Fading United need complete rebuilding job

THE dramatic loss of form that has seen Manchester United exit the Champions League -- and all but fall out of the title race -- highlights the need for a major injection of cash and quality at Old Trafford. United's results over the past week and a half have not just come about because of the injury-enforced absence of Wayne Rooney.

I have warned all season that United would struggle for goals and inspiration without Rooney, but their problems run deeper than an over-reliance on one player and that was drummed home by their performance while failing to beat Blackburn yesterday. Even with Rooney in their team, the alarm bells have been ringing long enough this season to suggest that United might well have hit the wall anyway. For the past 20 years, whenever you have watched United chase a victory at this stage of the season, it has always been a case of when rather than if they would score the goal to win the game. It never looked like happening at Blackburn, though. United's best player was Gary Neville and it says it all when your best player in a game when the opponents barely attack is your right-back.

Inevitable
All of a sudden, United are beginning to look short in the critical games, but when your midfielders are 36 and 35 years old, it is inevitable that it will catch up with you. If Alex Ferguson had just one problem in his team, he could spend £30m on one player to resolve it. But when the problems run right through the team, it is a different story and rebuilding United from here is going to be tremendously difficult. Defenders Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic have suffered from injuries this season, while Neville, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes are unable to produce the performances of their younger days on a regular basis. Up front, where United once had four strikers, they now have two in Rooney and Dimitar Berbatov, but Berbatov is not scoring goals at the moment. Ferguson does not have the options in reserve that he once had and there is no young Giggs or Scholes coming through to threaten the older players. Breaking a team up and starting again is the hardest thing for any manager to do, but the next rebuild will be the hardest of the lot because we don't know if the money is there for Ferguson to do it.

There are now parallels at United with what happened at Liverpool at the start of the 1990s.
The team that won the title in 1990 needed to be broken up but, having been unbelievably lucky in the transfer market for 25 years, they suddenly became unlucky, and you could say that Liverpool have never recovered. Twenty years on, Liverpool have still not won the Premier League and, while I am not saying that what will happen with United, this is undoubtedly a crucial time for them in terms of reshaping their squad.

I thought United faced a difficult future in 2006, but Ferguson turned them around and won three league titles on the bounce and a Champions League. However, they had a young Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo back then. Now, they don't have that quality emerging. Their chances of winning the league this season are now bleak, but the only saving grace for United is that Chelsea have always faltered when they have been in front. Yet you just can't see United taking advantage of any possible Chelsea slip by winning their remaining four games. Chelsea have still to go to Spurs and Liverpool and they could drop points in both of those games, but I'm not sure that United can go to Manchester City and win on Saturday.

Had Jose Mourinho been in charge of Chelsea, they would have had the title wrapped up six weeks ago. But until the medal is around your neck, you haven't won anything and that is the one thing that United and Arsenal will be holding on to.

Reported by: Irish Independent

Manchester United's Champions League failure: Q&A

Manchester United's Champions League elimination at the hands of Bayern Munich ensured their failure to progress to at least the semi-final stage for the first time since 2006.
With last Saturday’s Premier League defeat at home to Chelsea putting United on the back foot in the title race, the problems are mounting at Old Trafford.

So what happens next and what are the big issues facing the club and Sir Alex Ferguson following United’s European failure? What are the main issues that have hampered Manchester United this season?

Money:
Conflicting messages are coming out of Old Trafford about United’s transfer plans this summer and how much they have to spend to strength the squad. Chief executive David Gill insisted earlier this year that the £80m banked from the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid is still waiting to be spent, but Sir Alex Ferguson claimed this week that he does not envisage a host of new faces this summer. Ferguson is either happy with his squad or the money available is not sufficient to add the quality he desires. The United manager has voiced his concerns over the inflated prices being quoted for top players, but if the likes of Manchester City and Real Madrid are prepared to pay those prices, they become the going rate and United must either dive in or stand aside. With a debt of £716.5m, however, finding the money to compete is unlikely to become easier for United.

