A toxic dressing room that needs to be fumigated

DURING a heated discussion with a United player outside the team coach at Southampton last season, the player asked me, "Do you support us?" I informed him, "Journalism is an impartial industry."

- SAMUEL LUCKHURST

The exchange ended with the player having more of an understanding of what the role of a United correspondent entails. I stressed to him I had 'criticised and praised every player on that coach' We are accused of being negative. The irony is players, players' relatives, managers, fans and press officers home in on the negative more.

A United player's father contacted me over a story he was unhappy with. Had he seen this piece about his son, trumpeting his development and community work? No, he hadn't.

Around a month before Erik ten Hag stepped into the Old Trafford press conference room and pressed the flesh of journalists to engage with the British press for the first time, this correspondent lunched with a senior staff member.

United were approaching a transition period under new chief executive Richard Arnold and Karen Shotbolt, the long-serving press officer, left at the end of the 2021-22 season. Among the various trivial matters discussed, the topic turned to the dressing room issues.