If you visit Old Trafford today, it very much looks like a modern stadium.
There is lots of metal and glass, plastic seats (or padded seats if you’re posh), and plenty of obvious redevelopment. Stands have been rebuilt, concourses modernised, facilities updated. Old Trafford has evolved beyond recognition.
But there is one part of the stadium built in 1910 that remains: the original players’ tunnel.
It’s not in use as a players tunnel anymore, but it’s still there, right in the middle of the technical area. And it holds a hell of a lot of history. It’s a real “if these walls could talk” kind of place.
Every Manchester United player from 1910 to 1993 walked through that tunnel. So did every opponent, and some of the biggest names in world football when Old Trafford hosted international matches.
It’s easy to ignore, but it’s the club’s only physical link to the original stadium.
And in a place that has changed so much, it’s fitting that the last thing left is a tunnel — a literal way back to where it all started.
Surviving the Bombs of World War II
The fact that the tunnel is still there is even more remarkable when you consider what happened to the rest of the stadium.
Old Trafford was practically destroyed by German bombs during World War II, leaving it unusable for many years. The Main Stand was blown up, the pitch was a mess, but that tunnel was unscathed.
The stadium was rebuilt around what remained, which wasn’t much, but the players tunnel was part of the surviving structure. However, this was not a rebuild with modernisation in mind, it was simply an effort to restore what was there before.
United played at Maine Road until 1949 while the work took place. There wasn’t a lot of money around after the war so it took time to make Old Trafford a playable stadium again, and it was a case of fixing the essentials, not making improvements.
A much bigger period of redevelopment came in the 1960s and 1970s, when Louis Edwards was the chairman. This was about modernisation, and the story goes that, during re-design consultations, Edwards was asked about removing the players tunnel and replacing it. He is fabled to have said:
“If German bombs couldn’t knock that tunnel down then I’m certainly not going to”
This is not documented fact, but it’s a great bit of folklore.
Whether he said it or not, the tunnel stayed, and no one has attempted to remove or replace it since.
Why Is It Important?
It’s only a tunnel. Just bricks and cement.
But think about it.
Matt Busby walked through that tunnel a thousand times. So did the Busby Babes. Sir Alex Ferguson. Bryan Robson. Brian McClair. George Best. Denis Law. Bill Foulkes. Alex Stepney. Joe Spence. Jack Rowley. Lou Macari. You could keep going all day.
Club legends.
Even Diego Maradona walked through that tunnel – the night Manchester United beat Barcelona 3-0 in 1984.
Everything else has changed. All of these players wore different kits. The stadium around them has evolved. Heck, even the badge has changed over the years. But that tunnel didn’t change. It’s the one constant that connects them all.
It is the only remaining physical link to the day Old Trafford first opened. And it has been part of every home match played there since.
It’s not famous like the Stretford End. It’s not impressive and flashy like the hospitality areas. It’s not photographed 5,000 times a day like the Trinity Statue.
But it might be more significant than all of them.
Why They Built The New Tunnel
You will probably have seen the new players tunnel. It’s in the corner of the stadium between the Stretford End and the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand and the changing rooms lead out directly onto it.
The old changing rooms used to be directly at the top of the original players tunnel. They were right next to each other and quite small. They were moved during Alex Ferguson’s reign, and the new tunnel was built in the South West corner of the stadium.
This happened for several reasons, but mainly to create an access route onto the pitch for emergency vehicles if required. The new tunnel is big enough for that and there is no other possible entry point at the stadium.
A secondary reason for the exact positioning is because Fergie wanted opposition players to have to come out directly underneath and next to the Old Trafford faithful. Good use of the intimidation factor. It’s the same reason the home team changing room is soundproofed and the away team isn’t. And why the home team technical area seats are heated and the away team seats aren’t. So goes the story, anyway.
This change was completed in 1993, so since then, all players have entered the pitch from the new tunnel.
As an added bit of trivia, the team run out to the song ‘This is the One’ by the iconic Manchester band, The Stone Roses. Gary Neville chose it when he was made captain in the mid-2000s and it hasn’t been changed since.
What About Manchester United’s New Stadium?
Given what you now know about the original players tunnel and its historical significance, there have been some interesting ideas as to what happens to it next.
Manchester United are in the early stages of another major redevelopment at Old Trafford. The biggest ever. They are going to build a brand new bigger stadium right next to the current one.
Current plans would make it the biggest stadium in England, a ‘Wembley of the North’ type of deal. The whole area around it would be regenerated too, with thousands of new houses, hundreds of business and job opportunities, improved transport links, and more.
It’s a very long way off, but it does raise an obvious question: what happens to the only remaining part of the original 1910 stadium? It would be tragic if, after surviving everything thrown at it so far, it was simply knocked down and reduced to rubble.
Obviously, with a project of this scale the old players tunnel isn’t exactly at the top of the list of priorities, but one particularly good idea has been floated.
The hope is that a new, dedicated train station could be built for the stadium to be used on matchdays. If that happens, there’s a proposal to incorporate the original tunnel as the route from the station into the ground.
Wouldn’t that be something?
The tunnel used by Manchester United’s players for 83 years would become the tunnel that fans used to access the new stadium for the next 83 years and hopefully many more.
Talk about poetry.