Ageing squad:
Ferguson’s decision to start without Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Gary Neville against Bayern exposed the combined age - 106 - of his three illustrious veterans. The three of them are in the twilight of their glittering careers, while Edwin van der Sar, at 39, is another whose best days are behind him. Rio Ferdinand is now 31 and injury problems are beginning to mount up for the England captain. Michael Owen is 30, while Dimitar Berbatov is 29. The younger end of the squad is well-stocked, with Wayne Rooney at 24 leading the way, but Ferguson’s heavy use of Giggs, Scholes and Neville this season suggests that he is not quite ready to trust his youngsters ahead of the more experienced stars.

Dimitar Berbatov:
Put yourself in Berbatov’s shoes and ask how you would feel if a half-fit Wayne Rooney was selected ahead of you in a crucial Champions League quarter-final? The Bulgarian forward’s demotion to the bench for the Bayern game summed up his time at Old Trafford since his £30.75m arrival from Spurs in Sept 2008. When the big games come around, Berbatov tends to be on the bench. He has simply failed to deliver. Twenty-six goals in 81 appearances is not a good enough return and, despite winning the backing of the fans for his surprising work-rate and determination to succeed, Berbatov was bought for much more than that. In the absence of Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez, Berbatov has failed to step up to the plate.

Who is under threat?
Ferguson’s ruthless streak is legendary and he will view this season’s European campaign as a failure. As such, he is likely to be tempted to make changes. A big question mark hovers over the United future of Michael Carrick, whose poor display against Barcelona in last season’s final appears to have carried over into this campaign. The England midfielder was again disappointing against Bayern. If Owen Hargreaves can return to full fitness, Carrick would appear the obvious fall-guy, particularly with Darron Gibson improving at a rate of knots. Berbatov is another who will be fearing the worst. He had the chance to rescue United against Bayern, but just didn’t look a threat. Anderson, currently sidelined with a cruciate ligament injury, is another who must do better when he returns.

Who will United sign?
Depends on the money available, but if Ferguson does have £80m+ to spend, he will look to lure Karim Benzema to Old Trafford, 12 months after failing to keep the French forward out of Real Madrid’s clutches. Defender Chris Smalling is already signed up, but Palermo’s Simon Kjaer is another target. Napoli’s attacking midfielder Marek Hamsik, at £25m, would not break the bank if Ferguson pursues his interest in the Slovakian. United clearly need another striker. Wolfsburg’s Edin Dzeko has been watched regularly by Ferguson’s scouts, but Benzema remains the first choice. And with Van der Sar creeping towards 40, Ferguson would dearly love to recruit Hugo Lloris from Lyon. Lyon will demand a huge fee for the France No 1, however.

What should be United's main priority?
Sort out Rooney's future. Rooney’s value to United has rocketed since he suffered his ankle injury against Bayern. By missing the defeat against Chelsea, his contribution this season was magnified immeasurably. Ferguson rushed him back against Bayern simply because Rooney is his most reliable match-winner. Contract talks are due to begin at the end of the season to replace the final two years of his current deal. No matter who United sign this summer, persuading Rooney to commit to a new five-year deal will be the biggest signing they can make.

Reported by: telegraph.co.uk

Time for Dimitar Berbatov to seize the moment for Manchester United

With Wayne Rooney missing, the expensive Bulgarian needs to step out of the shadows to keep the light shining at Old Trafford.

From the hyperactive Wayne Rooney they turn to the languid Dimitar Berbatov to see off Chelsea and Bayern Munich inside five days. The good news is that Berbatov has already scored three times against Germany's grandest club. Less encouraging is that Rooney's replacement as Manchester United's chief striker posted all three while at Bayer Leverkusen from 2001 to 2006.

A £30.75m centre-forward comes off the bench to hunt the two wins United need to disprove the accusation that they are a one-man band.

Berbatov is an international who has played in two Champions League finals and scored 32 times in European competition. Hardly the bare bones of United's squad. Yet the success of his elevation will depend on his response to the urgency of this five-day test and the team's ability to survive the psychological jolt of seeing their best player on crutches.

