This brave overhanging firmament, this majestical roof fretted with golden fire, this collection of generic spires with a massive plastic handkerchief chucked over the top. Three weeks on from first sight of the conceptual drawings for Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s stately pleasure dome, also known as the proposed Manchester United Stadium Soccer Product Hub, there is still a sense of double-take about the whole thing.
Early impressions of the new ground ranged from a defunct Venusian mercury mine, to Dubai Butlin’s, to a pointed corporate monument to our divided world. Welcome to the Staff Lunch Arena, embodiment of the 21st-century conviction that if you just stopped buying so many sandwiches and also fired the tea lady you could probably afford a vast and unattainable house.
