How good can come of Glazer

I feel sorry - really, genuinely sorry - for Manchester United fans who are having to watch, helpless, as American businessman Malcolm Glazer buys up the club and prepares to saddle it with debt, make it his private plaything, and ask them to foot the bill.

But one thing is clear: this is not, absolutely not, a "disaster" for football, or probably even for Manchester United, at least in business terms, in the long term. The obvious retort is that football has plenty of real disasters to look back on - Ibrox in 1971, Bradford and Heysel in 1985, Hillsborough in 1989 - to know the true meaning of that word. And it’s taken Arsene Wenger, the doubtless-chortling Arsenal manager, to point out today that "if you invest £790m to buy a club, do you want to destroy your capital? No. Why should his interest be to destroy the club?"

I’m sure Wenger suspects, as we all do, that the Glazer takeover is
likely bad news for United in the short term, with less money to spend
on players and salaries. And Manchester United fans know they will be
expected to pay off that debt for their club’s new owner, through a
hardening of Man U’s quite benign ticket pricing policy and, no doubt,
the arrival of even more merchandise.

But a disaster? No. Man U will still do OK for the next few years, and you never know what a young side augmented by a new face or two could do. They’ll be fine.

You could also argue that the collapse of ITV Digital, and the enormous problems that caused in the oft-ignored Nationwide leagues, was much more damaging to the game as a whole. That caused the near-immediate unemployment and ultimate loss to the game of hundreds of footballers, and sent a financial chill through the national game that lives on today.

Indeed, with that episode in mind, lots of good could come from this upset, especially if the Man U hardcore fans are good to their word and choose to stay away. I don’t subscribe to the notion than Man U fans are all trophy-chasing, prawn sandwich chomping glory hunters. But if only one fifth of one matchday’s attendance at Old Trafford - more than 13,000 people - decided they didn’t want to play a role as a tiny part of a tycoon’s money-making scheme, and instead took their money and support to other sides around Manchester, the impact could be enormous.

They needn’t leave the Premiership - newly promoted Wigan, for instance, badly need some fans to get crowds that match their status. But Wigan’s backed by its own, more popular, tycoon - one that’s given them a £25m transfer budget for their Premiership debut, £5m more than Glazer wants Fergie to spend this summer.

So those ex Man-U fans’ support would be much more welcome at poor old Bury, which continues to struggle - albeit with the support of the splendidly named Neville Neville, father of Gary and Phil - to simply pay its bills. Or how about Stockport, where fans are looking to take over the club this summer? The arrival of a few thousand Man U fans could transform the fortunes of the side - especially if they all joined the supporters’ trust that’s attempting the takeover. Further south, how about a few of the Wiltshire based Man U fans turning their support to Swindon Town, where the cashflow is so tight they couldn’t pay the players on time six weeks ago?

Indeed, wherever in the country those Man U fans are, they could find a local side that’s desperate for their support. The wee local club probably isn’t so good at marketing, the players won’t be very good at multiple stepovers or getting to cup finals, and the catering will almost certainly be inferior.

But those displaced Man U fans will get a good welcome: they’ll quickly know that their support is welcome, and that they’re getting a football experience that’s as much about community and belonging as it is about entertainment, glory and merchandising rights. And there’s surely still a market for that product, isn’t there?