Sliding Doors meets Biff’s Almanac: City saga stirs up a world of alternate histories

‘What if City couldn’t have afforded John Stones (height: 1.88m) and had settled for, say, Victor Lindelöf (1.87m)?’ Illustration: Matthew Green/The Guardian

It’s Wednesday afternoon (UK time) and I find myself interviewing Tony Hadley on TalkSport about his upcoming big band tour. We play a bit of Spandau Ballet, chat about the classics and his career – hanging out with Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett. In as much as you can deduce in a 10-minute chat on Zoom, Tony seems like an absolute gent.

We do always try to bring it back to sport – Tony is an Arsenal fan, there’s a bit of Arteta, Leeds at the weekend. Tony brings up Billy Bremner and suggests that my co-host Charlie Baker and I are too young to remember him playing. We are, and how wonderful to be called young.