IAN PENNEY

Ian was born in Manchester in March 1957 less than a mile from City's new home, the rather long-winded but otherwise splendid City of Manchester Stadium.

In May 1966 he was taken to City's former home at Maine Road for the first time. It was the last game of the 1965/66 season. City drew 0-0 with Southampton but paraded the Second Division Championship trophy around the pitch at the end of the game. He was taken to the game by his late father, incidentally the only Red in a family of Blues. His dad knew straight away that his son was hooked and gave up there and then trying to persuade him there was another team in Manchester.

The young naïve Ian thought that City were given a trophy at the end of every season and for the next few years that seemed to be the case as Joe Mercer and Malcolm Allison turned the Blues from a slumbering Second Division side into one that went on to win the European Cup Winners' Cup, all in a five-year period.

Regrettably though things never last and although the glory days since 1970 have been few and far between (the saying thick and thin has at times read thin and thin following City) Ian's support for the Blues has never faltered during that period.

He began work in the book trade after leaving school in 1973, a career he is still in today, and one that gave him the opportunity to write The Maine Road Encyclopedia in 1995. That was followed twelve months later by Blue Heaven and The Essential History of Manchester City in 2000. Working with Malcolm Allison, Tony Book and Neil Young he published Manchester City: The Mercer/Allison Years in 2001 whilst his latest work is The Legends of Manchester City, a personal choice of a hundred former stars of the club. He has also had articles and features published in the fanzine King of the Kippax as well as the matchday programme and the club's official monthly magazine.

Ian was invited by the club to be on the selection panel for their inaugural Hall of Fame launched in January 2004.

He has two godsons, Christopher (19) and Adam (9), who have been well and truly indoctrinated into the Blue faith and are already showing signs of being just as affected as their godfather. His long-suffering wife Sheila just humours him.

Back to the writer's page >