Ian Cheeseman: Forever Blue

My trip to watch Manchester City at Newcastle on Saturday was punctuated by a visit to the small village of Hesleden in County Durham, which was the birth place of Colin Bell.

I last went there when I was writing Colin’s autobiography, Reluctant Hero. What a privilege it was to go there with the man himself.

We visited with his older sister Eileen, who brought him up after their mother died when he was just eighteen months old. Eileen was twelve years older than Colin and his Dad couldn’t cope with a small child and also work at the nearby Blackhall Colliery as a miner. I didn’t just have the honour of writing Colin’s story but on that trip I met Eileen, we visited Hesleden Primary School and popped down to the beach at Blackhall, where Colin had collected discarded coal for the family fire.

Colin had developed his footballing skills when he ran around the village with a ball constantly at his feet, kicking it against every wall as he did his chores. By the age of fourteen he was playing for Horden Colliery Welware Juniors, with lads who were up to four years older than him.

As I set out for St.James’ Park last Saturday, I decided to revisit the house where I’d sat listening to Colin and Eileen talk about the old days. I stopped briefly outside the school, walked on Blackhall Rocks and chatted to one of the committee members at the club that has now succeeded Horden. They knew about Colin and reported that City fans had visited with City shirt to honour him.

It was pure nostalgia for me and having lost Colin during the Covid pandemic, an emotional reminder of how special he was to me as my footballing hero and then as a close friend. I filmed some of those key places for the vlog on my YouTube channel.

Little was I to know that the hero of the 2024 version of Manchester City, as the Blues won 3-2, was to be the player Colin loved so much and has been likened to by so many, Kevin De Bruyne. Colin was, as the title of the book suggests, a reluctant hero. He didn’t seek the limelight but he loved football. De Bruyne not only plays like Colin did at his best, he also has that aura of modest team play about him. Kevin, like Colin, loves his family and doesn’t seek notoriety.

At Newcastle, De Bruyne continued his comeback from injury by scoring a sublime goal and measuring the perfect through ball for Oscar Bobb’s injury time winner. Kevin De Bruyne feels like the modern-day version of Colin Bell.

Manchester City recently unveiled a statute of Bell, Lee and Summerbee, who led the title winning team of 1968 with such style. There are three more statutes of great City players around the Etihad Stadium. Vincent Kompany, David Silva and Sergio Aguero are quite rightly honoured and one of the approaches to the stadium is named Joe Mercer Way after the great manager of the 1960s.

I wonder how long it will be before there will be a statue of Kevin De Bruyne. We’ll probably have to wait until his time at City is over and hopefully that will be a few more years yet. In my vision of a perfect World there’ll also be a fitting tribute to Pep Guardiola. I’d suggest that we might all be going to the Pep Guardiola Stadium one day, after all Atletico Madrid’s old stadium was named after their former President Vicente Calderon and Real Madrid play at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, named after their former player and President.

Two things might prevent that from happening, the desire to continued with sponsored naming rights and a reluctance to have the shadow of Pep hanging over all future City coaches.

For now, let’s enjoy the modern Colin Bell, Kevin De Bruyne, for as long as we’re lucky enough to have him and worry about statues in the future. One thing is for sure, It’s Great to be a Blue!