FROM OLD TRAFFORD TO KUALA LUMPUR
When Nicky Welsh set foot on Old Trafford as a seven-year-old in 1974, it was the first step of a five-decade love affair with football, which also led to a playing spell in Kuala Lumpur.
In fact, Welsh, a reserve player with Manchester United, and Carl, the younger brother of former Tottenham Hotspur star Glenn Hoddle, became the first English pros to play in Malaysia in 1985.
It's one of football's great untold stories - until now
Nicky Welsh was part of the same Manchester United squad as Bryan Robson, Mark Hughes and Norman Whiteside, but his career took a very different path.
After being released by the club he missed United so much that he decided to hang up his boots at the age 20 so he could watch them on a Saturday afternoon rather than play for a different club.
‘Sir Alex Ferguson was the first person to read my book — twice!’
When Nicky Welsh was trying to establish whether his book about a life in love with Manchester United had enough heft and originality to capture the imagination of the masses, he was able to call on an exclusive pool for market research.
Sir Alex Ferguson was the first person to cast eyes on My United Road, which depicts Welsh’s journey as a diehard fan who signed for the club of his dreams before ultimately failing to make the grade. “Nobody can take away that he was the first one to read it, even if it doesn’t go on to do anything,” Welsh tells The Athletic.