Man Utd board ‘supportive’ of Ratcliffe plans to destroy Old Trafford and build ‘Wembley of the nort
Sir Jim Ratcliffe believes building a new stadium ‘will be better for fans and the surrounding community’, with the Manchester United board ‘supportive’ of his plans, according to reports.
Ratcliffe completed his 25 per cent takeover of the Red Devils last month and is overseeing all football operations at the club, with the heavily criticised Glazer family taking a step back of sorts.
Man Utd: Sir Jim Ratcliffe wants to build ‘Wembley of the north’
The British billionaire has big plans for the Premier League giants and is yet to publicly back manager Erik ten Hag, sparking talk of him being sacked and replaced at the end of the season.
His most ambitious plan that has been mooted is undoubtedly moving United away from Old Trafford and to a new stadium dubbed the ‘Wembley of the north’.
The Daily Mail first revealed Ratcliffe’s plans for a new ground, with a source telling the website: “He [Ratcliffe] feels the club need an absolute state-of-the-art, knock-it-out-of-the-park, ‘wow’ stadium.
“And we feel there’s a strong argument for the country having a top-class major venue in the North – a Wembley of the North.”
OPINION: ‘Wembley of the north’? Man Utd should rescue Old Trafford not build a new one
Journalist Ben Jacobs has revealed more information on Ratcliffe’s plans – which are likely to be government-funded.
Jacobs says the Manchester United board are ‘supporting’ the idea of a new stadium in the same area as Old Trafford.
‘Ratcliffe has already analysed both options and made an initial conclusion that a new build will be better for fans and the surrounding community, and the MUFC board is supportive of exploring this approach.
‘Ratcliffe wants to build a 90,000-seater stadium on adjacent club-owned land. Old Trafford redevelopment is another option that will naturally still be discussed despite Ratcliffe’s preference. Under no circumstances will Manchester United move away from the Old Trafford area.
‘Financing is one of the things the task force will look at. Manchester United already has capacity to finance a phased redevelopment of Old Trafford, but the cost involved in a new-build (and wider regeneration) will require support from funding partners.
‘INEOS has extensive experience of financing and developing major infrastructure, and it’s understood private funding will be explored. MUFC are not looking for ‘handouts’ but there may also be some opportunities for public-private partnerships.
‘Ratcliffe has already held meetings with fan and community leaders to discuss the options and build relationships with stakeholders. Manchester United has already surveyed 30,000 fans on the future of Old Trafford as part of an initial master-planning process.
‘Manchester United owns a large amount of land around Old Trafford which they believe is under-utilised and could be repurposed for housing, leisure, business and education projects. Doing so would also create jobs.
‘And there is an opportunity to link Old Trafford and Wharfside with MediaCity on the other side of Salford Quays to create a major economic and social hub driven by sport.’
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Premier League matchday 28: Robbie Savage backs Man City to beat Liverpool, Man Utd v Everton
Robbie Savage has predicted the correct score in every Premier League game this weekend, including Liverpool vs Manchester City.
The action gets underway at Old Trafford between Manchester United and Everton before three 3pm kick-offs between Crystal Palace and Luton Town, Bournemouth and Sheffield United, and Wolves and Fulham.
On Saturday evening, high-flying Arsenal host London rivals Brentford.
The first game on Sunday is between Aston Villa and Tottenham, before Brighton vs Nottingham Forest and West Ham vs Burnley at 2pm.
The later match on Sunday is the fixture of the weekend, with Liverpool and Manchester City facing off at Anfield.
Finally, Newcastle United travel to Chelsea on Monday evening.
Planet Sport ambassador Robbie Savage is back for another week of Premier League predictions, taking on F365, TEAMtalk, Planet Sport, and Tipstrr.
Want to take him on yourself? You can right here.
