While their bitter rivals Liverpool are sweating over a takeover that could decide their future, Manchester United have today revealed some worrying financial results of their own.  The club which for so long was the financial powerhouse of the Premier League lost a staggering £79.6 million.

The news will only add further pressure on the clubs controversial owners. Ever since their takeover of the club in 2005 the Glazer family have hardly had the most welcoming reception from United fans, with a ‘Green and Gold till United are sold’ protest launched last season.

But the Glazers have always insisted a sale was never going to be an option and it seems as if the figures released today haven’t changed their mind. Current Chief Executive at United David Gill even described the figures as “very good”.

He said: “There is no pressure at all to sell any star player whether it is Wayne Rooney or X, Y or Z. I can categorically say that. I can’t speak for any other club but the United fans should not be concerned.

“We have a long-term financing structure in place, excellent revenues that are growing, we are controlling our costs – total wages are 46% of turnover – and we can afford the interest on our long-term finance.”

Now I’ll admit that I am no financial expert but to me a loss of nearly £80million doesn’t sound “very good”.  What made the Glazers so unpopular in the first place was that their proposed business plan accepted that there would be a big debt and therefore the club would make losses as they looked to pay back the debt.

This threatened United’s on the field point of view. It meant that the big name signings might dry up and that they would have to find a new way of staying at the top of the English league.

In many ways this is exactly what has happened. In the Glazer era only Dimitar Berbatov has arrived for a top end transfer free, and United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has turned his attentions to younger players for the future, as well as the development of his academy graduates such as Daren Gibson and Johny Evans

But in my opinion two things have probably prevented failure during the Glazer ownership. The Glazers arrived at a time when Ferguson was building the Cristiano Ronaldo era and in many ways success was inevitable, couple that with the longevity of the likes of Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs, and Ferguson has been able to cover up the lack of big name signings.

However Scholes and Giggs are ageing, and Ronaldo has already gone, you have to feel that United will need to find funds for replacements. This will lie with the Glazers which will mean them digging in to their pockets.

When the Glazers have to dig in to their own pockets I highly doubt they will be saying a loss of £79million is good.

And so it begins in earnest. After months of pressure being to filter through from fan groups, the last few weeks have seen Manchester United fans begin to turn up the pressure on the Glazer family. Do not be fooled by people giving this anti-American slant, this is not about such trivial matters as nationality. Manchester United fans do not disagree about the club being owned by Americans, they disagree with how the club is being run, seemingly as a piggy bank for the Glazer family.

It seems astounding to consider that Manchester United are now saddled with a £712 million debt, which regardless of how much spin comes out of the United PR department, is growing year on year. The Love United Hate Glazer campaign is growing in strength, a group of potential benefactors known as the Red Knights have put themselves forward, led by Keith Harris, former chairman of the Football League. The Manchester United Supporters Trust is growing in size, F.C. United of Manchester continue to attract 2000 fans to watch non-league football.

Several groups converging toward one aim. The removal of the Glazer family as the owners of Manchester United, but is it a realistic ambition. For all the grit and determination shown by these Manchester United fans, the one question remains. Can or would the Glazer’s sell? On the surface, the current owners are steadfast in their refusal to even consider the possibility of a sale. They remain committed to United until 2017 at the earliest which creates a stalemate.

There is only one way to force the Glazers hand, but it would require strength and unity across a fan base, the likes of which has never been seen before. The fans have to stop going to United, stop buying all the merchandise, cancel their subscriptions to MUTV. They have to turn their back on their beloved club to strip revenue streams from the owners. There is no other avenue of attack left open to the fans in my opinion. Singing songs and protesting about the way the club is being run is all well and good, but the only way to hit the owners is in the pocket.

It may seem outlandish and for all the gripes that fans in England have had with owners over the years, a large percentage of the protesters continue to watch their team. For all the issues at Newcastle under Mike Ashley, the attendances didn’t fall enough to put real pressure on him to sell up. For all the United groups good intentions, the only way to ramp up the pressure is to stop going, stop renewing the season tickets, stop buying the new kits by the bucket load.

Without that, without showing true determination to change the path the club is currently on, to force the current owners to sell, to prove how much they care about Manchester United, they must turn their back and not return to Old Trafford until the ownership changes. I noticed in December, when I went for the League Cup Quarter Final, a number of empty seats that I had never seen at Old Trafford in the 20 years that I’ve been visiting the ground as an away fan. You could pay on the gate that night and it was £42.

Yet come the semi-final against City and the final against Aston Villa, the seats were all sold, though the green and yellow scarfs and shirts were in great abundance. People may scoff at Manchester United fans, but its an old tired joke these days. They’ve always been easy targets over the history of the Premiership, but even during the dark days of the 70′s and 80′s when United were not the power they became, they were always one of the most popular clubs in England.

