The selling of shares by two Irish tycoons is a twist in the fairytale story of the greening of Manchester United, writes Mary Hannigan.
One thing can be said about Manchester United: there's rarely a dull moment. Although, admittedly, there have been quite a few on the field this season. Off it, though, it's been eventful, to say the least.
Chelsea are the success story of the English Premiership season, Liverpool of the Champions League, while Arsenal's football remains a joy to behold, but once again it is United that are hogging the headlines, this time because of American Malcolm Glazer's takeover of the club.
One exasperated viewer of Sky News complained on Thursday about the amount of coverage given over to the story, reminding any one who would listen that "it's only a football club, for God's sake".
He did, of course, have a point. But his pleas for what he called "real news" fell on deaf ears. By then he must have suspected that if George Bush was ousted from the White House in a military coup the story would have been relegated to that brief "and now for the rest of the day's news" section at the end of each bulletin.
There really was no escaping it. It was one of those stories that makes its way in to just about every section of a newspaper: Business, Sport, Opinion, Features, Letters. It hasn't quite made the Obituaries page yet but, judging by the mood of many United supporters on Thursday, a notice announcing the sudden death of the club might well have appeared yesterday.
If the Sky News viewer had visited the countless United supporters' websites through Thursday - and one can only assume he steered clear - the depth of feeling on display, much of it of the frenzied, irrational kind, might have left him despairing for mankind.
Only a football club? While Glazer himself was the target of most of the invective, that depth of feeling was also in evidence in the rather colourful (and unrepeatable) accusations levelled at "the two Irishmen", JP McManus and John Magnier. By "selling out" (ie selling their shares in the club to Glazer), they were responsible for "the most apocalyptic day" in Manchester United's history, the claim went.
Apocalyptic? Only a football club?
When McManus and Magnier first started buying shares in the club, back in 2001, there was a charming and naively misguided assumption among some United supporters that because they were Irish they were somehow spending millions of pounds on shares purely for the love of the club, in honour of the age-old links between Manchester United and Ireland. For old time's sake.
It was thought that they would invest heavily in new players, see to it that the club thrived, that they would ensure that another Irishman, Martin O'Neill, would succeed Alex Ferguson as manager, and that the club's Irish captain, Roy Keane, would then be groomed to succeed O'Neill in the long-term.
And, while they were at it, they might even see to it that United wore a green away kit. (We kid you not.)
THE GREENING OF Manchester United? There were very probably one or two supporters who expected United to up camp and use Croke Park as their home ground and adopt Amhrána bhFiann as the official club song.
Johnny Carey, Liam "Billy" Whelan, Noel Cantwell, Kevin Moran, Paul McGrath, Denis Irwin and Roy Keane, United legends all, and now the names of JP McManus and John Magnier could be added to the "United Irishmen" roll of honour.
Oh dear.
As a source close to the pair told the Guardian yesterday: "this is a publicly quoted company - anybody can buy or sell its shares. Manchester United fans cannot regard it as any different from any other quoted company."
And that's all it ever was, business. Which, on the whole, is what businessmen do.
Yet many supporters clung to the hope - maybe even belief - that Magnier and McManus would resist selling to Glazer, regardless of what he offered for their stake in the club. That at heart they were fans. This despite the oft-reported claim that McManus is an Arsenal supporter and that neither man had ever been to Old Trafford. Hardly evidence of two men with a deep-seated love of Manchester United, something neither of them ever claimed.
So when Glazer's offer was finally deemed acceptable, that was that; the deal was inevitably done. By Thursday lunchtime, the £227 million he offered for McManus and Magnier's 75.7 million shares had been wired to their account, giving them a profit on their investment in the club of £80 million. Game over.
As Chelsea fans had accurately forecast, when they goaded United supporters at Old Trafford on Tuesday night, "Glazer's coming to get you". They followed with chants of "USA, USA, USA". Just when the home supporters thought the season couldn't get any worse . . . it did.
On one website an Irish United fan actually apologised to his English friends, describing it as a "shameful" day for Ireland. Again, we kid you not.
Most of those who responded accepted the apologies graciously - in time they would forgive Ireland - but a few expressed disbelief that two Irish men, of all people, could be responsible for selling the club to an American who would systematically destroy it. Sometimes football supporters' grip on reality can be a little loose.
By yesterday RTÉ was receiving complaints about its coverage of the story, which also featured on Prime Time. "I am appalled that news about a foreign football club was the lead item on RTÉ news through the day," as one caller to the Pat Kenny Show on Radio 1 put it.
A foreign football club it certainly is, but it's one whose links with Ireland are as old as the club itself. Even if there hadn't been the McManus and Magnier connection in this latest chapter of its history, it was inevitable that it would generate intense interest on this side of the Irish Sea.
It seems almost comical these days to talk of "Catholic" and "Protestant" football clubs in England; the tags, of course, are an utter irrelevance now, if not across the border in Glasgow.
But, as the author Richard Kurt put it: "30 years ago, when the Main Stand (at Old Trafford) was thick with clerical cloth and the faint whiff of incense, the Roman domination (of Manchester United) was taken for granted. If the Church of England was the Tory party at prayer, then Man United was the Catholic church at play. Much of United's early support was, of course, built upon Catholic Celtic (Irish) immigrants - indeed, Newton Heath almost became Manchester Celtic in 1902."
That, then, is the historical source of the Irish connection, which was strengthened through the years by the steady stream of Irish players signed by the club. In Stephen McGarrigle's Manchester United - The Irish Connection, Dubliner Johnny Carey, who joined the club in 1937, is described as "the first of United's genuine Irish superstars". He was signed from St James's Gate for £250 and went on to play for United for 17 years, captaining them to their first league title in over 40 years in 1952.
Liam "Billy" Whelan was another of the early Irish "greats" at the club, but at just 23 he died in the 1958 Munich air disaster. It was a tragedy that deepened the sense of affection many Irish people felt for the club, an affection heightened further as Matt Busby rebuilt the team, culminating in 1968 when, with George Best as one of the stars, they won the European Cup.
FROM NOEL CANTWELL to Roy Keane, Tony Dunne to Denis Irwin, Shay Brennan to Paul McGrath, the Irish connection through the years has remained strong. As it has amongst the club's support. There are more United supporters clubs in Ireland than in any other country outside England, and thousands of their members travel back and forth to England to attend games every season. Stand outside Old Trafford on match day, and the air is thick with Irish accents.
So, yes, a foreign club, but one with deep and long-standing Irish connections. And now one with newly-formed American connections. It is improbable that they will lead to the demise of Manchester United as we know it. Improbable, too,that Glazer will asset-strip from the day he arrives, in an attempt to recoup his investment.
As one calmer United-supporting voice put it yesterday: "Selling Phil Neville to Wigan Athletic is hardly going to get Glazer his £300 million back."
Turbulent times, though, for the "Catholic church at play". But however those fans of the club, who described Thursday as a "shameful" day for Ireland, might feel, it's unlikely that JP McManus and John Magnier will be attending confession any day soon to ask for absolution for selling their shares.
Business after all, is business, and these days football is business.