If Stockport residents hear their beloved home dubbed the “new Berlin” one more time there’ll be rioting outside the Peel Centre before the day is out.
Events in Germany this summer have thrust the burgeoning Greater Manchester district into the limelight once more. The town once labelled, in your best Gary Lineker voice, “s**t” in a study of the UK’s “crappiest towns”, is anything but these days having undergone a dramatic transformation.
And now, in a sporting sense, Stockport may never have a more important role to play than during the next few weeks.
The Paris banlieues are lauded as the true footballing heartlands. Thirty players who took part in the 2022 World Cup herald from the French capital’s suburbs for various nations, while 11 Parisians played some part in the final against Argentina.
Going further back, World Cup winners Thierry Henry, N’Golo Kante and Paul Pogba grew up in similar neighbourhoods. But we are talking an area that circumvents the entire city. Kylian Mbappe and Kante grew up 40km away from each other.
Phil Foden, Cole Palmer and Kobbie Mainoo, if all goes to plan this summer, can catapult their hometown into the conversation. Should the three young savours-in-waiting help revive a turgid, insipid England, starting on Sunday, Stockport can really lay claim to being European football’s ground zero.
The tantalising trio grew up so close together that, had they been the same age, Palmer could have hopped on his bike from his Wythenshawe home, picked up Mainoo in Cheadle enroute and given him a backie to Foden’s house on Grenville Street in central Stockport in under 25 minutes.
If Wythenshawe-born Marcus Rashford continued his rebirth last season, we could have been talking about ripping up the English footballing blueprint and heading down to Robinsons’ Brewery to devise a new one.
Can it be a coincidence? Three players who have the capability to end 58 years of hurt in the England national team at the same time? The short answer is no. Yes, Foden, Mainoo and Palmer possess a God-given gravitational hold over a football, but they still needed the fertile environment to blossom into the starlets they have become. Stockport enters the room, with a knowing smile on its face.
“Culturally, football is engrained in the area,” Damien Allen, academy manager at Stockport County, tells i. “If you have a child now, one of the first things parents think is when can we get them playing football.
“Drive around here and kids are still kicking balls around the streets. There are pitches everywhere. It doesn’t have to be 3G. There’s so many green spaces for kids to kick a ball around. Does London have that, what streets can you play on there?
“This is where it all starts,” he continues. “You start developing a love from an early age. When kids play in big groups on parks like they do here, they are often playing with older kids, which all contributes to their development. They can then join two of the biggest clubs in the world, down the road, and keep playing all the time.
“Then there are private academies opening all the time, new leagues starting. There is just so much football for kids, it is hard to get away from it!”
Anyone that has played for grassroots teams in Greater Manchester knows the sheer volume of junior sides in Stockport. Every neighbourhood – Hazel Grove, Marple, Gatley, Cheadle – boasts at least one, full-to-bursting club.
“We have got 56 teams and over 700 players now and have been going since 1977,” Steve Vare, Mainoo’s first coach at Cheadle and Gatley, tells i. “We don’t like to say no to kids. If we have to, we just start another team, multiple teams at the same age group.
“It is just about giving kids a platform.”
Stockport County, on the back of two promotions in three seasons, now has a thriving academy for these eager kids to hone their crafts. For those with Palmer, Foden or Mainoo’s talent, though, Manchester City and Manchester United are waiting with open arms down the road.
A level-headed, hard-working Stockport attitude – a place happy to operate in the shadows of the Manchester metropolis – then comes to the fore.
“I try not to use genius too much when talking about youngsters I worked with, but those two had it,” Darren Bowman, a youth coach who worked with Foden and Palmer at Manchester City, tells i.
“You can have all the talent, but you need to have the right attitude. Phil and Cole never missed a training session, ever. Their attendance record was at almost 100 per cent. These were young boys with lots of potential distractions, but they were always there.
“I always remember Phil would volunteer to be a ballboy for every senior team game. You would always get our academy kids wanting to be ballboy for the Manchester derby, but nobody else wanted to do it every game, whether that be Rochdale away on a Tuesday night, like Phil did. He just loved everything about it.”
Vare adds: “Even then you could tell that Kobbie had a good family network behind him, one who would look after him and give him everything he needed to succeed. That is what you get around here really, parents willing to support their kids at whatever level.
“Even though he was head and shoulders above everyone else, he didn’t act like it. He was very receptive to instructions. He wouldn’t complain about the rules we put on him, he would just get on with it. He didn’t mess about, he was always listening and taking things in – and that is down to his upbringing.”
Stopfordian parents also laugh in the face of common obstacles others must overcome when it comes to help their talented offspring fulfil their destiny.
With the M60 ring road running alongside, circumventing the entirety of Greater Manchester, Piccadilly train station one stop away – don’t ask the locals to explain why every train must stop there – and the country’s biggest airport outside London a few miles away, nowhere is too far or arduous to reach.
And the training opportunities at the end of these short journeys make it all worthwhile.
“People forget that before the money came in at City, the club were still developing top talent,” Bowman continues. “Even just from my time there, there was Daniel Sturridge, Michael Johnson, Nedum Onuoha, Stephen Ireland, so many others.
“Cole came through from a great group with James McAtee and Tommy Doyle, too. Phil was like something else. Then to have this talent, at these facilities, with the level of coaching we could offer, everything could fall into place for the boys, if they wanted it.
“If it was easy, then everyone would make it, but Phil and Cole put years of hard yards in, supported by their families. Then getting to train with Pep Guardiola can take a player to another level still.”
The stars still do have to align for potential like this to bloom. Foden especially is a generational talent, Mainoo possesses composure than doesn’t make sense for an 19-year-old, while Palmer shrugs at the mere suggestion of pressure. Their football upbringing, however, has been a more than able stagehand.
Mainoo is almost certain to start as Gareth Southgate desperately rolls the dice in an attempt to avoid another beer soaking from his own supporters, Palmer’s vibrancy is desperately needed to breathe new life into a lethargic forwardline, while Foden is the one undroppable, irresistible force who, even when having an off day, can turn a match in the blink of an eye.
In Stockport we trust. It was all just a matter of time.
“There are just so, so many well organised grassroots clubs in the area, that have been going since I was an eight-year-old player, but are now much bigger,” Allen adds.
“Some are 50-years-old. It means there is an abundance of talent for professional clubs to spot, and diverse talent too. We are so fortunate the area is a hotbed for football. I signed for Man Utd having been spotted at one of these clubs.
“Just look how many non-league clubs, on top of all the professional ones, that are close to here. If you don’t make it at a big club at first, you can try again. The opportunity is there for anyone. Foden, Palmer and Mainoo just took theirs.”