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When Bill Goddard first stepped inside our grand old stadium, on a wet Stretford day back in 1955, he could not have conceived that he would still be traversing its famous corridors almost 70 years later.
But perhaps one of the few little things us humans do know for sure is that life provides endless potential for surprise.
And since Bill retired and embarked on a second career, of sorts, as a tour guide at the Theatre of Dreams, life has regularly delivered all kinds of different experiences and encounters.
“I wanted to do something rather than just sit around,” Goddard explains. “At the time, my son was a friend of the museum manager and they wanted more tour guides. I’ve always been a Manchester United fan, and it seemed like a good idea.”
Bill with United legend Sammy McIlroy at Old Trafford.
As we start to chat about his 24 years in M16, it’s lovely to hear the buzz he and our other guides get from simply welcoming people into the stadium.
Some reading this will have attended Old Trafford more times than Ryan Giggs, but it’s easy for even the stalwarts among us to forget how mindblowing our home can be to newcomers.
“When we start the tour, we walk up from the museum and come out into the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand,” Bill tell us. “We lead them out and it’s great to hear that sharp intake of breath when they see the stadium for the first time. They’ve seen it on television, but to be there… some of them are in tears! Particularly people from overseas, who’ve been saving up to come to England and the first place they want to come to is Old Trafford.”
Goddard has had visitors from Manchester to Mongolia, and the smiles and the awe are almost always the same.
But halfway through our conversation, Bill informs us that, for years, he had a second job at Old Trafford – working in the United dressing room! Yes, you read that correctly.
What follows are the kind of stories most Reds would give their life savings for.
Working in the home dressing room meant Bill saw many special moments during a golden era.
How many supporters had a ringside seat for the infamous ‘Battle of the Buffet’ episode which followed United’s defiant 2-0 win over Arsenal in 2004, for example? Or saw and heard the euphoric reaction as the lads celebrated the epochal 7-1 battering of Roma in 2007?
Bill was there for these events, and is, quite possibly, the only fan who can say he both watched Duncan Edwards play and also saw Sir Alex Ferguson pelted with a slice of margherita. (That’s artistic licence; we forgot to ask about the topping.)
But what a job to undertake on matchdays.
United 2 Arsenal 0 Video
United 2 Arsenal 0
24 October 2004: United looked to end the Gunners record-breaking 49-match unbeaten run in the league…
“When the players walked out from the dressing room to line up in the tunnel, Sir Alex would walk out behind them,” he remembers. “We’d be stood in the door of the boot room, watching them walk by, and Sir Alex would always stop and shake our hands and say ‘Have a good game, lads,’ as though we were part of the squad!
“It made you feel absolutely fantastic. All we were there for was to brew up and clean the boots! But it’s an example of what a fantastic man-manager he was.”
Nowadays, it’s just the tours, two or three days a week, but United still possesses that knack for surprise.
Despite 10 years passing since our last league title, Bill continues to be amazed at the enthusiasm and passion for his local team.
Sir Alex always had time for a word with staff, even amid the cut-and-thrust of an Old Trafford matchday.
“We still draw the crowds in and tickets are still very hard to get,” he notes. “The day before the West Ham game, we had a record number of visitors to the museum – 2,500. We’ve never had that many before. It’s becoming more and more attractive each year. When I started as a guide, there was about a dozen of us – we’ve now got 60! It’s just a fantastic job for someone like me, who’s always been a United fan.”
When Bill first saw a match here, on that damp day in 1955, a near-unknown Bobby Charlton was among the youth-team players on show. Now, he sees younger fans enraptured by sitting in the dressing-room seats belonging to Alejandro Garnacho and Marcus Rashford.
Time moves on, but United’s ability to captivate remains firmly in place, for both staff and fans alike.
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