"It's a make-shift side showing up for a testimonial, why would I want to go?" I asked my mate in August 1991. Man U were to play a Republic of Ireland XI as a pre-season warm-up. Frankly, if we weren't going for drinks beforehand I probably would have skipped it.
We got there in time to see the support act. Five United stars from the past versus five City players. George Best was on the wing and the entire Stretford End roared as one. I was hooked. The game itself was a 1-1 draw. Paul Parker made his debut by doing a forward roll in the centre circle. Given the injury problems that followed, it was a brave move.
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At the end of a long, exhausting and at times controversial season, a Champions League final at Wembley involving England's biggest club and a Barcelona wonder team is always going to be a fabulous way to bring down the curtain.
There's added piquancy, of course, because they met in the final in Italy two years ago. I remember well sitting in Rome's Olympic Stadium when Manchester United were trying to defend the trophy they'd won in the torrential rain of Moscow.
It's easy to forget it now, because Barcelona played so magnificently well, but Manchester United had the better of the early play and had Ronaldo not spurned an early chance, things might have turned out very differently. As it was, the Portuguese man o' war tried to do too much on his own in his last appearance for United, Wayne Rooney was stranded out on the wing and Michael Carrick was so swamped in midfield it took him eighteen months to find his mojo again.
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I haven't felt like listening to 5 live Sport this week. This is despite an interview with David Beckham, a fascinating debate about the greatest ever club side, an expertly-crafted selection of Manchester United's European victories, and a detailed look inside FC Barcelona.
Tonight, Colin Murray has the definitive preview, and tomorrow, Mark Pougatch will present the build-up and full live coverage. As always, it's been a quality week's work from my colleagues at 5 live Sport, and they've done justice to the occasion.
Weekend Breakfast will be live in Manchester on both Saturday and Sunday, with guests including Sir Matt Busby's son, 5 live commentators Alan Green and Ian Dennis, and supporters of both clubs. Tony Livesey will get the immediate post-match reaction.
But I'm a Liverpool fan.
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It's now been ten years since Simon Mayo and Mark Kermode first started doing film reviews on 5 live. It's evolved from a slot on Simon's daily afternoon show to the two-hour, Friday-afternoon Humvee that's also one of the biggest podcasts around.
To mark their decade in power, today's show is live from the doctor's favourite cinema - the Phoenix, in Finchley in North London.
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"....pur tenis ocrrsspoendte KJojatahsnda O verebed. Murrays foirst one court tgoday at 11 UK toime"
So read the scripts for one of our sports bulletins from last week. The author of this remarkable piece of prose is Vassos Alexander, who is leaving 5 live after seven years, the last two and a half reading the sport on Breakfast.
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"Michelle Obama at Oxford Uni" was the glamour gig of the State visit, but I can tell you that I'm writing this sitting on the ground of a stony carpark on a laptop, covered in dust. Thats the price we media pay for a glimpse of the First Lady, and it's been a thoroughly entertaining day to boot.
You see, in truth these visits can be a bit dull - lots of important people telling us what we can and can't do. But today was all about the girls from Elizabeth Garrett Anderson School in North London. Its a language college that does well against the odds. Most of the pupils are from poor ethnic backgrounds, a bit like Michelle Obama when she applied and graduated from Princeton.
That was her message today: don't be scared by the grandiose surroundings, don't think everyone here is rich, don't think you have to be wealthy to get here.
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I know as a breed journalists don't engender much sympathy and nor do we expect much, but this is a heartfelt plea to spare a thought for some of our colleagues. Being a media lawyer is not easy at the best of times. Being a lawyer for the BBC can be a nightmare.
There are a number of laws which impact on what journalists can report. Some of them are pretty black and white but much of the law in this area is a muddy grey. Interpreting it takes detailed knowledge and legal expertise but in the end there is often no certainty. Ultimately some decisions rely on a stomach-churning judgment by journalists that can never be exactly right or wrong but hopefully balances the needs of the law and the needs of the public, and satisfies both. Yet this rarely stops us demanding advice and guidance at all times of day and night from our beleaguered lawyers with as little muddy grey as possible.
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I really wish I didn't work for a news and sport station at the moment. News I can cope with, but every time anyone mentions football, my heart misses a beat or two, and the butterflies start all over again. "Tom", my editor said to me today "you're a Wolves fan, why don't you fix some guests to preview the relegation battle." Thanks, boss.
I suppose I should be used to it by now. The night terrors and random stabs of chest-crushing panic have been going on for a few weeks now. But then such is the life of a fan of one of the Premier League's more safety-averse teams.
