United Thread | 2025/26

[foggy1974]

It is laughable that they think it could be built by 2030.
The area where the new freight terminal will be is still in planning (as of November 2024)

First stage of plans submitted in bid to create huge rail freight interchange

THE first stage of plans have been formally submitted for the creation of a huge rail freight interchange.

www.sthelensstar.co.uk

So…the freight terminal can’t be moved until, the new one is built (and all the other infrastructure required), so it’s what…3+ years if they started now.
IF it started now.
basic groundwork’s can happen at Trafford, but until St Helens opens to equal capacity of Trafford, it can’t be ripped up and start to be replaced.
The demolition and build for stadium and infrastructure is likely to be 3+ years as well.
Probably 4-5 in reality for such a project, given Wembley was 4 years.

A challenging conservative view, would be 3 (for St Helen’s build) years + 4 (Trafford demolition and build) years = 7 years.

But that’s if it started now.

It’s likely to be , 1-2 years minimum before St Helens gets the initial final go ahead, let alone starts.
9 years time at best.
Add in objections, planning disputes, economic conditions, United finances… it’s well into a decade from now.

Freightliner have them over a barrel, they don’t have to move, they don’t need to move, and they will be fine waiting for the start (let alone completion) of St Helens before even needing to talk to United about the cost. The value of land will just keep climbing (Manchester and its neighbours - subject to WW3 - is just goming to keep growing), it would be worth more for freightliner to sell the land to anyone but United.

TLDR; it’s not going to happen

Supposedly Freightliner want £400m & the rags are hoping to get it for £40m. If it's anything like their transfer dealings then they'll haggle for 2 years & pay the £400m

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Supposedly Freightliner want £400m & the rags are hoping to get it for £40m. If it's anything like their transfer dealings then they'll haggle for 2 years & pay the £400m

And throw in a couple of players.

 

[slotter]

Supposedly Freightliner want £400m & the rags are hoping to get it for £40m. If it's anything like their transfer dealings then they'll haggle for 2 years & pay the £400m

And throw in a couple of players.

And then, before work starts, sack all the staff they have hired to build the stadium. Start to look for land twice as expensive and sell the land you previously bought, for the 40m, you originally valued it at.

 

[spiny]

I enjoyed the vacuity of this sentence;

"The issue could delay United's ambitious timeline to develop and open the new ground by 2030 at the earliest."

I dont profess to be an expert but would have thought that 2030 would be a more likely earliest timescale to move the rail freight depot. A £400 million cost must be more realistic than the £40 million offered so a substantial black hole that will need funding from somewhere. The rags expect to benefit from others paying yet again.

 

[spiny]

And throw in a couple of players.

Will they be paid train driver salaries?

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Will they be paid train driver salaries?

Hopefully they'll be better at driving trains than playing football.

 

[waspish]

Kieran Maguire’s comments seem vague and unconvincing. I used to think he was ok as a finance pundit but I am not so sure these days. I think he says what he thinks the media will like for clickbait purposes. The truth is that nobody has ever scrutinised United’s finances properly. They get a free pass while clubs like Everton and Forest get hammered.

It’s a shame all do it for clicks there are hard times out there to make money

 

[mancboy]

Kieran Maguire’s comments seem vague and unconvincing. I used to think he was ok as a finance pundit but I am not so sure these days. I think he says what he thinks the media will like for clickbait purposes. The truth is that nobody has ever scrutinised United’s finances properly. They get a free pass while clubs like Everton and Forest get hammered.

keiran maguire the self styled football finance expert, its noticeable that the media always go to him for a quote, his biggest skill is self promotion.

 

[foggy1974]

Hopefully they'll be better at driving trains than playing football.

Can't be any worse

 

[Tracking back]

TNT latest advert shows them doing there bit to keep the Rags relevant.
Right at the end they show captain Ratface.In the main the advert is about European games but 1% of the add includes FA cup coverage which should of been a Palace player.

This is where the media's insipid relationship with the rags becomes counter productive.

It won't go unnoticed on the majority of viewers that a rag player has been placed front and centre for an advert that has got absolutely nothing to do with the content it's promoting.

If they would have ended that advert with the captain of Brentford then the viewers may have been forgiven for their confusion.

However, seeing Ratface in that advert about European games will only evoke feelings of pitty for a once successful club hanging on by a thread and aching to stay relative.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

Can't be any worse

Can you imagine them as train drivers? Garnacho would end up going down the sidings at top speed instead of the mainline while Rasmus Birtles would miss most of the stops.

 

[Stoned Rose]

I for one am shocked

Manchester United’s ‘Wembley of the North’ stadium plan hits the buffers

Plans to build a 100,000-seat stadium next to Old Trafford are facing delays due to a stand-off over the price of land for the £4.2bn project

www.theguardian.com

Just waiting for Kaveh Solekhol to tell us how Freightliner “are getting 400m for a 40m piece of land” whilst ejaculating.

 

[eboblue]

Can you imagine them as train drivers? Garnacho would end up going down the sidings at top speed instead of the mainline while Rasmus Birtles would miss most of the stops.

And Antony would never get off the turntable

 

[slotter]

Can you imagine them as train drivers? Garnacho would end up going down the sidings at top speed instead of the mainline while Rasmus Birtles would miss most of the stops.

You make them sound like talentless, undertrained and overpaid employees! wanna be careful or you'll have trouble getting them transferred to a different operator. They could be costly remarks!

 

[Blue Mist]

Supposedly Freightliner want £400m & the rags are hoping to get it for £40m. If it's anything like their transfer dealings then they'll haggle for 2 years & pay the £400m

I doubt it.
More likely they will negotiate for 2 years and then buy the land for £600 million. After leaving it empty for 3 years they'll sell it back to Freightliner for £100 million.

 

[Prestwich_Blue]

I doubt it.
More likely they will negotiate for 2 years and then buy the land for £600 million. After leaving it empty for 3 years they'll sell it back to Freightliner for £100 million.

Because they can't find someone to unlock it.

 

[Stiff Little Wingers]

Can you imagine them as train drivers? Garnacho would end up going down the sidings at top speed instead of the mainline while Rasmus Birtles would miss most of the stops.

Well, the whole thing would hit the buffers.
Trouble is the rags just can't see the signals

 

[BeerIsTheBest]

Never seen a potential money loss on a transfer reported this way?

Slimey Stone, BBC website today …. ‘If Hojlund was sold for £30m, it would be a loss for United given the forward's 'book value' is £43m as he is two years into the five-year contract he signed’.

That’s a creative way of getting two numbers closer together isn’t it!

Signed for a reported £72m, no doubt paid handsomely for two years and will inevitably be well compensated if he exits against his will.

Compare this with the straplines on the loss we may suffer with Jack.

Why not just say he was yet another disaster buy, bigged up to be as good as a Norwegian with a similarish surname and now exposed as a grade A donkey.

 

[Vienna_70]

Can you imagine them as train drivers? Garnacho would end up going down the sidings at top speed instead of the mainline while Rasmus Birtles would miss most of the stops.

That’s a great analogy.

 

[Vienna_70]

Another day, two of the top seven stories on the BBC Sport homepage are about the rags, both unsurprisingly written by Slimy Stone.

The first (second only to the test match) tells how AMoron claims he went into games, knowing the rags would struggle. The second proclaims that Rasmus Birtles is available for £30 million, though no mention of the £70 million they wasted bringing him to the swamp.

It really is pathetic how much more coverage than other teams - even Littlewoods - the rags receive.