Manchester United's rival fans may mock their new stadium and say it looks like a circus tent.
Now it’s up to Jim Ratcliffe and Co. to make sure the club is no longer a clown show before they move into it. Because no matter how phenomenal the new project may look in the pictures released today and how good it will be for the area, if the football team is still failing on the pitch then they will struggle to fill a 100,000-seater stadium after a few years.
It is a seismic day for English football when a club with the history of United decide that they will knock down their ground and build a new one. Every time a great English club moves from their home then fans of every club should be a little sad, even if away supporters have enjoyed singing about Old Trafford falling down in recent years.
It’s one more historic stadium gone from our game. When you think of Old Trafford, you think of Bobby Charlton, George Best and Denis Law. Those grainy, black and white pictures of three of the greats of the game making the Stretford End sway.
It is where fans came to mourn after the Munich Air Disaster, it is where Charlton's funeral cortege passed because it was the place he made special. In more modern times, you remember Steve Bruce’s winner against Sheffield Wednesday with Brian Kidd on his knees on the pitch while Alex Ferguson celebrated wildly.
You think of Eric Cantona’s goal against Sunderland at the stadium he strutted about as The King. A young Cristiano Ronaldo firing in stunning strikes, Wayne Rooney’s debut hat-trick against Fenerbahce, Robin van Persie’s volley against Aston Villa. Plenty of late winners through the years of course. The trophy room was extending every year during the 1990s and 2000s.
Plans for the regeneration of Old Trafford have been labelled a 'circus' by fans
Plans for the regeneration of Old Trafford have been labelled a 'circus' by fans (Image: Manchester United/handout)
Yet the magic for young and old fans of walking out into the Theatre of Dreams where so many greats of the game graced is still a thing despite how poor the current side are. There is no doubt that it has become a bit like “Trigger’s broom”. Younger readers may not get that comparison.
But it is a scene from an iconic British sitcom where a daft road sweeper who claims to have had the same work tool for decades yet goes on to explain how he’s changed the head and handle numerous times. It's a stadium of bits and bobs. It needed change. Maybe not a rebuild but it needed modernising.
Under Glazer ownership, it has become a leaky, aged mess. Now there are plenty of United supporters who will be grimacing today. They would have much preferred a revamp and you can see their argument.
The day the demolition of Old Trafford arrives will bring tears to eyes but now the club’s ownership have decided to move a few footsteps away means the focus has to be on ensuring the team is good enough to play in a brand-new stadium.
New Manchester United stadium and Old Trafford regeneration
The new stadium is part of a huge generation project (Image: Foster + Partners)
Arsenal sacrificed success on the pitch when they built the Emirates. United cannot afford to do the same. They should probably focus on the football before all this.
This United side is a long way from the biggest trophies - the Premier League and Champions League - but if they continue to drift then their new stadium won’t be the home of a football club, it will just be a tourist attraction in a regenerated area.
All the talk from the architects about acoustics and steep-sided stands will mean little if it is not full of supporters who are there to cheer on the team and not just take selfies.
Ticket prices will be interesting, too. But the football has to be attractive as a shiny new stadium. The current team are 14th in the league, they’ve got underperforming players on huge contracts and unless they win the Europa League this season, there will be no European football next term.
Manchester United stadium design
The stadium's design has been mocked by rival fans (Image: Foster + Partners)
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Their financial position is frightening and the football on offer so far under Rubem Amorim is offering little comfort. But all of that is repairable. As a Trafford resident, it is exciting to read about investment not too far down the road. The plans look exciting for the area to bring a new hub of homes and entertainment.
An industrial heartland that needs new life and government investment in infrastructure. Yet at the heart of it is the football club, and one that has a historic stadium and is historically successful.
There’s a danger the new stadium becomes a white elephant if INEOS don’t build a team fit to play in over the next five years. Manchester is becoming bigger. New skyscrapers fill up the skyline above the northern city. It is booming.
United are trying not to be left behind when it comes to their new stadium. But they have to make sure the football team keeps up, too. At the moment, it is stuck in the past.