Latest / Let's Kick It Off! / Ep 21: BONUS: Old Trafford's Greatest European Nights

Transcript

Ep 21: BONUS: Old Trafford's Greatest European Nights · Let's Kick It Off!

• 0:15
  I just missed those big Champions League nights.
• 0:18
  As much as I appreciate the Europa League and I don't take
• 0:21
  being in Europe for granted these days, but the Champions
• 0:24
  League is just, it's different, isn't it?
• 0:26
  Especially semi final stage like you know.
• 0:29
  There's nothing better. April.
• 0:32
  You, you. Well, these days, coming back
• 0:34
  from work, you know, it's nice and sunny outside at like 7:00.
• 0:39
  You just get, get ready, you know, get yourself on the sofa,
• 0:44
  the music comes on. And yeah, those, those nights at
• 0:47
  Old Trafford, we need them back next.
• 0:50
  So you. What I was going to say this
• 0:51
  till the end, but let's quickly while we're on the topic, why
• 0:53
  don't we touch on those memories, those daylight games
• 0:58
  starting in the Champions League.
• 0:59
  What's some of your favourites that you can remember like best
• 1:01
  nights at Old Trafford? The one that stands out to me is
• 1:04
  the Barcelona 2008 semi pulls goals, second leg gets to the
• 1:08
  final obviously in Moscow. For me that and that still is
• 1:11
  probably the best atmosphere. I know I said a few weeks ago
• 1:14
  Leon was the best moment, but in terms of atmosphere during a
• 1:17
  game, that one is always top for me.
• 1:20
  What are the other kind of results at Old Trafford that
• 1:23
  stand out for you in terms of occasion, like atmosphere, all
• 1:27
  of that stuff? My favourite ones actually,
• 1:30
  because when I was growing up, AC Milan were my team and to see
• 1:36
  them Old Trafford and prime Kakar as well.
• 1:41
  It was just and that that that United team was just on the cusp
• 1:45
  of becoming good. So it was still and it had a few
• 1:47
  injury problems at the time. So we're still a bit it was, you
• 1:50
  know, didn't have the same the the Barcelona game you
• 1:53
  mentioned, we had a lot more control Cara queer as it got the
• 1:56
  team into a defensive structure. Well, that the three, two and
• 2:00
  the Rooney last minute goal, it was, it was, it was that I
• 2:06
  really remember that Old Trafford was rocking that
• 2:08
  evening. It's a shame.
• 2:10
  You know, we went to the sun Syria and we couldn't, you know,
• 2:13
  keep keep the lead. But yeah, had a lot of injuries.
• 2:17
  I remember you know it set. Up 2008, though, didn't it?
• 2:20
  Because we played pretty much 411 or, you know, because I
• 2:24
  think Louis Saha played a lot that season.
• 2:27
  And then that was the following years when we got Hargreaves and
• 2:32
  Anderson, and then we obviously packed the middle and then we
• 2:35
  mastered it. Yeah.
• 2:37
  Exactly. So that team was a bit more like
• 2:39
  old school and that game was a bit more open.
• 2:42
  Great game. And yeah, and we're a, that's a
• 2:45
  great Milan team. Yeah, some top, top, top.
• 2:48
  Players kilo seed off Kakar. Angelotti manager, was he?
• 2:55
  Carlo Manager. Yeah, I think I've still got
• 2:57
  amazing, still got scars on the knees from that celebration with
• 3:01
  the Rooney Maldini. Did he play?
• 3:03
  I think he did. Yeah, I think he did.
• 3:04
  So yeah, I I actually saw it on a Twitter thread recently and it
• 3:09
  was something like something along the lines of most iconic
• 3:12
  goals or best goals. And that the Kaka one where he
• 3:16
  where ever and was it basically he headed it past them and them
• 3:22
  two knocked each other out and then Kaka slaughtered it away.
• 3:25
  It was like, what a goal that was.
• 3:27
  I think it's worth mentioning it because we were at that game and
• 3:32
  I remember we were two one down and just thinking, how do we get
• 3:36
  back into this? And then Paul Skulls plays the
• 3:39
  most delightful pass you'll ever likely to see.
