Manchester United exec dismisses Red Knights

Manchester United chief executve David Gill has dismissed the efforts of the Red Knight consortium, which wants to buy the club from its American owners, the deeply unpopular Glazer family.

Gill said that the consortium's plans were unworkable and the Glazers did not want to sell. He claimed Sir Alex Ferguson was happy to work for the current owners and that the £80m United received for the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo was still in the bank waiting to be spend on players. Gill also insisted that the club's £700m debt was managable.

He then launched a stinging attack on the most high profile of the Red Knights - Keith Harris,a former chairman of the Football League who was involved in Randy Lerner's takeover of Aston Villa, Roman Abramovich's acquisition of Chelsea and, rather less successfully, moves by an Icelandic consortium to buy West Ham and Thaksin Shinwatra's purchase of Manchester City.

"He will go anywhere that there's a bit of publicity around," said Gill. "That's his modus operandi, but his track record in football isn't anything to write home about."

He also criticised the ownership model proposed by the Red Knights. "Having 20, 30 or 40 very wealthy people owning and running Manchester United, I don't know how it would work," he commented.

Gill's defence will not have cut much ice with the United fans who hate the Glazers with a passion after they saddled the club with a £700m debt.

But Gill said the financial situation was workable and insisted that manager Ferguson was "comfortable" with the owners and that there was plenty of money available for players when the manager wanted it.

However, he hinted that the Americans were slowly realising that they had to at least try and win the fans over. He suggested that they might adopt a higher profile to "appease people or to explain the long-term nature of their investment".

Fans have turned the terraces gold and green, the club's original colours, as part of a campaign against the owners.

The Red Knights have latched onto that discontent and aligned themselves with the Manchester United Supporters Trust (Must). Since the consortium declared its interest in buying the club earlier this week the membership of Must has doubled to 100,000.

A Red Knights spokesman added that they had received "an international response" from potential investors.

Gill indicated the Glazers had no intention of caving in and selling. He said: "The owners are long-term investors and want to keep the club for many years to come."

If the Glazers do keep the club then the Red Knights's interest could backfire spectacularly for one of the consortium - Goldman Sachs's chief economist Jim O'Neill. Malcolm Glazer is said to be so angry about O'Neill's involvement that he has complained personally to Lloyd Blankfein, the bank's chief executive, and the club may now sever its ties with Goldmans. ·