Love United, hate the Glazers

The on-field glow of a 4-0 rout by Wayne Rooney of Hull City was not enough to overshadow growing unrest among Manchester United fans with the financial “management” of the Glazer family. The news earlier in the week the Americans could take up to £130 million cash out of the club next year if enough lenders sign up for the bond they have launched was not lost on fans who chanted "We love United, we hate the Glazers" for long periods.

In the Observer, Julian Coman writes about a grim future for the club if the Glazers continue unchecked.

Like a footballing Lehman Brothers, England's best-supported club has maintained its outward swagger while being devoured from within by a toxic combination of excessive debt and wildly irresponsible assumptions of future success. Too big to fail? Probably. Too big to go into wholly unnecessary decline? Certainly not. And if United's results turn sub-prime, who will finance the debt, currently standing at £711m?

The silence of Sir Alex Ferguson is also alarming many. But, after all, why should anyone expect a very well-rewarded employee to criticise his bosses?

Ferguson, to the frustration of many, has remained silent on the state of the club's finances. Gary Neville, the veteran full-back and club captain, said last week that the debt and its implications were not an appropriate subject for players to discuss.

The business laid itself open to the ruthless exploitation of Glazer, who would analyse the drive for profit and, recklessly, believe that he could do better, at the expense of those who created the value in the first place.