My week in Manchester

I love the city of Manchester and not being able to visit for over two years was tough, but I was finally able to get back over last week and despite the Liverpool match, it was incredible as usual.

I am a member of the Manchester United USA supporters group and the idea of starting our annual Manchester tour picked up momentum earlier in August as the world started to open back up.

The second the team signed Ronaldo, we knew that the opportunity was now to get over there!

Our first event on Friday was to attend the Manchester Munich Memorial Foundation fundraiser on that evening. If you aren’t familiar with the MMMF, they are dedicated to preserving the legacy of the Munich 1958 Air Disaster and ensuring that this legacy is handed on to future generations.

The event was held in Old Trafford at the Manchester United suite. There were over 310 people and the MC was the voice of Old Trafford, Alan Keegan.

The evening was incredible and much as it was sad considering the subject matter. Over the course of the evening, through both open room and closed bid table auctions, plus the raffle, the MMMF raised a staggering £21,365 ($24,685.23) to help preserve the legacy of the foundation.

Saturday morning the group headed to Old Trafford for a behind-the-scenes tour of the stadium, locker rooms, and other areas of interest. Our tour guide was no other than United legend Norman Whiteside who offered incredible insight to playing for United during the SAF era.

After the stadium tour, we hopped back onto the busses and traveled north to was the Blackburn vs. Reading match. Ex-United player and friend of the USA Supporters group, Quinton Fortune, coaches for Reading, so it was great to meet him post-match (Reading lost 2-0).

After the match, we hit the city for some evening entertainment. It's hard to describe the excitement and the energy that night but it seemed the whole United side of the city was excited for the match the next day. ..... little did we know.

Sunday we started our day with a meet and greet/Q&A with Gary Neville followed by lunch and the Hotel Football, an establishment he and some other players own. Gary provided some very interesting observations about the match, state of the team, league, etc in true Neville style.

Next stop, our seats. I sat in the USA supporters season tickets and unfortunately it was right next to the Liverpool supporters section. Holy cow they were loud and United gave them all the momentum to get louder.

We all know the result so I won't go into detail but rather show you some pictures I took during the match:

Despite the ugly loss, I had an incredible time and will be back in March for the next tour against Chelsea or Tottenham.

This experience is open to any member of the USA Supporters Club. If you are interested in becoming a member and joining us next year, everything can be found here! ManUtdUSA.com