Manchester United vs Everton
Robbie’s pick: Man Utd 2-1 Everton
F365: Man Utd 2-0 Everton
TEAMtalk: Man Utd 2-1 Everton
Planet Sport: Man Utd 2-1 Everton
Tipstrr: Man Utd 2-0 Everton
Bournemouth vs Sheffield United
Robbie’s pick: Bournemouth 3-0 Sheff Utd
F365: Bournemouth 2-1 Sheff Utd
TEAMtalk: Bournemouth 3-0 Sheff Utd
Planet Sport: Bournemouth 3-0 Sheff Utd
Tipstrr: Bournemouth 2-0 Sheff Utd
Crystal Palace vs Luton Town
Robbie’s pick: Palace 2-1 Luton
F365: Palace 2-1 Luton
TEAMtalk: Palace 2-2 Luton
Planet Sport: Palace 2-1 Luton
Tipstrr: Palace 3-2 Luton
Wolves vs Fulham
Robbie’s pick: Wolves 2-0 Fulham
F365: Wolves 2-2 Fulham
TEAMtalk: Wolves 1-1 Fulham
Planet Sport: Wolves 1-1 Fulham
Tipstrr: Wolves 2-1 Fulham
Arsenal vs Brentford
Robbie’s pick: Arsenal 3-0 Brentford
F365: Arsenal 4-1 Brentford
TEAMtalk: Arsenal 5-2 Brentford
Planet Sport: Arsenal 4-0 Brentford
Tipstrr: Arsenal 5-1 Brentford
READ MORE: Why the Premier League title means more to Liverpool and City than Arsenal
Aston Villa vs Tottenham
Robbie’s pick: Villa 2-2 Spurs
F365: Villa 2-3 Spurs
TEAMtalk: Villa 2-1 Spurs
Planet Sport: Villa 2-1 Spurs
Tipstrr: Villa 3-2 Spurs
Brighton vs Nottingham Forest
Robbie’s pick: Brighton 1-0 Forest
F365: Brighton 2-0 Forest
TEAMtalk: Brighton 2-1 Forest
Planet Sport: Brighton 2-1 Forest
Tipstrr: Brighton 1-2 Forest
West Ham vs Burnley
Robbie’s pick: West Ham 2-0 Burnley
F365: West Ham 3-0 Burnley
TEAMtalk: West Ham 3-1 Burnley
Planet Sport: West Ham 2-0 Burnley
Tipstrr: West Ham 3-0 Burnley
Liverpool vs Manchester City
Robbie’s pick: Liverpool 1-2 Man City
F365: Liverpool 2-1 Man City
TEAMtalk: Liverpool 1-2 Man City
Planet Sport: Liverpool 1-2 Man City
Tipstrr: Liverpool 1-1 Man City
Chelsea vs Newcastle United
Robbie’s pick: Chelsea 3-1 Newcastle
F365: Chelsea 2-1 Newcastle
TEAMtalk: Chelsea 1-2 Newcastle
Planet Sport: Chelsea 2-1 Newcastle
Tipstrr: Chelsea 3-1 Newcastle
READ NEXT: Liverpool v Man City grudge match the highlight of a big weekend for Spurs, Ramsdale, Pochettino
Fernandes snubbed as Man Utd star names club’s two best leaders; reveals hardest opponent in training
Manchester United winger Amad Diallo has praised team ‘leaders’ Lisandro Martinez and Casemiro, leaving Bruno Fernandes out, while also naming the player who trains like it is ‘the Champions League final’.
Diallo joined Man Utd in January 2021, when the Red Devils paid Atalanta an initial £19million for his services. The deal for the winger has the potential to rise to £37m depending on bonus clauses.
Since becoming a part of the Man Utd setup, Diallo has had loan spells at Rangers and Sunderland. It was at Sunderland last season where Diallo really shone, as he notched 14 goals and four assists in 42 matches to help the club reach the play-offs, where they lost to Luton Town.
The 21-year-old remains fond of Sunderland and was tipped to go back there for the 2023-24 season, but after taking a look at him last summer Erik ten Hag decided to keep the player at Man Utd.
After being kept out of action for a large part of the campaign with a knee injury, Diallo is now back to full fitness and has featured three times since late December.
The Ivorian faces a tough test to get into Ten Hag’s starting eleven, as Man Utd already have wingers Marcus Rashford, Alejandro Garnacho and Antony in their squad. Although, Diallo will view Antony’s struggles as an opportunity to pick up some decent game time.
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Ahead of Man Utd’s home clash against Everton on Saturday, Diallo was asked about the players who helped him most during his recovery from injury. He thanked Martinez and Casemiro for the faith they have shown in him, though it seems captain Fernandes has failed to be as supportive as he was not named.
“Lisandro Martinez helped me a lot because he was injured also,” Diallo said. “Every time, when we are at training, he spoke with me and said, ‘It’s nothing, Amad. Keep training hard.’
