'Football first!' - Sir Jim Ratcliffe defended after setting 'big, big challenge' to stadium architects over Man Utd's plans to knock down Old Trafford and build 100,000-seater ground

The Red Devils have unveiled plans to knock down their current Old Trafford home and build a new state-of-the-art stadium that will cost around £2bn. It's estimated the new ground will take five years to build and could stimulate economic growth in the region and generate some 92,000 jobs.

However, there has been criticism already of United's plans. Fans have been left disappointed by the "ugly" look of the proposed new ground, while Paul Merson, among many others, has told the Red Devils they should be focusing on investment in the squad rather than building a new home. Yet Ratcliffe's ground plans have been backed by Patrick Campbell, one of the senior architects involved, who has offered more insight into the new stadium.

Campbell told the club's media: "This all started, the big, big challenge that we got from Jim Ratcliffe was the idea of generating the finest football stadium in the world. Football first, all about atmosphere, all about that fan experience, all about making this the best stadium in the world to come to. So it's talking about proximity to pitch, can you see everything that's going on and how closely can you get to that? How can all the fans get together with that fantastic roar to drive on the team, to make it a winning stadium, a winning team. So all about acoustics, all about sight-lines, all about proximity to pitch, all about feeling connected. The idea of... you know, maybe this is the biggest, football stadium in Europe. Maybe this will be the biggest football stadium in the world. There are some others that are out there at 150,000 but how can we drive this to be the finest club football ground in the world."

Campbell also claimed fans will be involved in the process. He added: "This is very much the start of the process. These are some ideas about how we can bring forward the finest football stadium in the world but we’ve got to do that with the fans, the local community and all the different stakeholders, to make sure they see it as their club, their stadium. We’re just custodians. We’re helping to find form in a stadium and we look forward to continuing some amazing consultations."

Manchester United will continue at their Old Trafford home in the meantime but have already been warned by chief executive Omar Berrada that building the new stadium may prevent the club from investing in the squad. With Ruben Amorim's team currently down in 13th place in the table, it's not the kind of update that manager or fans will want to hear.