Suzie Howell for The New York Times
BURY, England — Michael Curtis still comes to Gigg Lane every day, Monday through Friday. He pulls in at 7:30 a.m., just as he used to, and makes the short walk to the building past a makeshift shrine — a jumble of different teams’ scarves, flags and jerseys from the days when Bury Football Club was fighting for its life.
Half an hour or so later, the others start to arrive. His mother, Joan, is here by 8, at the soccer club where her father played, and where she has worked for almost half a century.