Like their rivals, the problem is not the rise in revenue that a new home offers but that so little of it ends up being spent on players

Build it and they will come – but you should be aware that you will be left with significant debt repayments, an element of the story to which Kevin Costner took a characteristically cavalier attitude. Which may be why Field of Dreams was about building a baseball stadium in Iowa for Shoeless Joe Jackson and the ghosts of the 1919 Chicago Black Sox rather than, say, Daniel Levy constructing a football stadium in Haringey for Vincent Janssen and the remnants of the 2019 Tottenham Hotspur team.

In the past week, Manchester United have revealed plans for a new £2bn stadium, capacity 100,000, next to Old Trafford, while Newcastle are reported to be looking to move from St James’ Park to a 65,000-capacity stadium on Leazes Park. Everton will move into a new stadium at Bramley-Moore dock next season. Wrexham are building a 5,500-capacity Kop. New stadiums suddenly are fashionable again after a period in which they came to seem almost an afterthought. That, perhaps, is an unintended consequence of profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

• Co-owner would draw line if treated like Glazers
• ‘I’m no different to the average person. It’s not nice’

Sir Jim Ratcliffe says he “doesn’t mind being unpopular” at Manchester United but would draw the line at the toxic level of abuse aimed at the Glazer family and walk away from the club in which he bought a 28.94% stake for £1.3bn.

The co-owner has embarked on a wide-ranging raft of staff and spending cuts since the Ineos billionaire took control of football operations last year. His attempts to boost revenue have included a mid-season hike in some ticket prices, affecting under-16s and pensioners.

Sextortion criminals | Manchester United v Peterborough | Worst jobs | Goods from Canada, Greenland and Mexico

I was once told by a parent that she shouldn’t have to check her child’s phone because she trusted him. As a police officer, I advise in my presentations on county lines that this is a very dangerous line to take. This is exactly why you should take control of your child’s phone – criminals also believe that children can be trusted (Children in UK as young as 11 targeted by sextortion criminals, data reveals, 9 March).
Carmen Lambert Singer
Oxted, Surrey

• Manchester Utd’s new stadium could be delivered in five years (Report, 11 March). By then my beloved Peterborough Utd will be promoted to the Championship, where we will meet the Red Devils following their demotion from the Premier League due to them having no money to buy decent players. A great away day for Posh fans.
Toby Wood
Peterborough

• ‘It’s not nice to hear certain things,’ says United captain
• Fernandes responds after co-owner’s critical interviews

Bruno Fernandes has aimed a barb at Sir Jim Ratcliffe by stating no player wants to be told they are “not good enough or overpaid”, as Manchester United’s co-owner said this week regarding some of Ruben Amorim’s squad.

The captain was speaking after his hat-trick in Thursday’s Europa League last-16 second leg 4-1 win over Real Sociedad that sealed United’s passage to a quarter-final against Lyon.

Myles Lewis-Skelly could return to an old role, Wolves are still in danger and United’s strikers are running out of time

Premier League safety is all that matters to David Moyes and an eight-game unbeaten run – Everton’s best sequence since going nine matches without defeat under Ronald Koeman in 2016-17 – has almost accomplished a task that looked much more onerous when he returned in January. Publicly, the Everton manager maintains the job is not done and that no contract issues will be resolved until the club’s top-flight status is mathematically confirmed. Privately, and beneath the more relaxed demeanour that he has brought back with him to Goodison Park, there may also be a fierce ambition to finish above two clubs who deemed him surplus to requirements. Everton can go three points clear of one, West Ham, and leapfrog another, Manchester United, with victory over Graham Potter’s visitors on Saturday. With Liverpool, Arsenal, Nottingham Forest, Manchester City and Chelsea to come after an impending two-week break, Moyes could do with a more clinical display from Everton to step closer to his aims. Andy Hunter

Everton v West Ham, Saturday 3pm (all times GMT)

Ipswich v Nottingham Forest, Saturday 3pm

Manchester City v Brighton, Saturday 3pm

Southampton v Wolves, Saturday 3pm

Bournemouth v Brentford, Saturday 5.3pm

Arsenal v Chelsea, Sunday 1.30pm

Fulham v Tottenham, Sunday 1.30pm

Leicester v Manchester United, Sunday 7pm

• United in Europa League last eight after beating Sociedad
• ‘We need to help him win titles because he deserves this’

Ruben Amorim praised Bruno Fernandes’s hat-trick performance that swept Real Sociedad aside and took Manchester United into the Europa League quarter-finals, saying his side “needs to win titles” for the captain.

After Mikel Oyarzabal struck first via an early penalty, United dominated, Fernandes scoring two from the spot on 16 and 50 minutes, before a superb late strike to complete the hat-trick. Diogo Dalot’s added-time fourth sealed progress.

