GLAZER BID COLLAPSES

Malcolm Glazer's attempt to buy Manchester United yesterday failed as the Irish investors J P McManus and John Magnier pulled out of talks on selling their key
28.9% stake. They are understood to have told the American tycoon that they are long-term investors and have no interest in selling to him at the proposed 300p a share.

Despite the Glazer camp's description of the situation as "fluid", it is clear the
Irishmen have already told the take-over panel, the City's watchdog and mergers and acquisitions, that there is no basis on which to continue talks.

Neither side would comment officially, but a Stock Exchange statement today
confirming Glazer's withdrawal appeared last night to be inevitable. The
American's advisors have always made clear that a full take over offer would be impossible without first securing the Irish stake.

JP Morgan, the investment bank working for Glazer, was thought to be making
an eleventh hour attempt to rescue the talks, but this appeared to have virtually no chance of success. One source close to the talks said the negotiations had
never proceeded beyond the outlined proposal delivered by J P Morgan to the
Irish last Friday.

The Irishmen's refusal to sell delighted supporters groups last night.

Sean Bones of Shareholders United said: "It is good news. We didn't want
Malcolm Glazer at the club and we have made that clear."

Jules Spencer, chairman of the Independent Manchester United Supporters
Association, said: "If it does turn out that Glazer has pulled out, we will be
delighted but we will not take our eye off the ball until he officially declares that
he is not going to make a bid."

For Glazer, the failure of the talks will represent a minor humiliation after a week of apparent optimism in his camp that the Irish would sell. The American, owner of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, secured full financing for his planned bid and deployed a major investment bank and public relations firm to work for him. The City had assumed he had a clear indication of the price at which McManus and Magnier would be prepared to sell, but this appears not to have been the case.

Glazer is understood originally to have set a deadline at the end of this week to
secure the crucial Irish stake. The timetable was designed partly to allow him to announce a full take over offer well before United's next home game against
Arsenal a week on Sunday. He had planned to woo United's deeply sceptical
fans with an increase in the transfer funds available to the manager Sir Alex
Ferguson.

He will now face the problem of what to do with his 19.2% stake in United, built
up over the last 18 months. Other potential bidders may be deterred on two
counts - the apparent unwillingness of McManus and Magnier to sell and the
intense hostility on the part of many United fans to a take-over by a single
individual.

United's share price fell 3.8 per cent to 264p yesterday as rumours circulated of the collapsing talks. However, the decline had been steeper earlier in the day
and the shares rallied when an expected statement from the club itself did not
materialise. That statement is now likely to come today.

Keith Harris, the chief executive of broking firm Seymour Pierce, is thought still to be working on a proposal to restructure United's ownership in a way that would be acceptable to fans. Details are vague, but it is clear that this is not a
straightforward take-over proposal.

United's annual report and accounts published yesterday and showed that chief
executive David Gill received £909,000, mainly comprising a salary of £435,000, a cash bonus of £270,000 and bonus shares worth £185,000.

It represented a significant increase on the £701,000 earned in the previous year by his predecessor Peter Kenyon, who resigned to join Chelsea.