The new Old Trafford.

 The new Old Trafford.

Those now decaying football stadiums that were once an integral part of football's rich heritage maybe poised to be phased out altogether. Maybe time has inevitably caught up with them and we are now living in the 21st century and new technologies have taken over completely. The days of hanging around refreshment bars and drinking beer and then devouring burgers next to police on horses, may now be consigned to some medieval page in footballing history. 

We all treasured the atmosphere outside grounds such as Highbury, Upton Park, White Hart Lane and, more, recently, Everton who will also be requiring the services of furniture removal vans to shift their belongings into the new Everton stadium next season. Surely it can't be long before Liverpool  decide to move their mighty Anfield fortress to greener pastures. And yet a huge capacity upgrade has now rendered that possibility a non starter. Liverpool will stay where they are for the foreseeable future. 

Yesterday though those global football giants Manchester United announced their ambitious intentions to move lock, stock and barrel to an even bigger, smarter, posher and more architecturally stunning football stadium. Finally, the rather old fashioned and perhaps frayed looking Old Trafford is now looking its age. It is far from being shabby genteel and behind the times but there is a sense now that Old Trafford is beginning to look a little haggard, rough around the edges and reminiscent, dare you say of it, of an old music hall or some weather beaten department store that has been around for centuries. 

Old Trafford's capacity is now at the remarkably impressive 80,000 and if you listen closely you can also hear and see the ghosts from the past; the vivacious, vital and voluptuous George Best, unmistakably beautiful and almost a supernatural force. There was the late and wonderful Duncan Edwards, the boy who perished in the Munich air disaster in 1958, naturally gifted, an outstanding leader of men, all breathtaking ball control and balletic poise on the ball. The Stretford End has always been the place to be on those emotional European nights at United, loud, feverishly noisy, communally together at all times and utterly influential. 

You now wonder what the likes of the legendary Sir Matt Busby would have thought of this now life changing moment for Manchester United. It's a new stadium, new infrastructure, still vast wealth, very much a transitional era after the greatness of Sir Alex Ferguson and sadly no sign of the continuity that Ferguson must have been hoping for after he left the club. The manager is still the wrong fit or seemingly so and those rose tinted days of Triple winning, multiple Premier League titles and several Champions League trophies now seem an age ago. 

But now the movers and shakers at United want an even larger place to call their home. The news drip dripping out of the media circus in Manchester is that there are plans for a 100,000 capacity stadium, all grand fixtures and fittings, the finest facilities in world football and plenty of room to manoeuvre. United's loyal followers were reassured yesterday that the old Old Trafford will remain where it is although the completion date for the new stadium is scheduled for five years time. 

The fact is that football will now miss those charming old grounds that were somehow a vitally important part of our childhood and still are. There's Aston Villa's Villa Park, a venerable red brick facade outside the stadium with a steepling flight of steps that is still redolent of Victoriana. Crystal Palace's Selhurst Park will always be associated with thrilling FA Cup semi finals in recent times and surprisingly held 50,000 fans way back when. Palace now have a commercial supermarket behind Selhurst Park which always reminds us of the essential role that food and drink play in our lives. 

Sheffield Wednesday's Hillsborough of course will sadly be accompanied by those horrific memories of the 1989 FA Cup semi final crowd tragedy and disaster. Even now it remains one of the most harrowing events in the history of the game, an ordeal made even more traumatic by the 97 Liverpool and Nottingham Forest fans who lost their lives that frightful day. But Hillsborough was the venue for some of the World Cup games in 1966 and still has a spectacular amphitheatre ambience about it. 

And so we return to the immediate matter in hand. Yesterday one of the head honchos at Manchester United Sir Jim Radcliffe outlined the vision and future, the hopes and ambitions for this new Old Trafford. Most of the new state of the art football grounds of today have that magnificent spaceship design about them. The estimated attendance at the new Old Trafford will be 100,000 and as Radcliffe pointed out, United will be hoping to turn the new stadium into the Northern Wembley which may be an exaggeration but you can see his point. Yesterday, it has to be said, that Manchester United's new stadium looked like a vast, well lit marquee. 

At the moment, concerns have been expressed for this season's wretched outcome. When Erik Ten Hag left the club with the club stuttering and then dropping down the Premier League dramatically, it was hoped that Ten Hag's successor Reuben Amorim, their Portuguese coach would produce overnight miracles. The truth is that United have gone from bad to worse in recent weeks and their only trip to Europe next season may consist of several pre-season games in Germany, Spain or Italy. Still, there's a new environment for United fans to get accustomed to and for some of us that may be not before time. The future is still bright for the Red Devils.