Old Trafford must be torn down, it’s the only way Man United can move forward

On Wednesday morning, the day after RB Leipzig lost to Manchester City, some of their fans gathered at Old Trafford. They wondered when they would be like this again and wanted their photos to be taken outside of an iconic soccer field.

Inside that building, behind all that steel and glass, there is a lot of discussion going on. Who, if anyone, will be the new owners of Manchester United? And what, equally important, will they decide to do with Old Trafford?

There are two options on the table regarding the future of the stadium. One is to renew it. The other is to flatten it out and start over.

United are upset about it. They know they need a renovated stadium. The current version is hopelessly out of date. The club is concerned about how much everything costs, obviously, but they are also concerned about what their fans think.

So much so that last year they wrote to their subscribers and asked them. The results of that particular survey are not known.

I live in Manchester and I know a lot of United fans. Old Trafford is a few miles from my house. I’ve been there for more work than any other stadium in the country. And my firm opinion is that they should tear it down. Sounds like heresy, right?

As soon as the words leave your mouth, it sounds wrong. It feels like he is betraying the history and traditions of a great football institution. Except you wouldn’t be, not really. The true betrayal of Manchester United would be in making a decision that prevents the club from moving forward.

The truth is that this is not so much a problem as an opportunity. United are really very lucky. Old Trafford stands on a huge plot of land. Most of it is parking space that is empty for days. United owns it. So they can build on that and this means that Old Trafford can always be Old Trafford and that, to me, is the really important part.

This would not be one of those terrible relocations. This would not be West Ham or Southampton, or even Manchester City. This would be a reconstruction on the same plot. It could still be called Old Trafford and the match day rituals ingrained in many fans – the same tram, the same pub, the same chippy – would hold. That’s so vital to this conversation that it just can’t be overstated.

Liverpool and Everton once briefly considered sharing the ground in the park between Anfield and Goodison and they should have. I don’t know anyone who agrees, but that’s beside the point.

A best-in-class stadium could have been built on the doorstep of their current homes. They could have had an Anfield End and a Goodison End. Light it red one week and blue the next. Fabulous.

Instead, the Merseyside clubs turned away and went back to their own projects. So work on what is a much-improved but nonetheless imperfect Anfield continues as Everton build what appears to be a beautiful quayside stadium. They will be Everton but they won’t be Everton anymore and then immediately something is lost.

The United States does not face this dilemma. Tottenham also found a way through that maze. Somehow they managed to build one of the best football stadiums in the world on virtually the same plot as White Hart Lane and every time I visit it, I take my breath away. It is this that should inspire United at the moment and it is interesting that the club have appointed the same architects.

Tottenham played at Wembley while their ground was being built. It was an obvious move. Arsenal once did that too. For United this is less straightforward. There’s nowhere remotely big or desirable enough in the North to house them for the two years it would take them to build their new home. A ground shared with Liverpool, Leeds or City? It’s just not going to happen.

But sacrifices must be made to ensure the long term, so here is the solution. He plays at Wembley. Offer your subscribers a seat at the national stadium and some sort of subsidized ride to get there. Some will accept that and some will not.

At the same time guaranteeing all of them a similar category of seats in the new stadium when it is ready. So, in the worst case, a fan will spend two years watching United on TV before taking his place at the new Old Trafford.

Two years is not a long time. It’s been three years since the Covid pandemic hit. Seven years ago Leicester City won the Premier League. Two seasons would pass very soon and by the end of them a proper vision of United’s future would be presented.

Old Trafford is still a great place to watch a game. But it’s a bad place to try to buy a coffee or a beer or pee. You don’t earn the money you should. It doesn’t offer United the opportunities it should. It is time for United to act like a great club. Be big, be brave, be bold. knock her down

There will always be those who accuse the club of betraying the legacies of the past. But a bigger crime would be cutting yourself off from a better future.

The palace should control the nerves in Vieira

One of the problems with football is that very few people see beyond the present. Thus, the keys to the house are routinely offered to a manager who has won six games, while one whose team is struggling turns around to make sure the parking gate is in sight.

Patrick Vieira at Crystal Palace is a good example. Last season was considered to have reinvented the wheel when the improvement in results was actually marginal. Palace played better football than under his predecessor Roy Hodgson, but the result was similar: 48 points instead of 44.

A year later, Palace finds itself in a deep rut. No win since New Year’s Eve and Vieira under scrutiny. But the actual results of it tell the story. Palace usually lose their games by a single goal. Nobody hammers them or saves them. They play tight games. they compete. They just don’t earn enough right now.

So yes, Vieira does face challenges. There is a problem to solve and it is called scoring goals. But it doesn’t seem likely that Palace will go under. They don’t play chaotic, reckless football like Leeds under Jesse Marsch or Southampton under Nathan Jones, nor do they appear terrified and apathetic like Frank Lampard’s Everton.

Vieira wasn’t the Messiah last year, any more than he’s a fool now. Palace chairman Steve Parish is a no-nonsense man who runs his club well. He should keep his nerve.

Too many ‘impactors’

Mikel Arteta wants to call the substitutes ‘impactadores’. Another option as we continue to sink under the completely unnecessary weight of five a game is to call them a complete waste of time.

Antony is Man United’s one-trick horse

Gordon Strachan was an excellent attacking midfielder for Aberdeen, Manchester United, Leeds and Scotland.

As a child, he would kick a soccer ball endlessly off one wall and then the other in his parents’ garage.

The goal was to make sure he had two good feet to play football on, not just one.

To see United’s £80m Brazilian striker Antony recently was to conclude that he most likely never did any of this.