Banners unfurled at the Wolves game on Saturday evening were directed at David Gill after he waded in to Keith Harris, rather unkindly I felt, but it was no surprise to the LUHG supporters.The question is, can the fan groups and the rich investors force Glazer and his family to sell. There is no other option for the fans. They have to boycott everything to even stand half a chance because at the end of the day, they can simply stay away. Only by hitting the club in the pocket can they make a real impact and I wish them the best of luck.

The Guardian today has a very interesting article regarding Manchester United’s owners changing the clubs transfer policy to concentrate on signing players under 26. It seems that the Glazer family want the club to only sign players that they can recoup transfer fees on later in their careers. Now maybe it’s me, but I’ve yet to come across a club that have continued to be as successful as Manchester United with such a transfer policy.

Yet, the majority of United’s recent signings over the last few years are all under 26, such as Vidic, Carrick, Evra, Tosic and Nani, So it’s not that big a change in transfer policy. The exception is the much maligned and misunderstood Dimitar Berbatov, who at 27 now seems to be the last player that will be signed above the limit. It would also seem to rule them out of making a bid for Franck Ribery, despite what Bayern Munich may have claimed today.

I have to say, I’m a little surprised about the story if I’m honest. It seems quite unusual for two reasons: Firstly, Ferguson is renowned for being extremely protective over having control over transfer policy at Manchester United. He does not suffer anyone meddling with his working methods, so it’s a big step to hear that the Glazers and David Gill have imposed an age sanction on him. Secondly, what would they do if the world’s greatest player, aged 27/28 suddenly declares his love for Manchester United and wants to join them? Would they only accommodate such a player if he was available on a bosman transfer?

For a club that has an excellent track record of producing top quality players through the youth ranks, probably better than most, it just strikes me as odd that signings will now be judged on their re-sale value. I think it’s a dangerous game to play to narrow your transfer targets to such a specific market. It certainly should concern whoever succeeds Sir Alex at the helm of Manchester United whenever he decides to step down after such an illustrious career.

Tottenham had a similar transfer policy trying to utilise their ill feted European coaching set up between 2004 and 2008 and whilst there is no doubt that the last 5 seasons have seen Tottenham have their most successful period in the Premiership, the lack of older, wiser heads did cost them Champions League football in 2005 and 2006. A couple of experienced signings could have really made the difference to the youngsters in the Spurs camp. Notably, Martin Petrov’s transfer was blocked based entirely on his age. A silly price to pay simply because someone was deemed not to gain in value.

Of course, I’m certainly not comparing Tottenham to Manchester United, not even the most fevered Spurs fan could seriously consider that a fair comparison. There is no doubt that Manchester United are one of the main draws in World Football for talent and could quite possibly sign anyone within reason if they wanted to. Ferguson is already laying the foundations of the United squad for the next 5-10 years with the Da Silva brothers, Tosic, Marcheda and Gibson getting plenty of opportunities to stake claims for the squad.

United’s squad is hardly ancient, but as I’ve said earlier, having a ceiling on the age of your signings could be a dangerous precedent. It’s not like they’re about to become a selling team, but they can’t rule out the need to sometimes look at what benefits the club on the pitch rather than in the bank balance. Whoever follows Ferguson may just find that a balancing act too far.

How would you like to have been a Manchester City or Blackburn Rovers fan heading from the north of England to the south, only to do a turnabout and head home after finding out your upcoming fixture was canceled? I know if it was me, a few words of the four letter variety would have came forth from my mouth. (If you were traveling to one of those two games, or any other game this weekend that was called off, what was your reaction to finding out that it was indeed canceled?)

While yes the cold snap in England last weekend took out a huge chunk of the English footballing schedule, there is no excuse in my mind for a club to have to call a match off because of a frozen pitch. If you are a top flight club, making sure your pitch can withstand a freeze should be something that is easily taken care of. Using heaters on the pitch (as was reported on the BBC Text Commentary on Saturday morning) should never happen.  As for Fulham, if Sam Allardyce is to be believed, they don’t even have underground heating.

With only the threat of fines being thrown about over this, to me this isn’t enough. The only two things a Premier League match should be called for is fog and the fact it’s raining harder than the field can drain (which with today’s technology would have to be one hell of a downpour). If it was up to me, both Portsmouth and Fulham would be losing the three points via forfeit. A strong message has to be sent out that unnecessary postponements will not be tolerated, and the only way for that to happen is if teams start losing the points they could possibly gain.

I would have thought that after Rafa Benitez went off on Fergie, saw his Liverpool side draw with Stoke, and then saw Manchester United defeat Chelsea this past Sunday, he would have kept his mouth shut. I guess I was wrong. Instead, Rafa has now turned his attention towards David Gill and his position within the FA. Look Rafa, after being humiliated in the manner in which you were last weekend, now isn’t the time to be turning the screws on a rival club. In fact, dare I say you’ve actually allowed this to turn into a major distraction to the club you manage?

Rafa is not the person to decide what is normal or not within the FA. Bringing David Gill up after your humiliating weekend only cries of sour grapes and desperation. Being top of the league and desperate is something you never want to show.

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