How Sir Alex Ferguson learned to love the Glazers

By Martin Lipton in Laptop with Martin Lipton

Published 11:26 29/07/10

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It takes a brave man to risk picking a fight with his own supporters.

But Sir Alex Ferguson has never been scared of conflict and his stout defence of the Glazer family's ownership of Manchester United was typical of the man.

For all the strength of feeling generated by the anti-Glazer brigade at Old Trafford and indeed the investigations of the financial background of the men who run the biggest club in the world, nothing seems to have really changed.

The Green and Gold campaign has been, without question, a public relations triumph, which reached its zenith when David Beckham put on the Newton Heath colours in the immediate aftermath of AC Milan's Champions League defeat last term.

By turning Old Trafford into a sea of the club's original colours, the fans were making their voice heard and seen, in a manner far more positive than most supporter-led campaigns.

The efforts of the various anti-Glazer factions has been immense and their cause is one many fans of rival clubs will have acknowledged as one that can be backed, the real supporters taking a stand against owners whose only interest, it seems, is what they can get out rather than what they put in.

Those supporters had hoped to keep Fergie onside, making sure the whole campaign was based on love of the club - even if the departing Ben Foster suggested it was destabilising to the players after he completed his move to Birmingham.

But what real effect have the fans had on David Gill or the many members of the Glazer family especially those sons of the owner who seem to believe United is little more than a private bank that gives them loans they never have to repay?

Sadly, for all the column inches generated, the emails sent out, the photographs which spoke for thousands of words, the constant chants that echoed round the ground and into the homes of millions, none.

Just as the "Red Knights" did very little last season except make the Glazers even more determined not to hand over their fiefdom.

PR victories are one thing but it is clear the Glazers will not give up the club unless the deal on offer makes sense - and in these tough financial times, that is simply not going to happen.

Fergie, perhaps, felt it was time to make an archly political statement.

After all, he moved swiftly a few months ago when it was claimed that he was backing the Red Knights, an embarrassment he could have done without.

Yet while the Scot insisted he has not been forced to operate with one hand tied behind his back in the transfer market, that does seem a somewhat ambiguous line to hold.

United did bank £80million for the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo and do not appear to have spent a vast amount of that.

Even as he hailed the Glazers as decent and supportive owners, insisting "I've never been refused when I've asked for money for a player", it is hard to reconcile that with the manager who used to think nothing of splashing out millions for the likes of Rio Ferdinand, Wayne Rooney and Juan Seba Veron.

As a manager who believes in continual renewal, almost institutional revolution, the loss of that former freedom to work the transfer market, enticing the next prodigy to Old Trafford, is a frustration.

He can deny it until the cows come home and already has.

But do you think Ferguson has transformed himself into a spendthrift?

Come on, do leopards change their spots?

Of course not but the 68-year-old recognises the realities of United now and appears to accept that the new order is the one that he will have to work under until he decides, finally, it is time to step away.

That time is not yet and it is evident that Ferguson harbours high hopes for Mexican starlet Javier Hernandez, although asking the Central American to help Rooney carry the goals burden when the new campaign starts in barely three weeks' time is a big demand.

United's history, famously, tells us that you can win things with kids and Hernandez, alongside the Da Silva brothers, Darron Gibson, Johnny Evans and Federico Macheda, will have the chance to justify Ferguson's public faith in their talents.

Yet it is hard to imagine he would not have wanted to be in the bidding for David Villa or be a genuine contender to land Mesut Ozil.

That is what United are now and Ferguson will be as determined to reclaim the Premier League crown under these circumstances as he would have been will Manchester City's millions to spend - whether the fans are happy with him or not.

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