• 3:43
  And yeah, I think I think like Darren Fletcher, like bundles in
• 3:47
  and it's going in anyway, but I think Wazza gets the last touch
• 3:51
  on it. And then, yeah, the winning goal
• 3:54
  was just, yeah, stunning. That was like, you know, like
• 3:58
  really, just really coming in, you know, hot dead like that
• 4:02
  finished near place as well, I think.
• 4:04
  Oh yeah, that was against Maldini.
• 4:05
  I think he used Maldini as a shield to get the ball around
• 4:09
  him. And yeah, beat Dida.
• 4:10
  So definitely the best game that I've seen at Old Trafford.
• 4:14
  Special European. I guess the other stand out, and
• 4:17
  I think it's from the same campaign, is the Roma game.
• 4:21
  I believe it was the same 1 the same the same year.
• 4:24
  The seven one. I wasn't actually at that game.
• 4:26
  I know some listeners of the pod, like Jay from Australia
• 4:29
  were there, but I mean, that 7/1 was there, yeah.
• 4:33
  So that I think we went 21. Did we lose 2?
• 4:36
  One in the first leg. That was the famous Ronaldo
• 4:40
  goal, right? Where he hit skulls that.
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  Was the following season actually the famous Ronaldo had?
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  Oh, was it? Yeah, but I can't remember who
• 4:48
  scored, but I think we might have actually gone one nil up
• 4:51
  and then yeah, we. We lost, we lost it, didn't we?
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  I think we lost 21 in the. Yeah, we lost two.
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  One, yeah. And we obviously needed to win
• 4:58
  by so many goals at Old Trafford.
• 5:00
  And yeah, 7:00 one. I think Carrick scored two.
• 5:03
  Carrick got the first one. He scored two that night. 2
• 5:06
  crackers ever. Alan Smith I think scored,
• 5:09
  didn't they, in that, in that game?
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  So that's definitely up there. I wasn't there.
• 5:13
  But yeah, some great nights at Old Trafford, right?
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  Yeah, I got 2 from the 90s, I think as we'll appreciate these
• 5:20
  ones. So I think the third, well,
• 5:23
  there's probably 3, but you know, we'd probably have to do a
• 5:26
  whole pod. I think the first one,
• 5:28
  especially as a child remembering kind of like my
• 5:31
  first Champions League experience, Manchester United 2,
• 5:34
  Barcelona 2 at Old Trafford. I think that was 94.
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  And I think that was, I think, I can't remember if we had been
• 5:42
  battered at the new camp 1st and then like the group game at Old
• 5:46
  Trafford was later or the other way round.
• 5:49
  That was like a wow moment for me.
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  It's like wow, you're seeing world stars like Romario play
• 5:55
  and storage car from and players like that second one.
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  This was almost like the beginning of like Ferguson's
• 6:04
  steps towards 99 was Porto at Old Trafford.
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  I think it was maybe 96 or 7. We won four nil in a knockout
• 6:13
  game and that year Porto were like amazing in the group
• 6:18
  stages. Like they beat Milan and yeah,
• 6:21
  like it was like a 5050 game and it was I think we were like 2
• 6:26
  nil up within like 30 minutes. And old truffle, you know, this
• 6:29
  is in the good old days of like, you know, just over 50 odd
• 6:32
  thousand in the ground as well. And yeah, Brian Moore on
• 6:36
  commentary and Wednesday nights. But then Ron Atkinson on Cocom.
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  Bit a big run wouldn't say that now this type of stuff he said
• 6:45
  over the years and the final one and like this is like the real
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  beginning of like the the 1919 believing that they can win in
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  Europe was a was a famous group game actually Manchester United
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  free Juventus 2. It was yeah, Ryan Giggs.
• 7:03
  He was absolutely unbelievable that night.
• 7:07
  That's actually where Lynx started as well in terms of like
• 7:10
  Italian clubs wanting him. I think that that was in the
• 7:14
  9798 season. But yeah, because the these
• 7:19
  types of games probably wouldn't get the shout outs normally.
• 7:21
  So I just wanted to kind of like highlight some other classics.
