MAN UTD CONFIDENTIAL: New Old Trafford to take on Wembley for boxing

A separate arena for the women’s and academy teams will not be part of the initial design to regenerate the area around a £2billion new Old Trafford stadium.

Mail Sport revealed last week that United have abandoned plans to scale down Old Trafford to a capacity of around 30,000 for the women and academy if they build a 100,000-seater ‘Wembley of the North’ next door because it would be too complex and costly.

A new stadium that could hold around 15,000 fans and be increased over time depending on demand is more realistic, and Gary Neville threw his support behind the idea when he spoke at the Labour Party conference on Monday.

‘It’s something the club definitely have to consider, having a stadium where the women’s team can play and call home,’ said Neville, who is a member of the Old Trafford stadium taskforce.

‘I spoke to a very prominent ex-England international about three months ago who said the women’s game is homeless. That’s not just at Manchester United, it’s across the country. I think Manchester United should look at a solution for that in the next five to 10 years.’

Although it remains part of United’s long-term vision, sources say it simply isn’t feasible to plan a second stadium while the club are trying to find ways of rebuilding Old Trafford without a penny of public funding. 

As it is, United may still need to settle for a £1bn redevelopment of the existing stadium instead.

Sources also point out that the women’s team have a home at Leigh Sports Village where they are building up a fanbase, although the opening game against West Ham last weekend was played at Old Trafford.

United didn’t release an official attendance figure but it’s understood that a disappointing total of 12,000 tickets were sold. 

Confidential revealed last week that all the fans were seated in the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand, with the other three sides of the ground closed.

Meanwhile reporters covering the game were unhappy that they had to leave the stadium little more than an hour after the final whistle and work outside, even though coach Marc Skinner didn’t appear for his post-match press conference for almost 50 minutes.

Manchester United's plans to build a Wembley of the North will extend to competing with the national stadium to stage boxing mega-fights in the future.

A record post-war crowd of 96,000 packed into Wembley on Saturday night to see Anthony Joshua knocked out by Daniel Dubois in his latest sold-out appearance under the arch.

But United are confident that a new 100,000-seater stadium would be able to accommodate a record boxing crowd of 110,000, potentially turning Old Trafford into Britain’s big-fight capital.

United has long been a hotbed for boxing but Old Trafford hasn’t staged a fight since 1993 when Nigel Benn fought Chris Eubank in the second instalment of their grudge match.

The MEN (now AO) Arena has staged some epic nights – not least when Ricky Hatton was in his pomp – but the capacity there is 21,000, and the new larger Co-op Live only holds 23,500.

A state-of-the-art Old Trafford would dwarf both arenas by some distance and give United the edge over Wembley as well. 

The potential benefits for the region are huge after an assessment by Oxford Economics found that a new £2billion stadium would generate £7.3bn for the UK economy, 92,000 jobs and 1.8m visitors annually.

Rebuilding Old Trafford would also turn it into an attractive venue for the NFL, although United are reluctant to tailor the design to suit Gridiron as Tottenham have done with their new stadium by having bigger dressing-rooms for instance.

Both Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Lord Foster – the architect behind the stadium district project who is likely to be involved in any Old Trafford rebuild as well – are committed to creating a world-class football venue for United, with any other benefits seen as a bonus.

Fans want greater say over stadium future

United have been told to give greater weight to the views of season-ticket holders than other fans on the future of Old Trafford.

The club last week sent a survey to all supporters with season tickets, as well as official members, to gauge their views on what should happen to United’s iconic home.

But some season-ticket holders have been left frustrated that their opinions are seen as being worth the same as a member who may never have been able to attend a match at Old Trafford.

Others, however, point out there are high numbers of fans who have season tickets but rarely go to games, instead passing on their seat to members or other supporters.

A spokesperson for the Manchester United Supporters’ Trust told Confidential: ‘It is right that the club is consulting with all fans, but when they look at and publish the results, it is important that the responses from different types of supporters are broken down separately. As the most regular attendees, the views of season-ticket holders should be given particular close attention.’

Appleton rejects loans job

Michael Appleton has turned down the opportunity to become Manchester United’s loans manager.

Confidential understands that Appleton, who came through the youth system at United but never made a senior appearance for the club, wants to remain in coaching rather than move into a more administrative role. 

The 48-year-old was sacked by Charlton in January having previous managed Portsmouth, Preston, Blackpool, Blackburn, Oxford and Lincoln.

United will still go ahead with a restructuring of the department that mainly oversees their young players going out on loan to other clubs, but Appleton will not be part of the process.

Berrada’s rallying cry for despondent staff

New chief executive Omar Berrada used last week’s all-staff meeting to try and rally the troops after a tough summer that is leading to nearly a quarter of the club’s work-force being made redundant.

