kaltenburg; Emma says she “really wants to get into beer” but I’m worried what a few pints of lukewarm cask will do for that enthusiasm. The Holden’s Black Country Bittter was…OK.
Matt has a Stockport fan one side, a United fan the other. He’ll be fine.
I was always going to be in Manchester for Pep Guardiola’s farewell at the Etihad that afternoon.
Forget the football. Pep’s real legacy is that he understood Manchester;
“This is a city built from work. From graft. You see it in the colour of the bricks. From people who clocked in early, stayed late. The factories. The Pankhursts. The unions. The music. Simply the Industrial Revolution and how this changed the world. And I think I grew to understand that, and my teams did too. We worked. We suffered. We fought. And we did things our own way. Remember, the Manchester Arena attack, when this city showed the world what strength actually looks like? Not anger. Not fear. Just love. Community. Togetherness. A city united.“
One of the great leaving notes.
Last Sunday’s atmosphere, with nothing on the line, was special and surreal, the Star & Garter transformed to honour two of the legends of the game.
Too busy at the Stones & Silva, I popped in the Sureshot tap under the arches.
Sureshot, a bit like Pomona, doesn’t strike you as a cask-led Manc brewer, but their Stop the Pigeon Stout was cool and almost perfect, though of course “almost perfect” (4.5) has been banned by the evil CAMRA.
Life comes at you quick. I think that’s a quote from “Ferris Bueller”. Only a year ago Rico Lewis was our best player.
I’m a bit odd. I hated the guard of honour from Stones and Bernardo, two giants of the game. And I left at the final whistle, leaving the party to folk who like reminiscing about the past.
The best is yet to come.
retiredmartin 