• 7:25
  There's one I there's one, there's one I remember watching
• 7:27
  the highlights of. I don't remember this, but I
• 7:29
  think it's the treble season. Is it the three all at Old
• 7:31
  Trafford against Barcelona? Yeah, and we.
• 7:33
  Were we were in the away kit, right at home, Beckham scored,
• 7:36
  scored a free kick. Yeah, so.
• 7:39
  Too many. Yeah, I've heard a rumour that
• 7:42
  guys that you guys want to actually keep all traffic.
• 7:47
  Is that true? That's.
• 7:48
  Gonna bring this up myself. I mean, I know we've had these
• 7:51
  great memories and, you know, wonderful nights that we're
• 7:54
  talking about now. Obviously, Anios if discussed an
• 7:59
  unveiled planned for a new stadium, but so you guys are
• 8:03
  actually I'll take. This one, yeah, I'll take, I'll
• 8:05
  take. This I didn't know that I
• 8:06
  honestly I it was the first I heard of.
• 8:07
  It I think I'll pick up the scraps, I think.
• 8:09
  It was was it, I don't know, was it on the WhatsApp or something
• 8:12
  or was it? No was it was the pods that I.
• 8:15
  Is the is the debrief pod with producer kids?
• 8:17
  Yeah, I think, I think kids asked if you had a billion, what
• 8:20
  would you do that? Was it 2 billion?
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  Two billion. You go, I'd spend a billion on
• 8:24
  renovating Old Trafford. And I was like, what?
• 8:26
  Yes. What's going on here?
• 8:28
  Yeah, tell me more. Yeah, Yeah.
• 8:30
  So we discussed this, you know, in length when the new stadium
• 8:37
  plans came out, obviously all fully supportive of that.
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  The only concern, and I think, you know, many fans share this
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  concern, is the viability of that project, how long it's
• 8:46
  going to take. The government involvement
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  needed have to mention obviously reform stomp in the local
• 8:52
  elections, which only adds to my concern about Keir Starmer's
• 8:57
  ability to fund Old Trafford. But yeah, I, I, I, I would
• 9:02
  actually again, I, I'm fully supportive of the new stadium.
• 9:06
  I have concerns on how long it's going to take, whether it's
• 9:09
  possible. So we, we went through all that.
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  So the reason I said redevelop Old Trafford is if you gave Me 2
• 9:15
  billion now, like I said, if I know a billion can go and
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  renovate Old Trafford now and I can start right now, I'm doing
• 9:21
  it because it can be done in, I don't know, 2-3 years.
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  And I know it's happening. It started.
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  So I would hit the button, but am I supportive of the new
• 9:29
  stadium? Yes, absolutely.
• 9:31
  But it's just the concerns on how long it's going to take.
• 9:33
  So I'm just quickly before I ask you come in, I'd flip it back to
• 9:36
  us if I, if I know Jim's put a nice up for sale, but that won't
• 9:43
  cover the cost of a redevelopment of Old Trafford.
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  But as if I could say to you, you could hit the button on a
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  redevelopment of Old Trafford right now.
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  I get you say 90,000 increased, so improved hospitality
• 9:57
  facilities, you know all that jazz.
• 9:59
  Good WI. Fi.
• 10:01
  Good Wi-Fi, let's say similar to like a Bernabeu redevelopment.
• 10:04
  Are you going to approve that? I'm not anymore.
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  I mean, before the whole state new stadium plan came into
• 10:12
  fruition, my natural inclination would have been to stay at Old
• 10:16
  Trafford for all the reasons that you mentioned.
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  The one thing we discussed when the takeover was happening was
• 10:23
  about a wider redevelopment, about improving the transport,
• 10:27
  the access to the stadium, restaurants, housing, et cetera.
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  And I didn't, I thought that was all a pipe dream.
• 10:32
  I didn't think that was going to happen.
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  I didn't think that was possible.
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  Now the plans are there and I see those plans.
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  For me, it's got it's got everything I've I've wanted and
• 10:41
  and asked for. It also potentially allows Old
• 10:44
  Trafford to remain like open and viable, right?
