Confession. The first English soccer team I followed was Arsenal. And my dad even bought me one of those replica O’Neills jerseys made from the sort of material you could stretch to fence a field. You see, Frank Stapleton – being Ireland’s best striker – was my favourite player. And out on the green where we’d kick football, there was a lad called Stapleton who swore Frank was his uncle (he was no more his uncle than George Best was his aunt).

Anyway within a very short period of my GAA-strong father going undercover to buy his eldest son a soccer kit, I switched allegiance. Frank joined Manchester United and I followed. And next thing Dad went off again and this time got me Ashley Grimes’ autograph. Grimes was a United player who used to drink in The Harp Bar on O’Connell Bridge where Dad was boss. Back in those days, professional footballers used to go to the pub for a couple of pints like the way Junior C club hurlers are still allowed two months out from the championship!

Paul McGrath and Kevin Moran completed the Irish influence at United so I felt quite vindicated in making the patriotic switch from Highbury to Old Trafford although David O’Leary and Liam Brady were back at Arsenal. In school, I was one of three United fans. The rest were Liverpool. And that was it. The rivalry seeds were sewn early. Yes, Liverpool had Irish players but Frank Stapleton wasn’t one of them.

The FA Cup final of 1983 remains my clearest earliest memory of supporting my team. Remember when you were aged 10? Now remember supporting a team aged 10 in a big match. My loyalty for life was up and running. And it was cemented two years later when United won the cup again beating Everton thanks to a goal from Norman Whiteside. Kevin Moran was sent off that day, the first player to be sent off in an FA Cup final.

Dad began telling me about Moran’s GAA career with Dublin. I was fascinated. And then there was Paul McGrath. In 1988, when I was totally consumed in soccer and could rival Jimmy Magee on the stats of the entire Irish squad heading to Euro 88, on the night the team returned, Dad rang from The Harp. “The Irish team are here,” he said. At closing time, he had to drive Paul McGrath and two other players up O’Connell Street to the Gresham Hotel. Dad performed an illegal U-turn and a garda stopped the car and asked Dad authoritatively: “Where do you think you’re going?”

“Dropping these lads off,”Dad replied. The garda put his head in the window and took out his book, not to write a ticket but to get their autographs!

So I’ve been a Manchester United supporter for almost 40 years and it’s thanks to Frank Stapleton rather than because of any bandwagon success which didn’t arrive in earnest until Stapleton, McGrath and Moran had long gone.

There were barren years before the bountiful ones and thankfully I was at an age to lap up those glorious years under Sir Alex Ferguson.

The trophy cabinet is looking a bit like it did during the 1980s but in Ole we should trust. I cannot wait for the new season to begin. It’s for that reason, every effort should to be made to continue with rugby and GAA competitions over the coming months if at all possible so as to give us something to take our minds off you know what!