SIMON JORDAN: Knock down Old Trafford but we don't need a Wembley of the North

The idea that we need a ‘Wembley of the North’, currently being mooted by the newly-ensconced biggest minority shareholder and all-round saviour of Manchester United, the Monaco-based, Hampshire-dwelling Jim Ratcliffe and seconded by wonderfully impartial voices such as the Mayor of Manchester Andy Burnham and the caricature mayor Gary Neville is opportunistic and disingenuous.

It is also misplaced and unnecessary. However, Tottenham received £32million from the London Development Agency and £70m worth of tax breaks to help towards the cost of their wonderful new stadium, so in the interests of equitability and not wanting to listen to comrades Burnham and Neville babble on about north-south divides and unfairness, I don’t have a huge problem with United wanting taxpayers’ cash to contribute a small amount to help fund their new stadium.

Knocking down Old Trafford doesn’t bother me in the slightest, either. It’s a non-issue. For Manchester United to consider themselves to still be the pinnacle of English football — irrespective of the City revolution, the evolution of Liverpool and the re-emergence of Arsenal — then building a new stadium is a priority. If that means knocking down their famous old ground to make way for it then so be it.

But, we don’t need a Wembley of the North. I don’t say that because I’m a southerner or that I think international football shouldn’t be played around the country but because part and parcel of the reasons why English football has been so iconic to so many people is the idea of Wembley Stadium and its ultimate influence on our game.

It’s not a domestic stadium masquerading as the second home of English Football that United seem to want. Wembley is part of the iconic imagery of English