Ricky Hatton

Appropriately Saturday saw some further tributes to Ricky Hatton at the Etihad with a couple of banners, plus the Hatton silhouette on the blue moon video pre match (seeing that was quite emotional). These have prompted me to dig out this main image from October in 2011 when I went with City Academy players & staff, Tony Faulkner, Patrick Vieira and Brian Marwood to Ricky’s gym in Hyde. That year I had been performing a series of ‘history’ sessions with City’s Academy and this day with Ricky was a day when Ricky & I were to do an interview about what it’s like being a supporter.

The whole day was wonderful and it was a somewhat surreal experience to do a presentation/talk on the history of MCFC support and then follow that up with an interview with Ricky in the boxing ring itself at Ricky’s gym. It was great for the Academy players to be in the presence of such an iconic sportsman and Ricky was on good form that day. He talked openly and honestly about being a Blue and, as a fellow lad from Hattersley, it was good to share similar experiences about going to Maine Road as kids, catching the 211 bus then the 53 from Belle Vue to the ground.

Ricky spent considerably more time with the Academy players than planned and was welcoming throughout. He demonstrated some of his training techniques and got us all to pose for this photo (I can’t remember quite what we were supposed to be doing but it seemed appropriate and funny at the time).

I’m a few years older than Ricky and it feels so sad when someone dies when still a young man. I remember seeing Ricky as a boy at his dad’s pub the New Inn (my first regular pub when I was a teenager). I used to go there with another City fan, Paul Alexander, who has also passed away in recent years.

The tributes to Ricky are well deserved and he was such an iconic figure, not just in Hattersley, Hyde or Manchester but around the globe.