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I haven't worked on 5 live Breakfast and Weekend Breakfast for very long but one of the things that never fails to astound and impress me is the number of texts that flood our inbox every morning from listeners wanting to add their points of view to whatever debate or topic we are covering.
The morning of Saturday May 7 was, however, something quite remarkable.
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Props for my friend Julia. Finally she has learned she is going to the college of her dreams. It's Occidental College, a small and well-regarded liberal arts university a few miles from downtown Los Angeles between Glendale and Pasadena. Occidental boasts a 10:1 student-faculty ratio, which is smaller than most high schools. Julia is downright thrilled, as well she should be.
It's been a long journey.
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More than 12 and half million of us buy newspapers everyday. Whether it be a red-top tabloid, the pink pages of the Financial Times or a local weekly. Factor in free papers like the Metro and London Evening Standard and people who read newspapers online, the reach of Fleet Street is as great as ever, despite falling circulation figures.
I say 'Fleet Street', but the London-based nationals have long since abandoned their spiritual home. Now you can find print journalists from Wapping to Kensington, Kings Cross to Canary Wharf. But where their power-base may have shifted, their power - to set political agendas and mould public opinion - remains.
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What's your verdict on the coalition government at Westminster, as it marks its first birthday?
Over the last few days on 5 live Breakfast, I've been trying to find out.
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There's the history, of course. The 148 years without a Cup Final, but frankly, like all history, that's bunk.
The FA Cup didn't even start till 1872, and then you can minus the five wartime finals and the one when Man Utd decided to go on holiday to South America. So in fact, Stoke have only failed to reach the final in 133 attempts, which isn't bad when you think about it.
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Today is what everyone working in radio calls RAJAR Day - the publication of the latest listening figures for radio in the UK. What the numbers show are how many people listen to each radio station in the UK for at least five minutes within a quarter hour period in the first three months of this year. For 5 live, we once again have a very encouraging set of figures. Our total audience is 6.65 million for 5 live alone and 6.8 million for 5 live and 5 live Sports Extra combined.
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35 years and we're still here.
Supporting Manchester City is a birthright in my family. There are United fans among us, through marriage, and there's one defector (known as Turncoat Billy). But from the top down we're sky blues. And the Don? My Grandma O'Grady. She never goes anywhere without a city badge and gave her sons 'a love of their own' when she bought them season tickets for Maine Road back in the Sixties.
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My colleague Ian Payne says you can always tell someone's age based upon the first FA Cup Final they can remember. Mine was 1974, Liverpool against Newcastle. I was six, my parents went racing and I remember watching the game on a telly in the kitchen as Kevin Keegan scored twice to send Malcom McDonald's sideburns home very unhappy indeed.
You've got to accept the march of time and the Cup Final's not what it was when I was growing up but it's still a major day in the football calendar, and my experiences of working at them for the past decade are shaped by who the two protagonists are.
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As our controller
Adrian Van-Klaveren said in an earlier post, 5 live won seven Gold Awards last night at the
Sony Radio Academy Awards. Winning any Sony Award requires a submission to the Sony judges - experts from around the UK radio industry. These are the entries that were submitted for some of 5 live's winning programmes.
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It's a tense time of year to be a football fan and we share that tension and excitement in the 5 live Sport studio.
On Saturday, as well as more than 30 outside broadcasts (OBs), we had the breaking story of Queens Park Rangers not being deducted points as we went on air, as well as the very sad news overnight of the death of Seve Ballesteros.
The schedule goes out of the window very early on days like these, but generally the main planning for Saturday's 5 live Sport gets underway on a Monday.
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The one occasion every year which brings the whole radio industry together is the Sony Radio Academy Awards. One night in May is a moment to reflect on the highs of the previous year and to remember why radio matters so much to people because of its ability to connect, entertain and inform.
Last night 5 live had a brilliant night, winning more awards than any other radio station as we picked up seven golds, plus three silvers and a bronze. I'm especially pleased that the awards were spread right across 5 live's output. Here's a full list of all the winners.
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By the time you read this, it will all be over. Or at least my part in it.
"It", in this case, means planning for the set of elections on May 5th and then working on the overnight results programme that went out on Radio 4 and 5 live in a shocking piece of joined-up BBC output. I'm sure you'll have been glued to it between 12.30 and 5.20am.
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The BBC Trust, which oversees everything the corporation does, on behalf of the licence fee-payer, carries out an in-depth review of each of the BBC's services at least once every five years. They are currently examining 5 live and 5 live sports extra and want to hear from our listeners.
You can find the Trust's online survey here.
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