The expectation back in August was that Sir Alex Ferguson would deploy Rooney and Berbatov together but the United manager has favoured a five-man midfield with Rooney in a luxury Alan Shearer role. Tactical considerations aside, the implication is that Ferguson's faith in Berbatov has dimmed to the point where Bulgaria's six-times footballer of the year exists to give Rooney a rest or supply an extra weapon when United are in desperate need of a goal.

Like Ruud van Nistelrooy, who was lethal around the penalty area and so could justify his comparatively low work-rate, Berbatov is the antithesis of the super-busy United striker who seeslosing the ball as a dishonourable act which he has a moral duty to correct. Berbatov must know that most Old Trafford diehards are intolerant of his dreamy style.

In a long and compelling answer to a question about Van Nistelrooy's successor Sir Bobby Charlton, the embodiment of United's energetic forward play, said in the Observer last year: "I watched him at Tottenham [his previous Premier League club] and I thought he was in charge of his own destiny, that he made the right decisions. But playing for Man United is a bit more demanding. You're expected not just to do all the great things you're good at but also your share of the dirty work – which is chasing back to regain possession, helping your defenders if you're close enough to help.

"First of all I was very critical of him, to myself, thinking: 'Look at that. As soon as he loses the ball he stops running and starts walking, as if to say – somebody else will do it'. And I thought: 'He must be a good player if he can afford to do that.'"

Charlton said he had come to understand Berbatov's "really great skill, his awareness and his physical strength at holding people off. Not only that, when he passes he always makes it easy for you. He always gives it perfectly. Everything is so, so precise. Add to that, he's got his control and when he gets round the goal he wants to score.

"He's frustrating sometimes. Instinctively I think that, if I've lost the ball, I want to chase after it. I want to make up for the mistake I've made. Maybe like George Best you've got to accept him for what he is. Cantona had that arrogance. But he did his fair share of the work. I'd never complain about Cantona in that respect. He was sensational and he had an influence. Given that bit of time and space that Berbatov seems to be finding now, he'll get better and better."

Since Charlton offered that analysis, mid-way through the striker's first season in Manchester, stagnation has become the theme. Twelve goals from 27 league appearances this term is not a glittering statistic. Rooney had scored 18 times in 13 outings before a typically conscientious urge to stop an attacking run inside his own half led to his ankle injury. Berbatov has yet to score in this season's Champions League but did seize two in the weekend's 4-0 win at Bolton.

Of the alternatives Michael Owen is out with hamstring damage, Mame Biram Diouf has appeared only five times for United and Federico Macheda is an 18-year-old on the road back from injury (Danny Welbeck is out on loan).

"I'd have enjoyed playing with him but I'd have been arguing with him. A lot," Charlton said. "If you've got people running backward and forward and you're responsible, it's not right. But he's learned. You're not allowed many mistakes and you can't be casual. You can't be casual."

As a child Berbatov modelled himself first on Marco van Basten, then on Shearer. From the outset on Saturday and again on Wednesday night the United cognoscenti will look for evidence that his self-esteem has not been damaged by his slide in the hierarchy and hope he learned from Shearer the meaning of 'carpe diem'.

Pick your team to face Liverpool

Calling all armchair managers! The time has come to pit your wits against Sir Alex Ferguson and see whether he agrees with your team selection for Manchester United's Premier League match

Revenge is in the air and Ferguson will have to manage the balancing act between going all guns blazing and getting the right result. After three defeats on the spin to Liverpool, United are hell-bent on sending the visitors packing. The Scot should choose a calculated approach to get one over on Rafa Benitez.

An on-song Dimitar Berbatov can expect a return to the bench as the 4-5-1 formation favoured in big matches reappears. Wayne Rooney will lead the line on his own. The temptation to start Ryan Giggs will be great after he shook off an arm injury. In his absence, both Park Ji-Sung and Nani have shone, with the Korean expected to get the nod to flank Rooney with Antonio Valencia.

Liverpool's strength in midifeld has crushed United in recent meetings. The tight central three of Michael Carrick, Darren Fletcher and Paul Scholes should correct the problem. At the back, experience is key. Gary Neville could continue his starting run, while Nemanja Vidic will be desperate to exorcise the demons of Fernando Torres and a trio of red cards.

