FC United of Manchester striker Adam Le Fondre spent Tuesday lunchtime working with a group of players from the club's academy on a 3G pitch next to the club's 4,900-capacity Broadhurst Park stadium. The dozen lads are probably not going to get anywhere near the Premier League, as Le Fondre once did, but the Northern Premier League club want to try and create a pathway to senior football, while ensuring the teenagers continue in education through their partnership with Manchester College. Getting to train with the 39-year-old Le Fondre, scorer of more than 300 goals in professional football including 14 in his sole Premier League season, is the kind of community initiative that goes on at non-league clubs across the country.
For the people who run FC United, it is a world away from the club they once supported. Just as it is 21 years since the Glazer family bought Manchester United and dropped £600m of debt on the club, it is 21 years since a group of fans decided to stop joining protests against the Americans and instead form their own supporter-owned club. This weekend, while Michael Carrick takes his team to Leeds, desperate for a win to quieten the noise around him and his club, FC United have a short trip to Altrincham for an FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie that could be worth £25,000.
"We didn't stop loving Manchester United," said chairman Nick Boom. "We started FC United because we loved it. "Our roots are Manchester United.
The songs, the humour, the traditions and shared history still run through FC United. "But after 21 years, we have also got our own identity. We have a sense of place in North Manchester.
We're unmistakably a Manchester club. We have Manchester United fans coming here that have been priced out of Old Trafford. We have fans who feel disassociated with Premier League football.
"We think football, in a sense, has lost its way at the top level. Football should be somewhere you can go with your friends and family, stand or sit together, with a sense of community. Somewhere you can get some decent food and drink at an affordable price, where you can have a beer on the terraces, have a sing-song and forget your troubles for a couple of hours.
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