Manchester United kept their trophy hopes alive with a swaggering display that battered Real Sociedad and must be the Ruben Amorim blueprint.

From the moment they fell behind early on, his side were electrified, as if finally locating the high-voltage socket under him and gleefully plugging themselves in. United came at Real Sociedad relentlessly, a whir of energy and creativity that is the best advertisement yet for where their head coach might take them.

• Updates from a finely-poised last-16 tie (agg 1-1, 8pm KO)
• Get in touch! Email Daniel | Live scores

It’s big night tonight for Højlund. He’s improved a bit in the last couple of games – he’s getting chances and missing them, rather than disappearing – and has done well in Europe since joining United. I think Amorim has him pegged, as it goes:

“We have to look at Rasmus as a player – he has the pace, he has the technique, he’s scored some goals that are really hard to score. Sometimes he doesn’t choose the better run, sometimes he’s so anxious to touch the ball and he moves away from the goal. We address that in training but sometimes it is the confidence of the player.”

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s company Compass is sadly symptomatic of what football has become

What’s this? A second article about the Ineos Compass in a week – it’s this kind of inefficiency that would never happen at Manchester United. But I have been staring at the Ineos Compass for the past 48 hours. For those of you fortunate enough not to have encountered it, according to Ineos’s website “the Ineos Compass was devised by chairman Sir Jim Ratcliffe as a fun way of attempting to capture how Ineos works, and why”.

To the untrained (and perhaps also to the trained) eye, it is just a circle with words in it. “Words we like” are in the top portion and “words we don’t like” in the bottom. We like “no human is limited” – despite Sir Jim highlighting the limitations of a number of first-team players on Monday.

Local people are enthusiastic about regeneration, though some fans share Andy Burnham’s worries over where the money will come from

Even on a freezing, rainy day with no match scheduled, the area surrounding Old Trafford in Manchester is abuzz with football fans from far and wide.

Just a day since Manchester United revealed their plans for the new 100,000-capacity stadium in Old Trafford, there is a sense of excitement at the new proposals: the plans promise 92,000 jobs and a large-scale “regeneration” of the area, including 17,000 new homes.

• United manager says criticism of his players is fair
• Yoro and Maguire ruled out of Real Sociedad second leg

Ruben Amorim has said that Sir Jim Ratcliffe was correct to criticise Manchester United players, saying he and they are “underperforming”.

Ratcliffe claimed on Monday that the squad was overpaid and not good enough, referencing Casemiro, Rasmus Højlund, André Onana, Antony and Jadon Sancho when doing so. Amorim was asked about the comments from the club’s co-owner.

• Berrada hopes investment in team will not be affected
• Plan to build £2bn stadium in five years has this in mind

Omar Berrada has admitted it is a “risk” for Manchester United to try to build a world-class team and venue at the same time. The club announced on Tuesday they planned to construct a 100,000-seat ground on land adjacent to Old Trafford.

Berrada hopes United can move into the £2bn stadium by the start of the 2030-31 season but said the cost of building it could have an impact, acknowledging that Arsenal and Tottenham struggled to juggle building a ground and fighting at the top.

On Manchester United’s job losses, finances and new stadium, it takes hawk-like focus to work out what the co-owner is actually saying

A core strength of Ineos is direct accountability. Matrix structures are by definition amorphous, confusing, and create places for people to hide.

Hmm. That does sound bad, Sir Jim. Talk me through it one more time, these frustrating corporate shields, these blame-avoidance tactics you’re so worried about. But first could you please just come out from behind the table. And stop doing that admittedly very good Donald Duck voice.

Local lad Norman Foster’s plan envisions an enormous canopy over a new stadium and a ‘mixed-use mini-city’. But, given the club’s £1bn debts, the idea seems as flimsy as its own tensile membrane

‘What Manchester does today,” Benjamin Disraeli once proclaimed, “the world does tomorrow.” So begins the breathless promotional video for Manchester United’s proposed £2bn football stadium, summoning the words of the Victorian prime minister to launch Norman Foster’s vision for a “mixed-use mini city” beneath a gigantic, three-spired tent.

The only thing is, the world has seen quite a lot of big tops before. There is something decidedly retro about the plans, which depict a vast tensile canopy stretched over the 100,000-capacity stadium and its surrounds, covering what Lord Foster says will be “arguably the largest public space in the world”. Putting something bigger than Tiananmen Square under a tent doesn’t sound like a particularly appealing prospect, but then the Man Utd mantra appears to be bigger is better.

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Iconic. Ambitious. Exciting. Spine-tingling. All these adjectives and more greeted Tuesday morning’s announcement that Manchester United will build a 100,000-seater stadium to replace Old Trafford, and construct it within a five-year period. Add some context and one has to admire, above all, Big Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s chutzpah. Debts for his petrochemicals empire are forecast to reach almost £10bn this year. The All Blacks are taking legal action against Ineos for exiting a sponsorship deal early. Big Sir Jim has introduced a raft of cost-cutting measures at United, including more than 400 job losses and closure of the staff canteen.

