Manchester United Women at Old Trafford: Why now when no one can watch?

By Katie Whyatt Mar 27, 2021 25
Only a lone dog walker punctuated the row of stewards littering Sir Matt Busby Way.

The Legends fast food and takeaway cafe, doors hidden amid the gaudy murals of George Best and Paul Scholes, had its shutters wrenched shut in stoic silence. No guests peopled the darkened windows of Hotel Football and the silver programme huts were, too, boarded up. All the famous landmarks, even if only recognisable to most from television, were uncannily, eerily empty.

The United Trinity statue, so often enveloped in selfie sticks, stood alone, and those so used to the pandemic restrictions they panic when they see a party scene in a movie filmed 10 years ago might even have leapt in alarm to see that the artist’s impressions of Best, Law and Charlton were not practising any kind of social distancing. Occasionally, a fleet of runners would meander between the statutes to satiate all the old urges.