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  If you have a redevelopment. We've seen what happened with
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  Barcelona. The semi final wasn't played at
• 10:52
  camp. New rights played in another
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  stadium and there's talks of maybe having to because of the
• 10:57
  size of redevelopment. Real Madrid as well, when they
• 11:01
  did the Bernabeu, they had to play in their reserve ground and
• 11:04
  that doesn't appeal to me. Yeah, it obviously logistics
• 11:09
  come into it, but you know, we've had difficulties getting
• 11:11
  in an old traffic in and out of Old Trafford, you know.
• 11:15
  Still will, even with the new one.
• 11:17
  Well, it depends, because, you know, they're talking about new
• 11:19
  train stations, new road links and everything, right?
• 11:22
  So, and the new positioning of the stadium.
• 11:25
  So it's not in the corner basically.
• 11:29
  So yeah, I would have initially. The other problem I I think is,
• 11:34
  you know, does that billion future proof you or do you need
• 11:38
  to in 20 years go again? Well, with a new stadium, do you
• 11:41
  kind of take it more 60 years? So because of the plans being so
• 11:47
  impressive, I kind of bought into the the new plans.
• 11:50
  And I think that the great Knights at Old Trafford, Ash
• 11:54
  gave a shout out previously to the away supporters.
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  For me, it's about people, it's about communities, it's about
• 12:00
  us. It's not the the concrete and
• 12:03
  it's not the, you know, the plastic seats or whatever.
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  And if there's 100,000 of us in the new stadium, we'll create
• 12:10
  new memories in a new atmosphere.
• 12:12
  The sand memes is the new stadium and it was, it was
• 12:15
  rocking that evening. And I know there's a lot of
• 12:19
  history associated and we've gone through these fantastic
• 12:24
  recollections, but I think it's, you know, Manchester United is
• 12:27
  about the the, the football club, the supporters, all the
• 12:31
  stakeholds around it. And we'll hopefully have a new
• 12:35
  brand spanking new stadium to create new memories and be able
• 12:40
  to stream them on our new Wi-Fi or whatever new facilities.
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  But but. We'll see.
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  What year are we talking us? I mean, that's the one thing I'd
• 12:49
  say is I agree it'll take a long time, but I still like Old
• 12:53
  Trafford as it is. Like, I think Old Trafford is an
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  underestimated stadium. I think Thursday night it's
• 12:59
  going to be on fire. People say, you know, the roof's
• 13:02
  leaking and that and this, that and the other.
• 13:04
  But it's going to be 75,000 people in there.
• 13:09
  Let's say, you know, Bilbao have their allocation, let's say
• 13:11
  70,000 United fans. It's going to be a great
• 13:13
  atmosphere. It's going to be a great night
• 13:16
  under the floodlights, yes, You know, with the redevelopment
• 13:20
  you're going to put, you know, like a shiny new, I assume like
• 13:24
  a thing like around it. What would you do with it?
• 13:27
  Raise the South stand and and all this, but you know, another
• 13:31
  10,000 seats and all that. But as it is, it's a great
• 13:33
  stadium. We can keep it going for another
• 13:35
  10 years, I'm sure. Well, we build a new one and
• 13:40
  yeah, so I think I'm going to vote on new stadium.
• 13:44
  But I respect, you know, like I said when initial initial
• 13:47
  thoughts were, you know, I love, I love Old Trafford.
• 13:51
  But, you know, I want, I do I want to see some progress.
• 13:54
  I think Manchester deserves the regeneration.
• 13:57
  I think Radcliffe's plans are really ambitious.
• 14:00
  Let's see if he can pull them off.
• 14:02
  So that's a fairpoint on the obviously, while if Old Trafford
• 14:07
  has been redeveloped, you can play in it for a certain period.
• 14:09
  And obviously they've planned the new build so that you can
• 14:12
  play in Old Trafford all the way up to the new stadium.
• 14:14
  So that's a fairpoint. Ash, what's your thoughts on it?
• 14:18
  I mean, you can't disagree with what, as I said about if, if we
• 14:22
  get the new stadium, it's all about can it be executed?
