looking back at his time at the club:
"It hasn't always gone well with the fans but I ran the club
as I thought it should be run. I think Alex Ferguson would
have gone if fans had had their say in the early years. I
think he would have gone in '95 when Hughes, Kanchelskis and
Ince went. Fans want cheap entrance, they want the best
players and sometimes when you run a business you have to
make unpopular decisions."
He also speculated on Fergie’s future role at the club, and
the possibility of a takeover:
"With regard to giving Alex a bigger role, his success has
been as team manager. Alex could well be offered a useful
role advising on the football side and that would be on the
football board not the plc board.
"Manchester United is a public company. If an individual or
a consortium got together and purchased enough shares it is
possible to take control of Manchester United. But United is
currently valued at around £350million - it would take a bid
big to make that happen, you are probably talking
£500million.
"It is possible it can happen but I don't necessarily
believe any of the current shareholders are about to make a
bid for the club. If a bid comes in and the board thinks it
is in the interests of the club we would have to consider
it."
However he doesn’t seem too impressed with the credentials
of the ‘Coolmore Mafia’
"I don't think that Magnier and McManus are football fans.
I've seen them at one game, a foreign game, so I don't think
they have ever been to Old Trafford."