Old Trafford picture special as Manchester United consider huge renovation

Even the most iconic football stadiums can start to show their age and hold a club back. That's what Manchester United are finding with Old Trafford, their home for the past 112 years.

The 'Theatre of Dreams' - fortress of the Busby Babes and Sir Alex Ferguson's 1999 Treble winners - has witnessed hundreds of unforgettable moments down the years.

Old Trafford may be the second-largest football stadium in Britain, its 74,879 capacity puts it behind only Wembley's 90,000 seats, but the place is starting to show its age.

Little surprise, then, that United are considering various options to bring their home up to the kind of modern standards their fans demand.

One involves levelling the place and rebuilding a completely new, state-of-the-art arena with a capacity in excess of 80,000 completely from scratch.

But that would mean United moving out for probably two years. There are no other stadiums of comparable size in the north-west and a ground share at Manchester City's Etihad Stadium is out of the question.

So the more likely solution is to revamp and enlarge the South Stand, also known as the Sir Bobby Charlton Stand.

This idea has been a non-starter for decades because of the railway line that runs behind it but advances in building technology mean it's no longer an insurmountable problem.

United would also, in all likelihood, be able to complete a South Stand expansion without impacting capacity and therefore revenue while the construction work is taking place.

But this would be far from the first time the complexion of Old Trafford has dramatically changed as our picture special of the stadium through the ages proves.