Lisandro Martinez and Casemiro ‘good Man Utd leaders’
“Lisandro Martinez and Casemiro also. They are good leaders.”
When asked who the toughest player in Man Utd training is, Diallo added: “Licha [Martinez]. He’s very strong in the training. For him, the training is like the Champions League final.
“He never trains easy, he goes stronger, so it’s harder to train against him.”
As Diallo points out, Martinez has also had an injury-hit campaign. He was out with a foot problem for several months before returning at the start of the year.
However, the centre-back only managed four games for Man Utd before picking up a knee injury during the 3-0 win over West Ham United on February 4. He is hoping to return in either late March or early April.
READ MORE: Nine Man Utd players who currently earn more than Erik ten Hag, including star he’s banished
Latest UEFA standings: Will the Premier League get a fifth place in next season’s Champions League?
There will be 36 rather than 32 teams in next season’s rejigged/wrecked Champions League, and two of those extra places will be awarded to the leagues who have been deemed to have performed best in Europe this season.
It’s becoming clearer slightly which two leagues that might be as we reach the business end of the three European trophies, but second spot in particular is closely contested and could yet go right to the wire. It’s perfectly possible we might not know precisely which countries are going to benefit until after the Champions League final.
The system for working out the co-efficient rating that will decide which league comes out on top is (relatively) simple.
At this stage, we don’t need to worry ourselves about the assorted bonus points for being in the Champions League group stage or topping a Europa League group; what matters now is this. Every individual match win is worth two points, whether that’s in the Champions League, Europa League or Confer
In the Champions League and Europa League there is an extra bonus point every time you make it a round further in the competition, while in the Conference those bonus points only kick in for the semi-final and final
So if you qualify for, say, the Champions League quarter-final by winning both legs of your last-16 clash, you collect five points for your country’s tally: two for each win and a bonus point for reaching the next stage. If you get through with a win and a defeat it’s three points (two for a win, plus the bonus point). And so on.Related video: Ranked! The 10 Best Premier League Players Of The 1990s (Dailymotion)
What that means is that from the last 16 onwards there are the same number of points available for Europa League and Champions League teams, meaning countries with several teams in the easier competition are in a potentially advantageous position. It certainly pays to at least have a spread of teams across the three competitions to maximise point-scoring opportunities.
The total number of points accrued by all teams from a particular league are then divided by the total number of teams from that league who began the season in European competition to obtain an average rating that determines the all-important standings.
So taking leaders Italy as an example, their teams have between them amassed 116 points across their European campaigns. They started the season with seven teams in Europe, so 116 divided by seven gives their current average co-efficient of 16.571pts.
This therefore means individual match wins are worth more to the score for a country that had fewer teams involved; a win for any French side is worth 0.333pts to the final tally because it is divided by the six teams they had in contention when the season began, while for England or Spain a two-point win is worth only 0.250pts to the total after it has been divided by eight.
As things currently stand the two teams to benefit from the new system would be Roma (fifth in Serie A) and RB Leipzig (fifth in the Bundesliga) but Aston Villa, Tottenham and Manchester United will all be keeping a keen eye on proceedings as potential beneficiaries should England manage to squeeze into the top two.
1) Italy – 16.571pts
Serie A strengthened its grip on top spot with a flawless Thursday featuring wins for Milan, Fiorentina and most significantly a surely decisive one for Roma that’s even more valuable for coming against English opponents in Brighton. Given Roma’s current spot in Serie A, it’s a doubly valuable win for them.
With Milan, Fiorentina and especially Roma all now probable to certain quarter-finalists, they might well be able to afford to lose both Inter and Napoli in the Champions League next week and still remain on course for a top-two spot.
Total teams: Seven
Teams still active: Six
Quarter-finalists: None (yet…)
Last 16: Inter (UCL, lead Atletico Madrid 1-0), Napoli (UCL, 1-1 against Barcelona), Milan (UEL, lead Slavia Prague 4-2), Roma (UEL, lead Brighton 4-0), Fiorentina (UECL, lead Maccabi Haifa 4-3)
Eliminated: Lazio
2) Germany – 15.500pts
Having only four teams left in the running makes Germany vulnerable to England and leaves Freiburg’s Europa League last-16 tie with West Ham potentially pivotal. Narrowly, it’s advantage Germany in that one after the first leg, with the second leg of that tie perhaps the single most important of next week’s various second legs with regard to this particular battle. We’re sure West Ham would be only too happy to potentially help Spurs out.
