As we sit down, ready to chat with catering veteran Paul Smethurst, we’re licking our lips at the avalanche of stories expected to pour forth.
The Failsworth lad, who grew up idolising George Best before joining United in 1976, aged 16, is approaching 48 years as a club employee. And yet his first tale still manages to knock us sideways.
Because it turns out his links to Manchester United go back much further than the mid-’70s. Amazingly, his great-grandad, William ‘Billy’ Hood, played 37 times for us in the Newton Heath Lancashire & Yorkshire Railway days!
He even scored in one of the club’s most famous early victories: a 10-1 thrashing of Wolves in 1892 that is still the second-biggest scoreline in our history!