Changing Room Chat: Underdog out to worry Manchester City

A MANCHESTER United fan aims to block rival Manchester City’s “goals of football domination” by selling off 5,000 parcels of a site earmarked by the world’s richest club for a £100-million training complex.

Businessman Shaun O’Brien has divided the land near City’s Etihad Stadium into square-foot plots for sale in a bid to disrupt a proposed council order to make him sell it. He was selling the plots for £250 each through website Unite Against the City, to “ardent Reds and anybody else that feels strongly about our David & Goliath situation,” in order to make the club negotiate individually and fairly for each plot, the website said.

The campaign was “to prevent Manchester City’s attempts to acquire our land in Eastlands, Manchester, in order to further their goals of football domination”, O’Brien posted.

The Manchester Evening News said O’Brien had refused a one-million-pound offer from City to leave the site, stalling the club’s bid to redevelop a run-down, 80-acre plot near their stadium. A compulsory purchase order has now been issued by Manchester City Council and the club to try to force O’Brien to sell at market value.