Bayern Munich overturning a first-leg deficit against Lazio in the Champions League was obviously a big head-to-head win against a direct rival, but while Bayer Leverkusen just about preserved their season-long unbeaten record in all competitions at Qarabag it’s also fair to say that may have been a tie where the Germans might have expected to win both legs.
While this week’s results are okay, all three of Germany’s last-16 combatants remain in some jeopardy and they surely need at least a couple of them to go further alongside Bayern.
Total teams: Seven
Teams still active: Four
Quarter-finalists: Bayern Munich (UCL)
Last 16: Borussia Dortmund (UCL, 1-1 against PSV), Freiburg (UEL, lead West Ham 1-0), Bayer Leverkusen (UEL, 2-2 against Qarabag),
Eliminated: Union Berlin, RB Leipzig, Eintracht Frankfurt
3) England – 14.650pts
A disappointing night in the Europa and Conference on Thursday leaves the Premier League facing a tougher task than before to reel in Germany, with Italy almost over the horizon. Liverpool’s win at Sparta Prague is good news, but the scale of it raises the prospect of a much-changed second-leg team potentially losing or drawing on the night in the second leg while still making it safely through.
West Ham and Aston Villa both have reason to believe they can overcome Freiburg and Ajax in a week’s time, but Brighton’s near-certain elimination at the hands of Roma is costly.
Man City are safely through to the last eight of the Champions League already, with Arsenal favourites to join them despite a messy first leg against Porto.
Total teams: Eight
Teams still active: Six
Quarter-finalists: Manchester City (UCL)
Last 16: Arsenal (UCL, trail Porto 1-0), Liverpool (UEL, lead Sparta Prague 5-1), Brighton (UEL, trail Roma 4-0), West Ham (UEL, trail Freiburg 1-0), Aston Villa (UECL, 0-0 against Ajax)
Eliminated: Manchester United, Newcastle
4) France – 14.416pts
Having only three teams still in the running makes it hard for France to reel in the countries above them, but PSG are already in the Champions League quarter-finals and both Marseille and Lille now have one foot firmly in the last eights of their Thursday night events.
Marseille’s likely elimination of Villarreal also makes it far harder for Spain to catch France.
Total teams: Six
Teams still active: Three
Quarter-finalists: Paris St-Germain (UCL)
Last 16: Marseille (UEL, lead Villarreal 4-0), Lille (UECL, lead Sturm Graz 3-0)
Eliminated: Lens, Rennes, Toulouse
5) Spain – 13.437pts
Slipping from contention now with Villarreal almost certainly out and neither Barcelona nor Atletico Madrid certain of Champions League progression either. Having all their eggs in the Champions League basket is bad news at this stage, given it offers no further points advantage over the Europa and is at least in theory a tougher challenge.
Total teams: Eight
Teams still active: Four
Quarter-finalists: Real Madrid (UCL)
Last 16: Barcelona (UCL, 1-1 against Napoli), Atletico Madrid (UCL, trail Inter 1-0), Villarreal (UEL, trail Marseille 4-0)
Eliminated: Osasuna, Sevilla, Real Betis, Real Sociedad
6) Czech Republic – 13.000
7) Belgium – 12.400
8) Turkey – 11.000
9) Portugal – 10.167
10) Netherlands – 9.800
EPL: Arteta explains why three Arsenal players are struggling for regular game time
Arsenal boss, Mikel Arteta has explained why the likes of Eddie Nketiah, Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe are struggling for regular game time.
Recall that all three players were unused substitutes as Arsenal thrashed Sheffield United 6-0 in the Premier League on Monday.
Smith Rowe has made just 16 appearances across all competitions for the Gunners this season, while Nketiah and Nelson have also seen their opportunities somewhat limited.
The Spaniard said, “We discussed things and we cannot play every player in every game.
“Those players played a few games ago against Newcastle and they had opportunities to do that.
“Now we have five subs, before we had only three, so we have another two players happy.
“That is the way I take it, but you always have players who want to be involved and play, but unfortunately it is impossible.
“It is not in our hands, it is impossible to achieve that so they know that.”
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