I remember a fair few black and white shirts at school, mostly hiding behind the "they play such good football" excuse. I grew up in Salford, but I live in Astley near Leigh now - so well on the way to Liverpool - and there are loads of 30-something year old Liverpool fans around here.
There does seem to be a big "bitter belt" out there composed of people who grew up in the 1980s in the area between Manchester and Liverpool, and gravitated to Liverpool for the glory. Then when they entered their teens Utd started to dominate and they've had to face up to the fact that their glory hunting has backfired spectacularly! That said, there may well be a new generation of Utd fans choosing us for exactly the same reason and who may well feel the same bitterness if we slump after SAF finally retires (touch wood we get Mourinho to replace him!)
I reckon the Wigan area has just as many Liverpool as United fans. In my experience of visiting various areas in the UK, there are more out-of-town LFC fans than MUFC. Contrary to ABU myth, of course.
He said he would never rule it out, and it was rumoured last year that he's being lined up to replace SAF at United when he finally goes, although that was before he went to Real. I can see a future where SAF gets title 19 and retires, and JM fails to break the Barca monopoly and get fired by Real's itchy directors. If that happens, I wouldn't be surprised to see the Special One moving to the only club that compares to Real and Barca in terms of its global profile.
Whatever people like to think about united, whenever a team takes control and has dominance over a period of time, fans will always gravitate towards them. See Barca for example, (i realise they had a huge fan base anyway, but it has risen dramatically over the previous few years). It is the natural thing for a child to support the best team - unless their parents are big supporters of a club. It will happen throughout the time football is a game. I don't resent our fans who have grown up all their lives as manchester united fans - yet may not have been born in the area. I do however resent any fan who switches allegiance.
Based on what 3 players and one coach moving in the last 20 years? Yeah absolute nailed on feeder club.