• 14:25
  I think that's the biggest thing, right?
• 14:28
  There's a lot of dependencies and that is my concern.
• 14:31
  If we kind of put the dependencies aside because, you
• 14:35
  know, we'll have to do a political podcast another time.
• 14:38
  But one of the concerns that I've got is around, you know,
• 14:44
  financing in terms of, OK, it's so if we got the financing for
• 14:49
  the stadium, what pressure does that put on our transfer Kitty
• 14:52
  for, say, the next five years as a minimum?
• 14:55
  Because Arsenal have had to deal with paying the Emirates for the
• 15:00
  last 20 years. And we saw the impact it had on
• 15:03
  their finances and the fact that Wenger had to do this stunning
• 15:07
  job of getting us into the Champions League or sorry,
• 15:10
  Arsenal into the Champions League every season.
• 15:13
  We don't have that luxury anymore.
• 15:15
  You know, we've not really talked about what happened on
• 15:17
  Sunday. But, you know, if it wasn't for
• 15:20
  the Europa, you know, we're going to finish like just above
• 15:23
  the relegation zone. We're going to lose a lot of
• 15:25
  money in terms of even the positions that we end up
• 15:28
  finishing. So there's that element.
• 15:31
  It's like, how good is the team going to be if we, you know,
• 15:35
  leverage with a new stadium? And then, yeah, how long, how
• 15:39
  long will it take? That's that's the big question.
• 15:42
  I think the yeah, you could call it short term in terms of like,
• 15:46
  OK, someone's given me a billion.
• 15:49
  I'd like to think I can get more than 10 years out of the
• 15:52
  stadium. But there will there would have
• 15:54
  to be another call in terms of like, yeah, 10 to 15 years down
• 15:57
  the line. What do we do again?
• 16:00
  But this is where the Glazers missed a massive trick, right?
• 16:03
  The last upgrades on the stadium was just before the Glazers took
• 16:08
  over. You know, Martin Edwards rightly
• 16:12
  got a lot of criticism regarding transfers and stuff, but one
• 16:16
  thing you cannot fault fault him for was he upgraded the stadium
• 16:19
  at the right times. Throughout the 90s they bought
• 16:22
  land as well. I think even under the Glazer
• 16:25
  ownership, they bought land. So it's always been there, but
• 16:29
  they they didn't capitalise on that.
• 16:31
  And we know the reasons. We know that the Glazers are
• 16:33
  stingy bastards and, you know, they would never put a penny of
• 16:37
  their own money into it. And we're so stretched as a club
• 16:40
  in terms of, you know, the debt finance that we have to pay.
• 16:44
  It just never was like a, an option that the Glazers ever
• 16:47
  really considered. Then, you know, funnily enough,
• 16:51
  the feasibility of renovating Old Trafford was the whole
• 16:54
  reason, you know, the Glaze is even considered outside funding,
• 16:59
  right, Steve? So that's where we are.
• 17:03
  Yeah. I think my initial thoughts in
• 17:05
  terms of like when this all first came out, way before, like
• 17:09
  we even saw the designs, I was actually in favour of a new
• 17:12
  stadium. But now I just think it's like
• 17:15
  the dependencies that that they worry me too much.
• 17:17
  Like, you know, the government has to do so much to get
• 17:21
  everything that as me and Steve, what you want in terms of the
• 17:25
  the Manchester environment and, you know, having fantastic, you
• 17:30
  know, public transport, you know, you know, social
• 17:33
  facilities. We and we need all this that
• 17:36
  this is the this is kind of like the short term versus long term
• 17:39
  part. So yeah, it's it's a really
• 17:42
  tricky one. Yeah, I'm I'm not so concerned
• 17:47
  about like missing great Old Trafford nights that we spoke
• 17:50
  about. It's just more the focus is
• 17:53
  always going to be the team for me and I'm not sure short term
• 17:57
  if it's doable, especially with Trump's tariffs as well.
• 18:00
  So the funding probably goes from 2 billion to probably,
• 18:06
  yeah, 3-4, maybe 5. Who knows what the global
• 18:10
  economy will look like in a couple of years?