No?

Well what about plans for the two clubs to share Old Trafford? How they combined forces in the 1930s to stop another Manchester club entering the league? Or did you know that Manchester United is actually older than the official club records state?

James' labour of love

James, a Channel M presenter and established football author, has written a 520-page opus on the history of the game in the city, charting the success of the two main clubs, as well as delving into the glory (and gory) days of teams such as Stockport, Rochdale, Stalybridge, Altrincham and Oldham.

The book is written to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the game being banned in Manchester and, due to reasons that James explained to How-Do, is self-published.

 “I set up this publisher (James Ward Publishing) to enable me to produce the book predominantly because I could not find another established publisher to gamble on a book that covers the wider Mancunian game,” he said. 

“I have invested all my money into the enterprise with the determination that this book will be of high quality.  I did not simply want to self-publish any old book.”

James has been working on the all-encompassing history for the best part of a decade and believes that the end product “has helped unravel some of the mysteries of the Mancunian game.”

Details of the book, and how, to get hold of one can be found on the James Ward website at www.manchesterfootball.org

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