Blue soon... the man who kept Man City waiting

MR Manchester City: Bernard at the Etihad Stadium

MARTYN TORR concludes his conversation with Manchester City Honorary Life President BERNARD HALFORD

A DREAM job was there on a plate... but Bernard Halford initially said “No” to Manchester City, the club at which he has spent the majority of his adult life, carving out a niche in the club’s history that will never be erased.

Failsworth lad Bernard is now a septuagenarian but still works every day at the imposing Etihad Stadium, one of 300 employees - not counting players — making sure the wheels keep turning at one of the world’s wealthiest football clubs.

How times have changed since Bernard eventually walked through the doors at the now-demolished but much revered Maine Road home until their move to the City of Manchester Stadium in 2003.

He has seen it all — from the lows of losing to York City in December 1998 — a 2-1 defeat that plunged the club to its lowest ever position in the four divisions, to the unbridled joy of winning the Premiership in 2012 with Sergio Aguero’s injury-time winner against all the odds at Queens Park Rangers in 2012.

Everyone who comes into contact with Bernard is made to feel special, an innate quality to which few can even aspire, let alone achieve. Bernard is such a personable, thoroughly decent bloke that he probably doesn’t even recognise this considerable quality in himself.

Bernard is currently looking forward to life in new offices in the £700 million development of the City Academy across Ashton New Road, due to be completed this autumn.

And so he should: he is Honorary Life President of a sporting organisation transforming life in the wastelands of East Manchester and setting new standards in English football. City are on the cusp of a period of domination enjoyed previously by Liverpool and more recently red rivals United. Bernard, a Failsworth lad to his shoe laces, is enjoying every minute.

Bernard cut his footballing teeth at Oldham Athletic, his first football love, where he worked for 13 years. That should have been nine, but when chairman Ken Bates decided to quit Latics he demanded back his investment. Bernard scouted round and recruited John Lowe, a Bury businessman as the new chairman.

“City had already offered me the job as secretary, but I couldn’t take it. How could I? I couldn’t walk out on John Lowe having persuaded him to come in, could I?”

City were happy to wait - and even though they had to wait four years, I suspect it is a decision they have cherished since. Bernard is much more than a former secretary at City, he’s an irreplaceable institution.

He is the only person in City’s Hall of Fame who isn’t a player; and if that isn’t recognition enough - alongside climbing the Wembley steps in 2011 to collect the FA Cup ahead of the skipper and players - then what is?

Having said that, there have been some nightmares along the way...

“I remember we lost at York City in December 1998. There was a Sally Army Band playing carols at the ground. We were halfway down the old Third Division after that defeat; the club has never been at a lower ebb.”

Life changed for the better on Boxing Day, when City won at Wrexham and went on a run that propelled them into the play offs and an unforgettable Wembley play-off victory over Gillingham.

City were on their way back, and how.

Bernard has seen it all and he’s still there - and for a while yet, too. On his 65th birthday he was called into the office of then chief executive Garry Cook...

“Gary mentioned my birthday and offered me a 10-year contract! I nearly fell off my chair.”

So Bernard continues to offer his advice and his wealth of stories and anecdotes, still works with the first team, travels to every first team game and has no intention of slowing down.

The man has devoted his life to football in general; he hasn’t missed a first-team home game for 42 years and has only one major regret - that his father, Harold, who introduced him to football at Oldham as a six year old, didn’t live long enough to see him working for City.

“I have had the best job in the world thanks to him,” says the dutiful son.



Martyn Meets will return after the May Bank Holiday.