Availability:

Goalkeepers: Edwin Van der Sar, Tomasz Kuszscak, Ben Foster.

Defenders: Gary Neville, Jonny Evans, Nemanja Vidic, Rio Ferdinand, Rafael da Silva, Fabio da Silva, Patrice Evra, Ritchie De Laet.

Midfielders: Antonio Valencia, Nani, Ji-Sung Park, Ryan Giggs, Gabriel Obertan, Paul Scholes, Darren Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Darron Gibson.

Attackers: Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Mame Biram Diouf.

Leave your team selection in the comments below,

GLAZERS V THE RED KNIGHTS

Speaking 24 hours after the Red Knights confirmed their intention to try and buy the club from the Glazer family, Gill insisted that Manchester United was not for sale, and offered a staunch defence of the American owners. Gill acknowledged that the family may be forced to appease growing supporter resentment by taking a higher profile, but said the Knights, led by Goldman Sachs’s chief economist and former United board member Jim O’Neil, were wasting their time.

“They [the Glazers] are long-term owners and they’re not sellers,” he said.

“That’s not to say that people like the Red Knights won’t come and think that they can put a plan to them. But unless the owners want to sell, which they’ve given no indication to me at all that that is the case, then they can’t buy the asset. It’s not for sale.”

Gill said that he has not heard directly from O’Neil, who is a friend as well as a former colleague, or fellow Knight Mark Robinson, a partner at City law firm Freshfields who advised the club board when it was resisting the Glazers in 2004. He did not criticise them directly, but was withering about Harris, the executive chairman of executive bank Seymour Pearce who has been involved in several high-profile Premier League takeovers including Roman Abramovich’s purchase of Chelsea.

“Keith Harris will go anywhere that there’s a bit of publicity around and we know that and we accept that,” Gill said. “That’s his modus operandi, but his track record in football isn’t anything to write home about. That’s my view of that, but these are credible people and they do what they think is in the best interests of the club but it’s not going to take them anywhere if the owners, the Glazers, have no wish to sell. From our perspective, they are running the club in the right way.”

Gill said that the club’s financial situation following the £507 million bond issue was “entirely appropriate”, with annual interest payments of around £45 million covered by the club’s growing revenues.

By contrast he questioned how the Red Knights proposed to run the club given their proposal to raise funds from up to 40 wealthy individuals.

“The Red Knights’ idea of having 20, 30 or 40 very wealthy people owning and running Manchester United, I just don’t know how it would work in practice,” Gill said.

“The best clubs, the better run clubs have clear single-decision making that iws quick and efficient. I don’t see how if you’ve got a number of very wealthy people being involved [that can happen].

“They don’t become wealthy through luck, those sort of people want to be involved in the decision making, The key clubs, Abramovich at Chelsea, Mansour at Man City, Berlusconi in Milan, even the president, the key decision maker at Madrid is not all those fans, it’s the president.

“I’m not sure what the end game is but the end game is irrelevant because the owners are long-term investors and want to keep the club for many years to come.”

The Red Knights are hoping to harness supporter unrest at the club’s debts of £709 million, and Gill acknowledged that the Glazers may have to take a more visible role to appease fans who turned Wembley green-and-yellow at Sunday’s Carling Cup final.

“What they [the Glazers] done is let me and my team run the business, they’ve let Alex run the football side, and if you look at our financial results and our on-field performance, I think that’s vindicated that approach. If, in the future, in order to appease people or to explain the long-term nature of their investment, that [a higher profile] may be necessary.”

Gill’s assault came as the Red Knights were assessing the impact of their public declaration of intent. A spokesman for the group said that they had received “an international response” from potential investors, and the Manchester United Supporters Trust reported that its membership had doubled overnight to 78,000, larger than the capacity at Old Trafford.

Reported by Telegraph.co.uk

Will Berbatov leave United this summer?

At the beginning of last season, Manchester United left it until the last day of the August transfer window to secure the signature of Dimitar Berbatov. They eventually secured the Bulgarian for the princely sum of £30.75 million, although the 29-year-old has continually struggled to live up to his expensive price tag, with Sir Alex Ferguson currently playing a formation which doesn’t accommodate the forward. There are now rumours that Berbatov will seek the exit door at Old Trafford at the end of the season.

