11:31, 17 Aug 2025Updated 12:03, 17 Aug 2025<\/p>\n
![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Screenshot_2025-08-17_084514.jpg\")
Anthony Phythian opened up about his explosive past (Image: @thecontentCAST)<\/p>\n
A notorious former hooligan<\/a> who has twice been banned from football games has named the most dangerous firms he has come up against while following Manchester City<\/a>.<\/p>\n And despite opening up about his \u201chatred\u201d for Manchester United<\/a>, Anthony Phythian named smaller clubs when asked about the \u201ctoughest\u201d fans. Anthony, who famously stormed Ewood Park in a boiler suit in 2007, said: \u201cDo you know what, it was never teams you think, like the big clubs, it was always teams like Barnsley or tough towns like Middlesbrough.<\/p>\n \u201cMiddlesbrough would bring 50 lads and they weren\u2019t a big firm but f***ing hell, just every one of them was just f***ing at it. Just a close knit firm.\u201d<\/p>\n He added: \u201cJust small teams like that, Huddersfield<\/a> as well. Smaller teams like that and smaller Yorkshire clubs as well. Barnsley, Rotherham, just rough little towns.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthony grew up in Miles Platting, Manchester, where he would fight in the streets and in school \u2013 with football arguments often being the catalyst.<\/p>\n He eventually became a hooligan and he told The Content Cast<\/a> YouTube<\/a> channel how he always got nervous before scraps, and said you would be a “psychopath” if you didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n And asked about the \u201ctastiest\u201d fixture for a City hooligan, his answer was far from a surprise this time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt has always been United for us,\u201d he said. \u201cAlways. The rivalry runs deep, do you know what I mean? There was a real hatred. Well, there is still a real hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n However, while Anthony won\u2019t be cheering on the Red Devils when they take on Arsenal<\/a> at Old Trafford in their opening Premier League<\/a> game today (August 17), he did say he has friends who support his rival club.<\/p>\n And giving a unique insight into what that was like during his hooligan days, he said: \u201cYeah, the mad thing is, any time when we are not playing, I spoke to lads, United\u2019s firm, who would speak to each other on the phone and arrange where we are going and where we are going to meet.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would go and have a pint with each other and we would shake hands and everything else and then the day of the game they are f***ing bottling each other.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is mad when you say it like that, but, that was it. That is what we were all there for.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthony is now a family man with two daughters and a son and he has left his days fighting on the terraces behind him.<\/p>\n Instead, he went on to become a professional boxer at the age of 37, and before retiring, he had a record of four wins and three defeats.<\/p>\n And referring to his past on a previous podcast with Dodge Woodall, he said: \u201cMy eldest, my lad, knows a lot of my past and now I try to advise him where not to go wrong as I did.<\/p>\n \u201cTo be the person I am today and be able to have the relationship I have with my kids is amazing. I thank God every day and know I am totally blessed with this second chance in life.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Anthony Phythian is a former football hooligan who supports Manchester City and he opened up about the toughest…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351502,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,124206,4884,2465,1036,423,101,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-351501","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-manchester","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-england","10":"tag-football-hooligans","11":"tag-great-britain","12":"tag-manchester","13":"tag-manchester-city-fc","14":"tag-manchester-united-fc","15":"tag-premier-league","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115043882424708567","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=351501"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351501\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351502"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Man-City-hooligan-banned-from-all-stadiums-fought-England-fans-in-free-for-all-clash.jpg\")
He has given several interviews about his days on the terraces (Image: Dodge Woodall\/Youtube)<\/p>\n![\"Anthony](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/0_Screenshot_2025-08-17_084458.jpg\")
The City supporter is no longer involved in football violence (Image: @thecontentCAST)<\/p>\n