Manchester United expect to continue playing at Old Trafford throughout the adjacent build of the clubs new �2bn stadium, a senior architect on the project has confirmed.
Earlier this month, United revealed plans for a new state-of-the-art 100,000 capacity stadium that would replace Old Trafford on the same site as their storied home of 115 years. Once work begins, it promises to bring to life Sir Jim Ratcliffe's dream of creating a 'Wembley of the north'.
Although redeveloping the existing Old Trafford was considered, it was concluded that building a brand new stadium from the ground up is the better option.
Part of the issue associated with adding to Old Trafford as it sits has been the engineering headache and cost stemming from its proximity to an operating railway line across the back of the south stand. The new build will remove that issue by moving slightly west.
But it also means that by building adjacent to the current stadium, it can stay in use until a time when the club is ready to move across.
"The idea is to make sure that Manchester United can continue to play in Old Trafford throughout this whole process," Foster + Partners architect Patrick Campbell told ManUtd.com.
"So we're locating the new stadium broadly in the middle of the Bridgewater Canal and the railway line, just to the west of the existing stadium."
While United has always been a club priding itself on being the best across the board, including infrastructure and facilities, the single biggest drawback of a new stadium is losing the history attached to Old Trafford, opened in 1910. And even though very little of the original build survives after Second World War damage and 1990s and 2000s redevelopment, tributes to that history in the form of the Munich clock and memorial and various statues are dotted around the stadium.
Making sure of all that is incorporated into the new Old Trafford is important.
"We were honoured and privileged to be at the recent [Munich] memorial," Campbell said.
"It's so powerful. It's so important and it's non-negotiable. That has to be play such an important part in the design of how this all comes forward. We want to work with fans to understand what are the important pieces and whats the best way of continuing that beautiful story of the history and making sure we can continue to honour those memories
"So it's about how could they be integrated within the new stadium, or the public spaces around the stadium? Or how we might even add to them. How can we make this [area] even more about Manchester United, the history and the story which is unique to the club and unlike anything else?"
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