Indeed, it’s possible that Sir Alex Ferguson has lost patience with a player that has the unfortunate knack of looking as though he’s strolling around the pitch at times. Berbatov was part of the starting XI that lost to Leeds in the FA Cup at the start of the year and has subsequently only lined up against Portsmouth and Burnley at home. With the manager favouring a 4-5-1 formation and with Wayne Rooney prospering so much as the lone forward, is there a future for a player who is an expensive commodity to be warming the bench every week?

It’s strange to think that Manchester United are going so well in the Premier League, considering that Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez have left, while Berbatov is featuring so sporadically for the Red Devils. Will Fergie need to call on the former Spurs striker as we approach the business end of the season?

United fan denies throwing coin at Bellamy

The Manchester United supporter accused of throwing a coin at Manchester City striker Craig Bellamy during last month's League Cup semi-final second leg at Old Trafford has denied the offence. Adam Teese, 26, of Nelstrop Road North, Stockport, spoke on Tuesday only to confirm his name and addess and that he was pleading not guilty to the charge of 'throwing a missile', according to Press Association Sport.

Teese has been an Old Trafford season-ticket holder for eight years. A massive police presence at the game on January 27 failed to prevent the coin being trown at Bellamy. A plastic bottle was also thrown in the Welsh striker's direction and after he tumbled to the ground a coin struck the back of his head. Teese will next appear in court on May 13 when he will be tried. The trail is expected to last two days.

Ferdinand withdraws ban appeal

Rio Ferdinand has decided to withdraw his appeal against the additional one-match ban he received after appealing his recent violent conduct charge. The United centre-back was handed an original three-game suspension folllowing an incident involving Hull City's Craig Fagan in the recent game at Old Trafford.

He appealed that decision and the FA increased the ban to four games after deeming that that appeal was frivolous. He now avoids receiving an additional ban which would have taken his total suspension to five matches and will be available for the League Cup final against Aston Villa on February 28.

Ferdinand withdraws ban appeal

Rio Ferdinand has decided to withdraw his appeal against the additional one-match ban he received after appealing his recent violent conduct charge. The United centre-back was handed an original three-game suspension folllowing an incident involving Hull City's Craig Fagan in the recent game at Old Trafford.

He appealed that decision and the FA increased the ban to four games after deeming that that appeal was frivolous. He now avoids receiving an additional ban which would have taken his total suspension to five matches and will be available for the League Cup final against Aston Villa on February 28.

Glazers must sell Manchester United to fans or be damned

Increasingly at Manchester United matches these days, green and yellow are in evidence. Normally the fans wear red but many of them have taken to donning the colours of the original Newton Heath club that went on to become Manchester United — in protest at the continued presence at the club of the owning Glazer family.

This deepening row at the football club is a mirror for elsewhere. The Manchester United supporters have had enough. They've seen slick financiers advise an obscure bunch of Americans on a cunning way of taking over their favourite side, using borrowed money. From having no debts in 2005, Manchester United is now in hock for £700 million. Some of that burden, £500 million, has been rescheduled in a bond issue.

One of the advisers on that refinancing was Goldman Sachs, which is sharing an estimated £15 million in fees for its work. That didn't stop the bank's chief economist Jim O'Neill, a lifelong Red, voicing his personal opposition to the issue: “There's too much leverage going on with Manchester United.” O'Neill's views were echoed by Paul Marshall, the Marshall Wace hedge fund founder and also a Manchester United follower: “A good rule of thumb in finance is that debt anywhere above five times underlying profits should be treated as junk'. Manchester United's current bond issue is junk. On that basis, the debts of the Glazer holding companies are beyond junk.”

If the banks had any PR nous (God forbid), they might consider how they could turn the Man Utd debacle round — to improve their battered images to a degree that would go far beyond the relatively measly fees they earned.

The best way to achieve this would be to finance on generous terms a takeover of the club by the fans. Manchester United would become a club owned by the people — as occurs in other countries, most notably in Spain, where Barcelona does not belong to a single tycoon but is widely held and still manages to perform consistently at an exalted level.

