Guardian:
‘Football has paid its respects to George Best and politely moved on and, along the way, a funny thing has happened. Manchester United have got rid of their alter ego, Manchester Disunited. The finger-pointing, crowd discontent and bitter divisions that had hitherto marked out Sir Alex Ferguson's 20th season in charge have been replaced by a new sense of unity and an understanding that United, as Sir Bobby Charlton put it, are "a family" and that families are supposed to stick together.
‘Amid this rediscovered togetherness it feels almost impertinent to point out that for Malcolm Glazer and his sons, Joel, Bryan and Avi, the most harrowing events of the past few weeks had nothing to do with Roy Keane's expulsion or the death of a man of whom they knew hardly anything. Far more distressing was the scoreless draw against Villarreal and the 1-0 defeat to Lille, two results that have shovelled United into the position where only a victory at Benfica tomorrow will guarantee their participation in the Champions League's knockout phase.
‘A win would render hypothetical all the questions about Ferguson's future, temporarily at least, but failure would reunite him with an old friend: crisis. Sources close to the Glazers insisted last night that they were still supportive, but it would be the first time in a decade that the club had missed out. Even putting aside the doubts it would raise over Ferguson's apparent decline, the financial implications are such that it would severely undermine his position when it came to a favourable end-of-season report or being ushered towards the door.
‘Glazer is not by reputation interested in the day-to-day running of his sports teams, who include the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and delegates much of that to his sons. "I know what's going on daily [at my team]," his friend and Buffalo Bills owner Ralph Wilson has said. "I'm not sure Malcolm does."
‘Rich McKay, Tampa's general manager until December 2003 and now with the Atlanta Falcons, said of Glazer: "He states his expectations and does it in a simplistic manner. He told me the big picture and you run with it."
‘Bryan is described as the most hands-on family member, with Joel and Avi more in the background. Every Friday they speak to Gill, with United's finance director Nick Humby and the commercial director Andy Anson occasionally also on the line, but never Ferguson.
‘The public perception may be slightly different from the reality. To begin with, the Glazers budgeted only to reach the Champions League last 16, with anything beyond that a bonus. So if the team were to fail at this stage the financial impact would be about £2.5m in prize money, television revenue and gate receipts - a setback but, as one business associate put it, "hardly fatal in terms of the business plan", particularly if they were to qualify for the Uefa Cup. Tomorrow's encounter at Estadio da Luz has been described as a £15m tie but that would apply only if United went all the way to the final.
‘On that basis, Ferguson must hope that the Manchester United family remain supportive, but it is the family within the family which truly counts.’