But morale is understandably low as staff come to terms with the loss of so many colleagues, and it will take more than a few words from Berrada on the conference call last Wednesday afternoon to lift it anytime soon.

New co-owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe hopes to save up to £10m-a-year by shedding 250 jobs – or ‘headcount rationalisation’ as it was rather clinically referred to in last week’s latest financial figures – which can be re-invested in the football operation. However, the human cost of the cuts is more difficult to quantify.

Costly Fosters get the nod

With Ratcliffe so determined to cut costs, it was a little surprising to see Foster + Partners awarded the contract to create a masterplan for the stadium district around Old Trafford as well as the £50m revamp of Carrington.

Architects usually charge a percentage of the build costs, and Fosters are known to be at the more expensive end of the market.

But Ineos have been determined to bring ‘best in class’ to United since Ratcliffe invested £1.3bn to acquire 27 per cent of the club, and chief operating officer Collette Roche spoke glowingly of Lord Foster’s company when the announcement was made last week that it has been chosen to transform the club-owned land around Old Trafford.

‘We have a clear vision to transform and revitalise the club-owned land around Old Trafford and we know that Foster + Partners is the best partner to help us develop the plans,’ said Roche. ‘Lord Foster has unrivalled experience in delivering projects of this scale and ambition.’

Ten Hag and McClaren in Jamaica chat

Spotted deep in conversation in one of Erik ten Hag’s favourite eateries, the United manager met up with his former assistant Steve McClaren recently. 

Confidential learns that one of the topics of conversation was the Jamaica national team after McClaren accepted the job as head coach of the Reggae Boyz.

It follows the 63-year-old’s departure from Old Trafford after two seasons as Ten Hag’s No 2 having previously worked with the Dutchman at Twente – United’s opponents in the Europa League on Wednesday night – and, of course, as Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant when he won the Treble.

Thankfully, when the two men said a cheery farewell, McClaren didn’t try out his new handshake and ask Ten Hag to ‘seal it up’!

Erik’s double Dutch dilemma

Ten Hag moved his Europa League press conference forward by five-and-a-half hours on Tuesday so Dutch journalists covering the event had time to make it to Old Trafford to speak to FC Twente boss Joseph Oosting.

Ten Hag was originally due to speak to the media after training at Carrington at 4:30pm, but that left the travelling press corps from Holland no chance of getting to the stadium to hear Oosting speak at 5:15pm.

They were keen to put questions to their Dutch compatriot Ten Hag, and United were happy to accommodate them by agreeing to UEFA’s request to bring his press conference forward to 11am, with the player interview with Noussair Mazraoui half an hour later.

Confidential revealed last month that Ten Hag has switched his weekly Premier League press conferences this season to 4pm on a Thursday because of the squeeze put on facilities at the training ground by the £50m upgrade of Carrington.

United cancel Czech ticket plan

A group of United fans forced the club into a swift U-turn over tickets for the Europa League clash with Czech side Viktoria Plzen in December.

United were given an allocation of just 634 for the match at the 11,000-capacity Doosan Arena, but as many as half could have gone to supporters applying through a £368.50 day trip run by Sportsbreaks, who offer packages for domestic and European matches.

Tickets for away games in Europe are balloted using a credits system and a potential Sportsbreak trip meant supporters on a lower number would have gained access to tickets ahead of those who have been to as many as seven over the past three seasons. The Fans’ Forum raised the issue with the club and the Sportsbreak applications were then scrapped.

United said: ‘We never confirm that a trip operated by Sportsbreaks.com can go ahead until we have reviewed the number of credits held by applicants, to ensure tickets are fairly distributed in-line with our sales arrangements.’

Class of ’92 host class of ‘24

Plans for United’s Under 21s to play some games at Salford City this season is further evidence that the enduring bond with the Class of ’92 is only getting stronger after Gary Neville was included in the Old Trafford taskforce driving plans to rebuild or renovate the stadium.

The academy team will appear at the Peninsula Stadium for the first time next Tuesday in a Premier League International Cup tie against Hertha Berlin.

It’s hoped that the agreement with Salford will ease fixture congestion at Leigh Sports Village which the academy team usually share with United’s women’s team and rugby league side Leigh Leopards. As part of the link-up, the League Two club will use United’s Littleton Road training facility.

It is said to have been negotiated by Salford’s director of football Ryan Giggs, who co-owns the club with other Class of ’92 alumni David Beckham, Paul Scholes, Nicky Butt and the Neville brothers.

The former United stars have maintained a close relationship with the club, building Hotel Football across the road from Old Trafford long before Neville got a call to join the taskforce.