It's not just Manchester United where a return to common ownership is being mooted. We've gone from a period that saw community and mutuality disregarded as unfashionable and weak, to one, thanks to the excesses and failures of a few, where they're in vogue.

O'Neill and Marshall are rich. They are not alone — indeed, given the passion the team engenders, there are bound to be numerous multi-millionaires who are Man Utd fans. They could group together to buy the lion's share of the club, leaving the less well-off supporters to mop up the rest.

Something like this is being worked upon. Keith Harris, the head of investment bank Seymour Pierce and a broker of several football club sales, says he has been approached by wealthy Reds who want to “explore” the possibility of buying out the Glazers. The Manchester United Supporters' Trust, which is publicly heading the anti-Glazer push, is also involved.

The Glazers paid £800 million for the club in 2005. However, much of that money was not theirs but borrowed. Forbes, the US business magazine, has estimated Manchester United's worth at £1.3 billion.

That may be its value at present but football is not known for its certainty of future earnings. The club is saddled with debt, its value is dependent on the team continuing to do well (which is not guaranteed, particularly as veteran manager Sir Alex Ferguson cannot postpone the inevitable, and must retire at some point). If the team did not qualify for the Champions League and crowds fell (this season Old Trafford has been noticeably not full for matches against unglamorous opponents that Manchester United are expected to beat easily), what then? How would the borrowings be serviced, let alone repaid?

The chances of financial ruin are very real and while I'm not a Red (I'm a season ticket holder at mighty Fulham) I would hate to see that occur.

According to David Gill, the club's chief executive, the owners are not sellers: “The Glazer family bought the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 1995 and, 15 years later, they still own that — they are in it for the long term.”

Yes, but how much public loathing and abuse can they take? (Angry football fans are not noted for their politeness). If they could sell for £1 billion right now, in this climate, and against the backdrop of their American businesses having to contend with the US recession, they would be foolish not to.

For the fans, that seems a tall order. But 50 Red Knights each putting in £15 million is £750 million. The supporters could stump up for the remaining £250 million. The backers would be paid a modest return but, most importantly, Manchester United would be debt-free (after the bond issue, the club's annual interest charges alone are £60 million) and no single individual or their relatives would have control. There's a lot to be said for it — and not just at Manchester United.

Reported by: Chris Blackhurst

Why it will take another Sheikh Mansour to rescue Manchester United from the Glazers

Joel Glazer and brothers Bryan and Avram might just struggle to digest their grits and maple syrup pancakes if they spend breakfast in Tampa poring over news from the blue half of Manchester this morning.

While Malcolm’s boys continue to study the global financial markets for the best way to restructure the £699m debt that is threatening to drag Manchester United down into the ranks of also-rans, they will notice that Sheikh Mansour has just written off £304.9m of personal loans at Manchester City to pretty much make the Eastlands club a debt-free company.

How the Glazers could do with a Sheikh Mansour figure coming along and taking the burden of owning United off their hands. How they would love to be able to shrug off a loss of £92.6m without the blink of an eye, as Sheikh Mansour has done at Eastlands. The problem facing the Glazers – or one of them, at least – is that Manchester United is such a renowned global brand that there are very few people out there who could actually afford to buy the club from the Florida-based family should they ever need to cash in their chips at Old Trafford.

In their last Soccer Rich List, published in August 2009, the widely respected business magazine Forbes.com placed United in number one spot in the list of the world’s most valuable clubs with a valuation of £1.3bn. Real Madrid, in second position, were some way back with a valuation of £944m. It isn’t just football where United rule, however. Across the sporting spectrum, they are the most valuable ‘franchise’ on the planet, with NFL giants the Dallas Cowboys and Washington Redskins their closest rivals. United are the Coca-Cola of world football. The whole world knows their name, but in a severe financial downturn, the pool of billionaires with a desire to own a football club has shrunk dramatically. In the current climate, who would seriously want to spend almost £1.5bn to buy Manchester United?

