Stockport County has unveiled grand expansion plans that propose to nearly double the capacity of its home stadium.
The football club yesterday launched the next phase of consultation on plans for a phased expansion of its historic Edgeley Park stadium, which – if approved – would look to increase the capacity from 10,852 up to c.18,000.
Plans for the expansion and enhancement of the Stockport team’s home ground were initially announced back in 2022, when the Club firs introduced its “vision” for the stadium and surrounding area, and called on its loyal fans and the local community for their feedback.
The Club says the feedback it received during that first consultation was “instrumental” in shaping the “core objectives” for the expansion as this next phase launches.
An exciting series of new artist impression images and an accompanying video showcasing what Edgeley Park could look like following the refurbishment and expansion has also been released by the club, alongside the plans.
The initial phase would include the eastern expansion and enhancement of the historic North Stand (Danny Bergara Stand) and East Stand (Railway End).
The expanded North Stand would provide around 600 additional seats, increasing its capacity to around 2,680, while the new East Stand would see its capacity increase from 1,366 up to around 4,500, and, as part of the plans, the North Stand’s historic brick frontage along Hardcastle Road would be retained and repaired.
Subject to securing planning permission, the Club says it wants to begin work on the North Stand eastern extension in early 2025.
Then, as part of the Club’s longer-term plans, it’s envisaged that the South Stand (Together Stand) would be redeveloped to increase its capacity to around 5,500, while the final element would be a western extension to the North Stand to provide another 600 seats.
Stockport County has unveiled grand plans to expand Edgeley Park / Credit: Stockport County FC
But, other than the capacity increase, what else are the plans proposing then?
Well, according to Stockport County, the plans propose to create a “true community stadium” with access to a wide range of spaces for the local community, create a better matchday experience for all – including more covered seating, with a “great view” of the pitch – and improve the stadium’s accessibility for those with disabilities and additional needs.
On top of this, the plans also look to offer “quick and easy” routes into and away from Edgeley Park for the benefit of fans, visitors, and local residents, and intend to make the stadium more “environmentally-friendly and sustainable”, where possible.
And, as Stockport County is already on its way to become locally known-for, the plans also intend to provide a greater range of high-quality food and drink options too.
If approved, it would increase the capacity of the team’s home ground from from 10,852 up to c.18,000.
The Club says the latest proposals and next round of consultation launched this week are based on a phased approach to “investing in improvements” to Edgeley Park in order to “ensure sustainable growth” for the future.
Stockport County says it’s intends to submit a hybrid planning application for the expansion in the next few months – which would follow on from this next round of the consultation process.
Keen to have your say?
The second round of consultation on the plans for Edgeley Park is now underway, and will remain open until Wednesday 3 April 2024, so to get involved and give your feedback, you’ll just need to complete the feedback form on the Stockport County website here.
Or, if you’d prefer to do it in person, there’s several public drop-in sessions taking place at the stadium as part of the consultation on Tuesday 19 March at 3pm-7pm, Saturday 23 March at 2:30pm-5pm (matchday event), and Monday 25 March at 11am-3pm.
You can also see more information on the plans overall on the Stockport County website here.
Pep Guardiola hints at when Manchester City fans can expect to see their latest arrival
Danny Jones
Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has given supporters a rough timeline as to when they can expect to see their new signing, or at least their latest arrival, make his first appearance.
The Blues wrapped up the January transfer window with four major signings: their new attacking number seven, Omar Marmoush (who has already bagged a hattrick on his home debut) promising defensive duo, Abdukodir Khusanov and Brazilian Vitor Reis, as well as their ‘mini-Rodri’, Nico Gonzalez.
However, the club has had another late arrival who was technically signed back at the start of last year but who has spent for the last 12 months or so loaned back to his previous parent club, River Plate in Argentina, waiting to make the move over to the Etihad Stadium – and now he’s here in Manchester.
Speaking on his touchdown in 0161, Pep said Claudio Echeverri won’t be thrown into first-team action straight away but did give a rough estimate as to when City fans could expect him to get involved. You can see him discussing the integration plan in his post-match press conference following the Spurs win.
The mention was only brief but there’s still plenty of reason for Man City fans to be excited by the late January signing.
“Yeah, he [Claudio Echeverri] is going to start to train and mainly will be for the end of the season, maybe the [Club] World Cup and as soon as possible [that] he arrives he can adapt quick for the future.”
