The Slow Readers Club are currently touring the United Kingdom and Ireland.
They play a sold-out hometown gig at the O2 Ritz in Manchester on Thursday and have shows in Glasgow (Friday) and Leeds (Saturday)
Ryan was born in Manchester and grew up in Ancoats, close to the city centre, so he had a decision to make whether to be a Red or a Blue.
He told BBC Sport: “My dad is a City fan and my mum tells me a story that, when I was born, he took me to the hospital window to show me where Maine Road was.
“But he never shoved City down my throat, and he left me to make my own mind up who to follow.
“My uncle is a big United fan who used to have a season ticket at Old Trafford. He literally just knocked on our house one Saturday afternoon and said to my mum that he had a spare ticket, so does your Jim want to come?
“I was about six at the time, so I have gone with him… and that was it, I was hooked for life.
“My favourite players as a little kid were Bryan Robson and Mark Hughes, although my love of Hughes was tainted a bit by him becoming City manager – especially that game when we beat them 4-3 with a last-gasp Michael Owen goal, and Hughes was fuming next to Fergie [Sir Alex Ferguson] at the final whistle.
“It is Paul Scholes who is my ultimate United hero, though. Scholes and Diego Maradona are right up there above everyone else as footballers as far as I am concerned.
“In the current squad, there is no-one who compares with Scholes. Maybe it is because I am a bit older – it is not because we are not winning as much anymore – but there is no-one as likable.
“Bruno Fernandes is a very good player, but then he has those times where he moans a lot. I look around the rest of the squad and think they are over-paid prima donnas, the lot of them.
“It is so difficult to like them as individuals the same way I did with our players in the past, whereas I look at City and as much as I dislike them, I love Bernardo Silva.
“He is what we need. Someone who is just a pure footballer, who is not in it for the fame or his own ego. He is like Scholes in that he just turns up every week, and gives everything he can for the team without complaining or making it all about him.”
Chris Sutton and James Ryan were speaking to BBC Sport’s Chris Bevan.
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