I’m in good form, absolutely brilliant. On the flight I had chest pains and the crew on Virgin were brilliant … my heart rate was racing. From the time I was monitored on the aeroplane and for the few days in hospital, my resting heart rate was anything above 155 beats per minute. I had a virus that attached itself to my heart that just needed clearing, rebooting and going through the process. When I get home I will have some medical checks and go and see my GP, but I feel terrific now” – Stuart Pearce delivers some good news after his medical scare on a flight back from Las Vegas last week.

To be fair, Norman Foster has done a great job for Manchester United with his rendering of a new Old Trafford. Any chance he could also conjure up a couple of strikers who can score goals, a central midfield with some pace and a defence without Victor Lindelöf too while he’s at it?” – Noble Francis.

‘Not good enough and overpaid’: a moment of clarity from Big Sir Jim? Oh, he was talking about the players” – Adrian Riley.

Can I be the first of 1,057 readers to suggest that if Mikel Arteta’s side are serious about progressing beyond the Round of Arsenal, then they could really use an early goal in the second leg to settle the nerves?” – Ed Taylor (and no others).

I believe R Reisman (yesterday’s Football Daily letters) is on to something. I have filled out his feedback form and have successfully passed all conditions: a) this is funny; b) not too long; c) not offensive; d) I’m not Noble Francis; e) there are no links; f) hopefully no one else thought of this” – Mike Glogower (and no others).

• Officials say plan will create 92,000 jobs and 17,000 homes
• Architect Norman Foster puts ‘vast umbrella’ over ground

Manchester United have confirmed their intention to build a new 100,000-capacity stadium in the Old Trafford area, leaving their home of 115 years.

The news was celebrated by United as a potential driving force for renewal in the area as they revealed plans which, officials claim, will create as many as 92,000 jobs and 17,000 new homes in Greater Manchester.

• Co-owner backs Ruben Amorim to stay for ‘long time’
• He admits not sacking Erik ten Hag in summer was error

Sir Jim Ratcliffe has launched a blistering attack on Manchester United players, stating some are “not good enough” and “overpaid”, referencing Casemiro, Antony, Jadon Sancho, Rasmus Højlund and André Onana when doing so.

In a series of interviews, Ratcliffe, the club’s co-owner, also said that Ruben Amorim would be the head coach for a “long time”, and admitted that not sacking Erik ten Hag last summer was an error.

The head coach does not want his players to be so passive yet there were glimmers against Arsenal of how this team can play

Something extraordinary happened at Old Trafford on Sunday, almost without precedent during Ruben Amorim’s four months as the Manchester United manager. His team enjoyed a half-time lead. The only time they had done so previously was in his third game in early December at home against Everton. Back then, they went in 2-0 up en route to a 4-0 win. Now, in match No 26, they were 1-0 ahead against Arsenal.

Drill a little deeper and there is more remarkable detail. United have scored before the interval in only seven of Amorim’s games – a total of 10 goals. They have held the lead on five occasions in first halves, squandering three of them.

Supporters have marched in protest at a number of Premier League grounds. It’s not hard to see why they believe their game is being taken away

On Sunday, thousands of Manchester United fans marched in protest at the club’s ownership. The week before last, there was a (much smaller) march against their club’s owners by fans at Chelsea. A couple of weeks earlier there were protests at Tottenham. Fulham fans are deeply unhappy. There have been grumblings at Manchester City. In total, at roughly three-quarters of the Premier League clubs, there is significant supporter discontent.

In some ways, the protests are distant background noise. Television viewers could quite easily have watched United’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal on Sunday and not known about the march. How big a deal is it, anyway, that around 5,000 people walked about a mile from a pub to a stadium, with most wearing black and chanting? The demonstrations are often incoherent. The one at Chelsea featured chants for Roman Abramovich, which suggested what they were really angry about is the club’s lack of success since the oligarch was sanctioned. It’s true that dissent would be rapidly quelled by a proper title challenge; nobody wants to disrupt that.

• Europa League last-16 return with Sociedad is ‘massive’
• Backs compatriot Rasmus Højlund to end goal drought

Christian Eriksen has admitted that there is “massive pressure” on Manchester United to beat Real Sociedad on Thursday in order to keep alive their hopes of playing European football next season.

United enter the Europa League last-16 second leg at Old Trafford with the tie poised at 1-1 after last week’s game at the Anoeta Stadium. After Sunday’s 1-1 draw with Arsenal in the Premier League United are 14th on 34 points, 11 behind Aston Villa in seventh – the last place that may earn a Europa Conference place, depending on who wins the domestic cups. United are out of both.