The phases of life.
You start off as a kid going to football and these players seem so big and powerful. My first match was City against QPR and Bob Hazell was sent off and walked past me. He was like a giant. Then you wake up one day and the players are the same age as you.
You then hit that point at which players seem to be from a different generation. For some, dreams of being able to 'get out there and show them how it's done' have to be given up. For me, this happened around the Craig Levein time. Shit players, but they were still younger, fitter and stronger than me.
I've just hit that next realisation. Now the manager is younger than me. The man in the dug out when I first went was Jock Wallace. He seemed so old but I now realise that he was younger than I am now back then. And Brendan Rodgers is our first permanent manager that was born after me.
Come to think of it, there are a lot of similarities between Wallace and Rodgers. Both unexpectedly joined us from a Glasgow 'giant'. In both cases, there was gossip about fallouts with the board at the previous club leading them to be keen to come south. Both like developing young players. Both had a habit of getting players to buy into their methods. Both knew how to inspire supporters. I'm surprised that none of the journalists have used that example in their articles about Rodgers.
Anyway, back to the point of the post. I'm getting fecking old. Although it's through tragic circumstances, the fact is that the man now in charge of the club is 33. He was born the summer we sold Lineker for fecks sake.
www.telegraph.co.uk
