Manchester based YouTuber Bood FM is no stranger to Manchester Central.
- Rory Curran
- Mar 23, 2022
- 3 min read
“It’s the whole romance of it that I love. The what if around Manchester Central. What if Central had made it into the football league? Would there be a City or United today? Would we all be supporting Central?”
Manchester based YouTuber Bood FM is no stranger to Manchester Central. With family born and bred on the doorstep of Central’s early home Belle Vue, stories of Central have been passed through the generations, culminating in a successful Football Manager YouTube series.
“My Dad’s from Gorton and grew up just around the corner from the old Belle Vue greyhound track. His dad used to tell me stories of this club called Manchester Central that used to draw in massive crowds and then just disappeared after United and City refused them entry to the Football League.
“I always wanted to do a custom series because when you play with a real team it can be alienating for people who don’t support that club. I remembered the stories from my childhood and decided to look into Central a bit more to do research for a series and realised that they’d been reformed.”
Excited by the prospect of re-igniting the Central fairytale, Bood reached out to the club’s official twitter account to see if they were interested in being involved.
“I spoke to Kyle Lord who was a part of the setup at the time and Paul McGuire who I think was chairman and they were very keen to get the series going. Kyle sent me over some details about the new setup and a link to the club shop to get myself some merch and it kicked on from there.”
“I know a lot of my subscribers got involved as well and it really garnered peoples interest. I think it’s the whole what if surrounding Manchester Central’s original formation that people love. What would be of City and United now if Central had been successful. Would there be a third international power house in Manchester? Would United and City even still be in existence or would the Blue and Red sides of Manchester be a City United under the White and Black of Central?”
“I’ve had people from all over the place get in contact asking for more Central content. Glasgow to Portsmouth, even from Australia we managed to get people on the Central bandwagon and it was really just fantastic to see.”
With over 100 episodes of Bood’s Central series, there were plenty of ups and downs for the club. Bood took Central all the way to the top of English Football, as well as a trip to Cardiff’s Principality Stadium for the Champions League final against Monaco where Bood’s Manchester Central clinched the double.
Despite announcing his departure from Manchester Central following on from that final in Cardiff, the calls for Bood to return to the Central dugout where too loud to ignore, and Bood was back.
“I had so many people asking me to bring it back, there were over 100 episodes in the end and I’d never done anything quite that big before or since to tell you the truth. I had people sending me pictures of themselves in Central tops from all over the country and that was something I really enjoyed.
“The whole point in the series was to just to try something different, have a lot of fun and to let people know that Central existed again. There were a lot of people I know that watched the series and then began to follow the real club through social media which was really cool.”
“When I heard that Central had folded again I was gutted, I’d grown such an affection towards the club and especially given how well the club was doing on the pitch it was a real shame. Now that the club are back I’m really looking forward to revitalising the series and hopefully it’ll bring a number of my new subscribers into the Central fanbase.”
Head over to Bood’s YouTube channel for his latest Central series and if you haven’t already check out Central’s rise from Manchester Minnows to Champions of Europe.
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