Who would expect, that new Manchester United manager Darren Fletcher honed his pint-pulling skills in a bar in Mayo, in Dooagh, to be more precise. 

Before Fletcher, the son of a mother from Achill, started a prolific career in soccer, winning every trophy you could win in club football, he worked in his cousin's pub.

And even during the summer of 2003, Fletcher worked in Gielty's in Dooagh, although he had already made two Champions League appearances for United against Basel and Deportivo.

He was well respected by the locals, not just for pulling a proper pint, but for the easy way he talked football. There was no big-time attitude.

Alan Gielty remembers those times well, when Darren and his parents came to visit when he was younger: 

"He came in as a young fella. And he was drinking maybe a bottle of Coke or a bottle of something else, he'd come in and get it himself. He'd get his glass for ice and everything. And he'd be on it, he'd be seven or eight at the time. And he'd just lie behind the bar and that was it."

Later, when Darren was on the Man Utd reserves: "He was a shy young fella. And actually, a bar is a great thing for really taking shyness out of people because you have to talk to the customers."

Alex Ferguson convinced Darren to come to Manchester

Who knows, it might not have come to a blistering career for the Red Devils at all, if it hadn't been for an intervention by Sir Alex himself. 

When Darren joined United, he got very homesick and went back to Edinburgh.

Alan Gielty tells the story of how he found his way back to Manchester:

"The phone rang, and it was Alex Ferguson. He asked Darren to come back down again. He personally picked him up at the airport and Darren stayed in Alex Ferguson's house for a week."

Alan Gielty was a regular visitor to Old Trafford when Fletcher's career began to blossom. 

"He even got me a signed Man Utd jersey with the signatures of the 1999 Champions League winning team," he says.

Gielty still goes over for matches: "Darren is a very humble, very down-to-earth person. You'll see him coming into Old Trafford, and he'll sign an autograph for anybody, he's very approachable."

The people in Achill have always followed the fortunes of Darren Fletcher very closely and they wish him all the best.

Even Liverpool fans forget their clubs' rivalry for a moment.

Gielty has a fitting anecdote to tell about that: "I remember when I was refurbishing the premises here. There was a Liverpool fan, I mean, a fanatical Liverpool fan, and as soon as he saw Darren, he dropped the tools and ran over to get a photograph taken. They're all proud of him."

From talking football at the bar in Dooagh to taking charge at Old Trafford, it has been a remarkable journey.

And who knows, Darren might field one or even two of his own sons for a Man Utd game in the near future. Jack and Tyler are on professional contracts and Jack already debuted this season.

Fletcher takes charge of his first game as Interim Manager at Manchester Utd this evening (Wednesday, January 7) when his side travel to take on relegation threatened Burnley, kick off is at 8.15pm and the match is live on on the Sky Sports Premier League channel. Man Utd are expected to confirm in the coming days who will be tasked to leading the team for the rest of the 2025/2026 season. 

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