Our Manc of the Month series is back, and it’s time to give one honorary Mancunian the plaudits he truly deserves.
We all know that Manchester is home to some special people, some born here and others drawn here – and after a bumpy year that effectively amounted to one big lockdown, its these special people that have inspired and led us through the tough times.
So, we decided to start a series that shines a light on those who should be celebrated, following on from our ‘The Mancs of the Year’ feature towards the end of 2020.
In case you missed it, Manc of the Monthofficially kicked off in July with none other than Manchester United and England star Marcus Rashford MBE, whose achievements both on and off the pitch have undoubtedly made him one of the most prolific Mancunians throughout the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic – but this month, we’ve chosen someone who’s had a hand in ensuring Rashford’s presence is always felt in the city.
It’s the rightful turn of Akse P19.
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A French-born street artist of Vietnemese heritage and a renowned member of the iconic P19 Crew, Akse has, in his own words, been “spraypainting walls since 1992” and has quite literally been leaving his mark on Manchester since he moved to the city and started calling it his home all the way back in 1997.
For the past 15 years in particular, Akse has made his name through a series of critically-acclaimed freehand high definition photo-realistic portraits of famous faces and figures that he hopes “bring inspiration to the local community”.
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These murals – which usually reflect the social, political, or cultural mood of the moment – are known to appear, and then often disappear, from prominent walls and holdings around the city centre and surrounding areas.
Choosing to keep a degree of anonymity and often preferring to let his creations do the talking, Akse is rarely seen in public without his ventilated mask – which is as much for his disguise as it is for his safety.
But even if you’re unfamiliar with his face, you’re sure to be familiar with his work.
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Akse has been “spraypainting walls since 1992” / Credit: Facebook (Akse P19)
He moved to Manchester, and started calling it his home all the way back in 1997 / Credit: Instagram (@akse_p19)Akse hopes his work “brings inspiration to the local community” / Credit: Facebook (Akse P19)
That now world-famous mural is the work of Akse P19.
There’s also a good chance you’ve clocked eyes on some of the murals he’s created for Northern Quarter public art project Outhouse MCR in Stevenson Square in recent years too, which have included the likes of David Bowie, Arya Stark from Game of Thrones, Eleven from Stranger Things, and of course, the highly-publicised George Floyd mural – also sadly defaced on a number of occasions last year too.
Other notable pieces created by Akse across Manchester include Captain Sir Tom Moore, Factory Records co-founder and manager of the Haçienda nightclub Tony Wilson, and late Joy Division frontman Ian Curtis for World Mental Health Day in 2020 – all erected in the Northern Quarter.
There’s also the ‘Battle of the Birds’ depicting Martin Luther King and Donald Trump, Princess Leia from Star Wars at Projekts Stakepart MCR, Ariana Grande to mark her return to the city for Manchester Pride in 2019, drag queen Divina de Campo in the Gay Village, local Operating Department Practitioner Debra Williams on the site of Sweet Mandarin for International Women’s Day 2020, Liam Gallagher for the launch of his 2019 album ‘Why Me? Why Not’, and so many more.
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He’s created so many iconic and instantly-recognisable pieces that have meant so much Manchester over the years, that it can be hard to keep track.
But it’s true – Akse P19 really is the mural king of Manchester, and we can’t think of a person more deserving of being named Manc of the Month for August 2021.
Football fans are debating whether Manchester City made a mistake selling Cole Palmer
Danny Jones
Football clubs are always going to have to roll the dice on players as we all know promising players who went on to become stars: Kevin de Bruyne, Gerard Pique, Mo Salah and so on just to name a few from the Premier League – but is that what Manchester City have done with Cole Palmer?
The 21-year-old from Wythenshawe was sold to Chelsea back in September 2023, having only managed to make a few scattered but impressive appearances for Man City, scoring crucial goals in the Community Shield and the UEFA Super Cup, but was still ultimately deemed surplus to requirements.
Shown the exit through nothing other than the sheer quality of Pep Guardiola‘s starting XI, not to mention plenty of strength in depth and quality off the bench already, the West London club paid what looked to be a handsome £42.5 million for the still relatively unproven youngster at the time.
However, with another hattrick to his name – a perfect one scored all inside half an hour, no less – and a fourth for good measure thanks to a penalty against Everton, he’s quickly become by far and away Chelsea‘s star man.
In the same breath, many are now naturally wondering why he was sold in the first place. It’s no secret that City are spoilt for choice when it comes to talent amongst their ranks and certainly didn’t need the money from his sale; it was simply a case that Palmer wanted more minutes that Pep couldn’t promise.
