Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Premier League
Luke Davies
Topics: Manchester United, Sir Alex Ferguson, Cristiano Ronaldo, Premier League
Manchester United’s Carrington Training Centre has played host to some of the best footballers of all time – but it would be turned into something entirely different if a war was to happen.
Carrington replaced United’s ‘The Cliff’ training ground in the year 2000.
Since opening its doors, the likes of David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, and Wayne Rooney have used its facilities – whether that be the carpet-like training pitches, gym facilities or boot rooms.
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Although Ronaldo may not entirely approve of the facilities, which he made clear in his 2022 interview on Piers Morgan Uncensored, the training ground is one of the most iconic in the Premier League.
Former United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, 82, previously revealed that there was a bizarre clause written into the contract to buy the land.
This included ‘untouched’ areas for Canada Geese as well as an odd scenario involving a potato farm.
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"The Cliff was great when I first came, but then the club grew,” he told the UTD Podcast in September 2021.
"We had to put an extension in the indoor place for the boys to dress because we had no space in the actual building.
"So, then I started to wander around Manchester looking for a piece of ground that we could build a new training ground on.
"We’re hunting everywhere, in North Manchester in particular.”
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The Scot then explained how former chief scout and academy director Les Kershaw approached him with a friend from Shell.
"He said ‘Shell are trying to sell some of their ground over at Carrington’,... so we went to see.
"The size of the land we were getting, I think it was 28 acres or something, but there were restrictions which I can’t understand today."
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"Part of the restrictions were, in the event of war, we had to turn the ground into potato fields,” Ferguson explained.
"And, up at the very end, there had to be an acre or two acres for Canadian geese.”
The 13-time Premier League-winning manager then revealed how he returned to Old Trafford during Louis van Gaal’s tenure as manager only to find that the Dutchman had put stands and floodlights up around the venue.