Former United chairman Edwards urges club to scrap 100,000-seat stadium and fix the squad first

Martin Edwards, Manchester United’s chairman from 1980 to 2002, has publicly urged the club to scrap its plans for a new 100,000-seat stadium and prioritise rebuilding a squad that currently sits 17th in the Premier League, separated from the relegation zone only by goal difference.

United have been pushing ahead with the project — informally dubbed the ‘Wembley of the North’ — spending £63.5 million on a 25-acre plot of land adjacent to Old Trafford to advance a development that could be completed around 2035. The club has also invited supporters to submit feedback on aspects including heritage, atmosphere, and transport links.

Edwards, speaking on Keys and Gray Unleashed, was unambiguous in his assessment. “There’s no point in having a wonderful stadium if you can’t fill it,” he said. “The crowd have been vociferous about what they could do with the new stadium. And I tell you what — I can sympathise with that.”

He argued that on-field performance must come before bricks and mortar. “You can talk about new stadiums and everything else, but the most important ingredient is always the players and what’s happening on the field — and success. The last thing the United fans want to hear is a new stadium when they’ve got a team that’s languishing 17th in the league, below Coventry.”

Edwards also questioned the composition of the squad despite significant recent outlay. United spent around £163 million on new signings in the summer of 2025, bringing in Youri Tielemans, Andrey Santos, and Carlos Baleba among others. Yet the club failed to secure a senior left-back before the window closed, leaving Luke Shaw as the only recognised option in that position. A knee injury to striker Benjamin Sesko has further exposed the squad’s lack of depth in attack.

“When I look at the team sheet, I think, why isn’t it performing?” Edwards said. “There are some good individuals on that. It’s down to choice. Did they need midfielders? Do they need a left-back or centre-forward?”

The stadium plans have already drawn discontent from sections of the fanbase, with some supporters chanting against the project during protests aimed at co-owners Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the Glazer family. Edwards’s intervention adds a prominent voice to that growing unease, framing the debate not as stadium versus heritage, but as infrastructure versus immediate footballing survival.