Shouldering the responsibility for the decision at the time, Guardiola said he completely understood the Manchester-born and bred star’s drive and ambition, admitting that “[With] young players, we always want them to stay but this is normal.
“After one season it is nice, and the second season, but the third season it is, ‘Oh guys, I want to play, I don’t want to sit on the bench’. It’s normal. We understand as a club. We got an offer from an incredible top club like Chelsea and I’m really happy for him. In all clubs these types of things happen.”
However, we dare say that if you were to tell the Catalan coach that same hungry prospect would end up being joint top-scorer with his Erling Haaland the following season and being, we think it’s fair to say he might at least hesitate before green-lighting his departure – and there are plenty more stats to boot.
Now, it’s impossible to know whether or not having the knowledge he has now would have made Pep second-guess his decision and take a chance on integrating Cole Palmer into City’s first team more regularly but put it this way, 25 goals and 13 assists in all competitions is hard to ignore.
Cole Palmer's 20th Premier League goal brings him level with Erling Haaland in the race for the Golden Boot 🤝 pic.twitter.com/8Nq2Bn5bLH
That’s all inside what is for all intents and purposes his full debut season as a first-team starter (which isn’t even over yet), let’s not forget, and while they’ve had similar situations play out with the likes of Jadon Sancho in the past, it must be a little frustrating to see him playing this well in the same only league only in a darker shade of blue.
On the other hand, it’s still early days Palmer could also follow that same narrative even further and see that huge momentum trickle out depending on how his sophomore season goes. He’s also a boyhood Man United fan and not that we’re saying we can see him make that move down the line, but we all know how that switch sadly ended up for Sancho.
For many fans, City or otherwise, the logic seems to be that letting him go was the right decision for everyone, as it’s allowed him to get that crucial playing time and shine like he has this season, which may not have happened while waiting to grab his opportunity off the bench at the Etihad.
Moreover, it’s not like the treble-winners aren’t still looking like they could defend all three of their trophies this year – although it would be interesting to see what impact Palmer has when he comes up against his former club in the FA Cup semi-final this weekend.
What do you think, were City right to sell Cole Palmer or should they have held on to him and given him the minutes he was clearly more than ready for?
Remember when the Manchester Marathon used to be too short?
Danny Jones
One of the most popular runs in the UK returns this weekend as the 2024 Adidas Manchester Marathon gets underway on Sunday morning, but did you know the famous race was once too short to count as the full shebang?
Yes, it may very be one of the flattest and most accessible races anywhere in Europe but once upon a time the Manchester Marathon was technically a marathon, as those in charge of measuring the thing up didn’t quite nail it.
One job, guys. You had one job…
Here’s the story of for three whole years, tens of thousands of runners sadly didn’t technically complete the Manchester Marathon.
The 2024 Manchester Marathon boasts a record 32k racers.A 2013 finisher. We’ve got some bad news for you, mate…Manchester Marathon now and then (Credit: Supplied/Wikimedia Commons)
Manchester Marathon: The ‘ish’ years
As was widely publicised at the time, in 2016 it was found that roughly the three previous years of the race course that runs throughout Manchester city centre, into the likes of Trafford, Chorlton, Altrincham and beyond didn’t actually fulfil the complete distance needed to qualify as a marathon.
While the race route has to stretch for 26.2 miles, or approximately 42.195 kilometres if you prefer metric (always one that splits the crowd) to count as an official marathon, it turned out that in 2013, ’14 and ’15, Manchester’s biggest running event fell just short of that mark.
Due to a measuring error – for which blame was placed on the Association of UK Course Measurers (AUKCM), who said an accredited measurer had ridden the course in 2013 but fell foul to an error in the calibration of the bicycle wheel – those three years ended up being 380m too short.
As a result, roughly 24,000 runners who ran the Manchester Marathon during this three-year period essentially had their races voided, including plenty of elite athletes, as the official UK Athletics governing body simply could not recognise their times. How fuming would you be?
Speaking in an official statement at the time, AUKCM said they regretted the mistake, confessing: “Significant errors in measurement are rare – our procedures are designed to find them at the reporting or checking stages”.
Xtra Mile Events, who were still the organisers of the event at the time, went on to add: “We all understand the anguish and huge disappointment this creates and want to assure our runners that we share the upset and emotion from the AUKCM news regarding the race distance.”
Thankfully, such mistakes haven’t been suffered since and now under the umbrella of sporting giants Adidas, you won’t catch them making the same slips-ups.
Best of luck to all of you racing this Sunday and rest easy in the knowledge that while you might be absolutely dying by those last few miles, at least you can be sure those every one of those final yards is going to count. Now go and smash it!
Emily Sergeant -
31st August 2021 
