It is a tough call for Manchester United supporters and it is only steel and concrete – but the demolition of the Theatre of Dreams would be a sad day for football
For those of you into Greek mythology and ancient philosophy, it is known as the Ship of Theseus or Theseus’s Paradox.
Theseus was the mythical king of the city of Athens, who saved children from being eaten by the minotaur – a monstrous creature that was half man, half bull (think Erling Haaland, essentially) – and escaped by ship to an island named Delos. In honour of his heroics, the locals would take the ship on the same journey every year.
Over centuries and centuries, the ship needed maintenance which meant, eventually, every individual piece of the vessel had been replaced. The question then was – is it still the Ship of Theseus?
For those of you not into Greek mythology or ancient philosophy, it is also known as Trigger’s Broom. For those of you not into Only Fools and Horses, that is the scene where Trigger the road sweeper talks about being honoured by the council for using the same broom for 20 years.
“This old broom has had 17 new heads and 14 new handles in its time,” he declares. And – in keeping with so many other famous stadia (Anfield, St James’ Park) – that is Old Trafford.
So, in a physical sense, if you demolish Old Trafford, you are not demolishing history. But you are demolishing sentiment, you are demolishing nostalgia. And in football, they are worth something.
It sounds ridiculously cheesy but places such as Anfield, St James’ Park and Old Trafford are not steel and concrete, they are ways of life. Goodison Park has been the same but that ground has become so unfit for modern purpose that the club had no option but to relocate.
Old Trafford is not unfit for purpose. It is not a state-of-the-art venue but it is not unfit for purpose. There is a good argument that what makes a great club is not the physical environment but the fans.
But you can’t tell me the nature and, probably more significantly, the familiarity of that environment does not have an effect. West Ham United attract great crowds but a part of the club died when it left Upton Park.
Of course, there are counter-examples. Does anyone inside the Emirates nowadays have a longing to be back at Highbury? When it was clear Sir Jim Ratcliffe wanted serious movement on stadium plans, one of the suggestions was that Old Trafford would be ‘scaled down’ to something like a 30,000-seater while a separate new, all-singing, all-dancing arena would be built separately.
In his role on the task force set up to consider options, Gary Neville seems cool on that particular idea. Understandably so. It would be a fudge. United fans will get an email on Friday and, presumably, one of the more basic questions in a survey will be a simple one. Demolish Old Trafford and build a new place on a new site? Or redevelop Old Trafford?
Well, your head might say the former but your heart probably says the latter. And it is nice when football is about the heart. Go with it.
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