Manchester United and Southampton faced off at Old Trafford in the Premier League last weekend for a lacklustre 0-0 draw which left many wondering whether a trip to see the Red Devils is worth it at all.
And for Salford-based footie shirt collector Daniel Wright, the extortionate price of £99 for a non-members ticket to see the game live was enough for him to take matters into his own hands – and not by watching it in the pub instead.
He asked his followers on Twitter: “Flying to a different country and watching top division football for cheaper than a Manchester United ticket, is it possible?”
Wright, a Venezia FC enthusiast, then booked flights, accommodation and a match-day ticket to Poznan in western Poland in a bid to see if it could be done.
His return flights, leaving from Manchester and returning to Liverpool, cost him just £40.
The fixture of choice was an Ekstraklasa game between current domestic league champions Lech Poznan and strugglers Lechia Gdansk.
And the outcome was a thumping 5-0 win for the home side – who Poland’s all-time leading goalscorer Robert Lewandowski played for between 2008 and 2010 – in what was their biggest victory of the season.
The only disappointment for Wright, he said, was that: “Unfortunately the fans didn’t actually do the Poznan when they scored.”
With a comfy hotel room near the airport secured, a McDonald’s dinner and some snacks from a nearby Netto store for sustenance, Wright answered his own question with a resounding yes – and he even had £2.87 leftover!
Before signing off his entertaining Twitter thread, he made sure to recommend the eight-time Polish champions to any other avid football fans keen for an unusual away day – and took aim at United for a final quip.
“We got to see much better football than you would at United,” he said.
