Turning up properly in this city is mostly about not being a story

In a bigger city you can behave badly and vanish into it. Here you cannot. Everything anybody does gets discussed within about a fortnight, and men consistently underestimate how completely that shapes their prospects.

So arriving well, in this place specifically, is not about a good first impression. It is about a two year absence of incident. Not being the man who took a no badly. Not being the man who turned up somewhere he had been asked not to. Not being the man about whom somebody says, when your name comes up, that they would rather not say anything.

Thirty nine, Salford, thirteen years leading, two arrangements, the longest seven years.

The thing I would most like men here to understand is that this is good news. It means the route in is entirely within your control and requires no charm at all. It requires patience and the ability to be uninteresting for a couple of years.

What I want is a long arrangement built domestically. Duties that need doing, standing rules, a fixed day, a man who becomes part of how the week works.

What I do not want is anybody in a hurry, anybody who needs to be interesting, or anybody who wants to discuss what other people have said about anybody else. The information travels whether or not we participate in moving it, and I have no time for people who enjoy that part.