So the Glazers have a rare asset on their hands, but the market is on the floor. Sheikh Mansour has already made his move, so he is out of the running. There is real money in Saudi Arabia and China, but again, in an uncertain world, is buying the world’s biggest football club a wise move?

Not that the Glazers are looking to sell. If they can ride the current financial storm, then the picture on the other side looks rosy. But the debt is creeping up and the interest payments are eye-watering. In 2008, operating profits of £72m were almost swallowed up by annual interest payments of £69m. There is also a debt of £175m of payment in kind (Pik) loans that are rolling up interest at a rate of 14.25pc a year. The loan, for which the Glazer family, rather than the football club, is ultimately responsible, was initially worth just over £130m.

How much longer can the Glazers continue to operate with such a heavy debt burden? That all depends on what happens to the money coming into club, of which there is quite a bit. The £80m banked for Cristiano Ronaldo is still largely unspent and, although Sir Alex Ferguson has been told he can reinvest the money in his squad, the funds are still there in the club’s accounts. And later this year, a £20m-a-year shirt sponsorship deal with Chicago-based Aon begins, so the cash flow isn’t exactly drying up. If the money doesn’t go into the team, though, United risk standing still or falling behind. Falling behind leads to a lack of silverware and perhaps even the nightmare scenario of a failure to qualify for the Champions League. Should that happen, servicing the debt becomes a problem. Do United spend to get back to the top or must they instead meet their financial obligations?

It is the same vicious circle that engulfed Leeds United who, although they recorded their famous FA Cup victory against United last Sunday, remain a League One club as a result of their financial meltdown. United’s global appeal is their biggest asset, however. Leeds could not count on a similar pulling power to the world’s super-rich as they tumbled through the divisions. That is the one saving grace for United if the Glazers find that the going gets too tough financially in the coming months – somebody, somewhere, will ultimately want to take the ego trip of owning Manchester United.

Reported by: Mark Ogden, Telegraph

Should Manchester United have kept Carlos Tevez?

At a time when El Apache is in the form his life, We ponders whether the Old Trafford favourite should have been at all allowed to leave for their arch rivals...

The Argentinean has scored twelve goals and has five assists to his name in his time with Manchester City. His winner against Chelsea and the Blackburn hat-trick have been the highlight so far.

If you compare the above mentioned statistics with that of Dimitar Berbatov, the man whose addition into the squad meant Tevez had to be benched and eventually banished, and Michael Owen, there is a stark difference. The Bulgarian has a paltry six goals with two assists while, the former Liverpool striker is a touch better with seven goals and a single assist.

At a time when the Red Devils are struggling to win, Wayne Rooney seems to be their only hope from where goals come regularly, which was even acknowledged by the club’s skipper Gary Neville recently.

While the usual talk around the club is about missing the services of Cristiano Ronaldo, the even more vital question is whether the hole left by Tevez’s departure was ever filled in?

Despite being on the bench for much of the time last season, ‘the Argentine Prophet of the 21st century’, which Maradona referred him as, was very influential. His four goals in the 5-3 win over Blackburn in the Carling Cup, the fastest goal in the Champions League against Aolborg for the 2008-09 season, and who would ever forget his goal against Porto in the Champions League quarters?

On their way to the third successive Premier League title, one of the stiffest tasks United faced was against Tottenham at home where they found themselves trailing 2-0 at half-time. Out went Nani and in came Tevez, and thereafter United turned it around to win 5-2 in what was one of the greatest comebacks in the English game. Ristiano Ronaldo and Wayne Rooney attributed the change of fortunes to Tevez’s presence.

United are certainly missing his energetic runs and an unwavering work rate, which was second to none. Tevez was always seen chasing the defenders when not in possession and thereby, pressurizing them, something which neither Berbatov nor Owen have done much.

Tevez has the speed coupled with good ball skills, and can easily wave off a defender when in possession. He is also a dead ball specialist.

More than anything else, Tevez is a team player and it was certainly a sad moment for United fans to see him leave the club. While critics may point that £32million was way too much for the Argentinean, it wasn’t much given the kind of success he is enjoying at the other side of Manchester.

Reported by: Rahul Bali.- Goal.com