Manchester Football: Fans’ consortium to bid for Man Utd?

Premiership
Arsenal 1-3 Manchester United; Burnley 1-2 Chelsea; Liverpool 2-0 Bolton Wanderers; Manchester City 2-0 Portsmouth; West ham United 0-0 Blackburn Rovers; Wigan Athletic 0-1 Everton

League One
Southampton 2-0 Stockport

Unibond Premier
Durham City 1-2 FC United

Financier Keith Harris has emerged as the lynchpin of moves to buy back Manchester United from the Glazer family. The former Football League chairman, head of the merchant bank Seymour Pierce, is a lifelong United supporter. He confirmed this weekend that he had been approached by a number of wealthy fans with respect to putting together a consortium.

“We [Seymour Pierce] have been approached and if we can lend our weight to doing something for the good of Manchester United and football, we will,” Harris told the BBC’s Football Focus programme. “It’s too early to say how much would have to be raised. I would hope that there would be sufficient money to show the Glazers they could take a profit and put the ownership into more caring hands.”

Harris stressed that the viability of such an offer would depend very much on the receptivity of the current owners. “It depends on the Glazers’ attitude.” Since his stint as chairman of the Football League in the early part of last decade, the former HSBC executive has brokered the sales of Chelsea (to Roman Abramovich), Newcastle United (to Mike Ashley) and Manchester City (to Thaksin Shinawatra).

United, meanwhile, have been sufficiently rocked by recent protests (and the ensuing media coverage) that Chief Executive David Gill took to the airwaves at the weekend in an attempt to steady the ship. Gill gave an extended interview to, Radio 5 Live in which he sought to reinforce the strength of United’s financial position. In particular, he insisted that manager Sir Alex Ferguson has access to every penny raised from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo last summer.

“We have well over £100million in the bank, so we will assess the squad over the next few months and go into the market as appropriate."

As regards the growing protests Gill dismissed supporters concerns as based on a false prospectus. "I would appeal to the fans to be sensible and get behind the team. We are a very well-run club and given what's happening at other clubs, people should be proud of what's happening at Manchester United. Let's not have ridiculous protests of that nature."

Ironically, the last week has seen United hit a rich vein of form, with the victory of Manchester City swiftly followed by Sunday’s 3-1 demolition of Arsenal. In particular the re-invention of Nani as a player who can terrorise top defences has been rewarding. Still Sky cameras were unable to disguise the presence of green and gold scarves in the away end, however; whether a successful run on the pitch will serve to see off the protests from the fans remains to be seen.

This week…

Monday
(League Two) 7.45pm Bury v Rochdale; (Manchester Premier Cup QF) Radcliffe Borough v Chadderton

Tuesday
(FA Cup 4th Round Replay) 7.45pm Wigan Athletic v Notts County (League One) Stockport County v Oldham Athletic

Wednesday
(Unibond Premier) 7.45 FC United v Ashton United; (Unibond First) Leigh Genesis v Radcliffe Borough;

Saturday
(Premiership) 3pm Bolton Wanderers v Fulham; Burnley v West Ham United; Hull City v Manchester City; Manchester United v Portsmouth; Stoke City v Blackburn Rovers; Sunderland v Wigan Athletic; (League One) Stockport v MK Dons; Tranmere Rovers v Oldham Athletic; (League Two) Bradford v Bury; Rochdale v Crewe Alexandra; (Unibond Premier) Nantwich v FC United; (Unibond First) Clitheroe v Radcliffe Borough