As mentioned, the 19-year-old Argentinian attacking midfielder from Resistencia officially put pen to paper with CFG back in January 2024 and was quickly dubbed ‘the next Messi’.
Now, although the football world is often quick to jump the gun with these things and he isn’t the first and certainly won’t be last to be slapped with this premature title, he’s done more to back up these claims since then than he has rubbish them.
Starring at the 2025 Under-20 South American Championships, netting six goals in nine games to finish the tournament as the second highest scorer thanks to notable braces against Brazil and Uruguay as the young Argentine’s finished as runners up.
He also notched 48 senior appearances for River Plate thus far, netting four goals and grabbing eight assists in that time, not to mention having already captained his national team at the 2023 Under 17s World Cup, where he scored another five.
Safe to say there’s plenty of talent to be tapped in this lad.
Once again, Echeverri won’t go straight into the senior set-up for a little while yet, barring a major injury crisis, but he’ll be a more than exciting addition to the City Football Academy and for future first-team lineups for years to come.
Who knows, maybe he’ll be included in an FA Cup matchday squad? Nevertheless, you can expect him to not just come of the bench but hopefully show what he can do at the Club World Cup this summer.
City‘s first fixture as reigning champions of the competition will be against Moroccan side Wydad AC on 18 June 2025.
You can watch Echeverri’s first full interview as a Man City player down below:
The new Man City signing is excited to be finally be part of the club 13 months on from agreeing his contract.
‘Nothing is eternal’: Is Pep Guardiola hinting at the end of Manchester City’s supremacy?
Danny Jones
Pep Guardiola looks to have suggested that more than a decade of Manchester City’s supremacy and Premier League dominance at the very least might be coming to an end.
Speaking in his post-match press interviews after City were knocked out of the Champions League by serial European Cup winners Real Madrid, Guardiola cut a somewhat more deflated figure than usual following the 3-1 defeat.
A Kylian Mbappe hattrick which was closed out within an hour of play was enough to stretch the aggregate score to 6-3 over the two legs and Madrid doubling their lead across the tie proved yet again why, not unlike City domestically over the last decade, they’re the kings of the continental competition.
In contrast, however, Pep seemed to accept the loss much more easily than perhaps we’ve seen in the past and rather than appearing familiarly frustrated or defiant in the press conference; instead, he seemed rather reflective, responding to one reporter: “Nothing is eternal”.
🗣️ "Nothing is eternal" – Pep Guardiola.
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Insisting that they have to decide whether a significant rebuild is needed to keep competing at the very top level consistently as they have done since the 54-year-old arrived back in 2016, he argued that it is only with that they’ll be able to determine what comes next.
As for the result itself, he made no bones about Carlo Ancelotti’s side having “deserved it”, stating simply that “the best team won” and that fans and players alike have to “accept the reality: they were better.”
Having been a familiar foe for Pep long before he arrived in Manchester, both at Barcelona and Bayern Munich – not to mention City having faced Los Blancos a dozen times before Tuesday night since 2012 – there have been less surprising outcomes for supporters to come to terms with.
“With time, the club and everyone is going to accept what it is but for now we have 30/40 games for the Premier League next season to try and be here [in the Champions League] and to improve. Nothing is eternal”, said the Catalan coaching genius.
On the other hand, he also went on to add that it was merely a reflection on the night itself and not what his team have achieved in recent years.
He went on to remark that “when we were playing outstanding it hurt more” to be knocked out of the UCL when he felt they deserved to stay in it, but still insisted: “We have been unbelievable and we have to try step by step to get better from today.” Tonight just wasn’t the night.
Who knows? Perhaps it was just some more melodrama from a manager with an undeniable flare for pageantry and playing into/in the face of narratives when he doesn’t come out on top – which hasn’t happened all that often until their dip in form this season.
Plus, there’s certainly still plenty for him and the fans to be positive about; not only has the arrival of their ‘Egyptian Prince’ and the media’s Mo Salah successor, Omar Marmoush, got plenty of people excited – especially after that first-half hattrick against Newcastle – but so too have the other January signings.
In fact, for all of his downplaying in this particular presser (which you can hear in full HERE), it felt like there were only upsides after their victory over Newcastle, even going so far as to dub new signing Nico Gonzalez a ‘mini-Rodri‘.
You can watch the highlights from the game down below:
Pep is right, nothing is eternal – but sometimes you just come up against talents like Mbappe and there’s very little anyone can do about it.
Emily Sergeant -
14th March 2024 
