A chill wind whistled down the shady side of Old Trafford yesterday as more than 2,000 Manchester United fans - fewer than predicted - gathered to vent their fury at Malcolm Glazer.
"He doesn't know anything about football," said Kate Fox, whose mother has been a Red for 60 years. "He doesn't know the history of the club, he doesn't know the fans. He's just in it for the money. I don't think he would dare to show his face here. If he does, he will have to shave his beard off."
Other fans had rather more violent ideas about what should happen to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers owner.
"He's going to die, he's going to die," they sang, "Malcolm Glazer's going to die/ How I'll kill him I don't know/ cut him up from head to toe/ all I know is Glazer's going to die."
At first they muttered and glanced at banners strung from the railings: "The scabs sold out; the fans never will"; "Glazer - see you in hell"; and, with reference to a possible boycott: "No customers, no profit".
"See that man up there?" said Ritchie Farman, looking up from under his undertaker's black top hat to point at the statue of Sir Matt Busby. "That man will be turning in his grave tonight."
Then the serious chanting started: "United, not for sale, United, United not for sale."
Someone had seen a gate open, it was said; the fans were going to storm the pitch.
But the steel shutters had been down for ages. So the crowd marched round the outside of the ground, working its way through its repertoire of Glazer hate songs: "We'll keep the red flag flying high/ 'cos Man United will never die"; "You can stick your fucking dollars up your arse".
The procession was led by two police horses, one of which was doing a bizarre dance routine with its back legs. Once back under the Busby statue, the fans sang their version of Blaydon Races ("Walking along the Warwick Roooaaaad/ to see the Busby aces") and pointed at their folk hero.
They did another lap and set fire to a Glazer effigy with a noose round its neck. A couple of hundred, including a toddler in a Wayne Rooney shirt, marched down to Chester Road, one of the principal routes out of the city, and sat down in the middle of a yellow box junction for 15 minutes, causing traffic mayhem in both directions.
With a bit of luck Glazer will get the message that the fans are not happy.