Garry Cook was on the train back from London recently when he was approached by a Manchester City supporter who wanted to say thank you for the happiest football times of his life. The supporter was from a generation who could remember the days when City were English football’s Slapstick XI. He wanted to shake Cook’s hand and, before getting off, he also made the point that he would sometimes take his kids to Macclesfield Town, just so they could get a taste of what it used to be like for the current Premier League champions.



This happens quite a lot for Cook, especially now he has returned from America to live in Manchester again, near the club he calls his “spiritual home.” The last time he was in the queue at Costco, for example, there was another conversation with a City supporter old enough to remember when all the club had was spirit, gallows humour and a general acceptance that things would always go wrong.



When Cook returned to the...