Things You Definitely Don't Get in Western New York

... Or the whole of the USA. Hubby agrees, "This could never happen in America - there's no concept of a sports team with such a national following*."  (Or international, in the case of  Man United. ) And can you imagine Americans getting so excited about "soccer"?

Championes Championes!!  And I was there! Old Trafford, Manchester, the Theatre of Dreams, now much poshed up from the days when you had to hold your nose against the smell of sulphur wafting over from the factories, all replaced, these days, by futuristic lofts and art galleries.  Oh sadly happy day! And guess what - we sang what we wanted to sing - not what was up on some electronic board, which is the unfortunate case at American sports events. ("Woo Hoo!" it goes, "Woo Hoo!" yells the crowd. The whole crowd. Boring. ) The hot dogs might be a little better in America, though. And the fried onions. Or at least they smell better.

I finally got a pic of the great man himself which didn't have a red flag or my finger across it....

And here's RVP taking a corner...

And in America I wouldn't take a train back home to London, past cottages and canals and old stone bridges,  a train full of people in red, nostalgically reminiscing and debating with the sagacity of football fans the world over what next season might bring.

Americans just don't know what they're missing....

*with the possible exception of the Green Bay Packers, from Wisconsin, whose legendary 1960s coach, Vince Lombardi, was perhaps a teeny bit like Fergie or maybe Sir Matt Busby.