Inside Carrington: The Canteen

After a morning's work on the training pitch, the players refuel in the Carrington canteen…

Based on the first floor in the main building, the canteen seats around 100 people and is used by all club employees based at Carrington, including the manager, coaching staff, first team, Reserves and Academy players, as well as all operational staff.

“Demarcation is never an issue here,” says Sir Alex Ferguson, whose idea it was to have everyone eat in the same room.

“Everybody eats together; people wander about from office to office. It’s always been good that way at Carrington.”

Lunch is served between 12 and 2pm, with snacks and drinks available throughout the day. The man responsible for deciding what culinary delights are on offer is club dietician Trevor Lea.

“Chicken curry is always a winner,” says Trevor. “Some players would eat that every day. Low fat chicken curry, that is, made our way. Fish fingers and fishcakes are popular; we get through a lot of those.

"Pizzas are another favourite with toppings like chicken, spicy beef or tuna and sweetcorn. But again they’re not high in fat. We don’t smother them in cheese.

“The challenge is to make things tasty without fat. So we experiment a lot with different textures and herbs and other ways of getting taste in.”