FA Premiership: Alex Ferguson quickly changed the subject when he was asked yesterday about the empty seats and funereal atmosphere at Old Trafford, but he will know it may not be long before Malcolm Glazer is asking the same questions.

Manchester United's week thus far has seen one player arrested on suspicion of rape, another in hospital with a smashed cheekbone and the team booed off for the second time in three home games, but as Glazer scans the newspaper cuttings in his in-tray, nothing is likely to trouble him more than the first signs of supporter apathy affecting his profits.

United are in a privileged position when they can be aggrieved by a crowd of 60,000. The fact is, however, that England's biggest club were genuinely taken aback by the swathes of empty red seats that were visible during Tuesday's Champions League tie against Lille. It certainly did not feel like a competition that, to quote United's manager, is "bigger than the World Cup" and if Ferguson were to flick through the supporters' own publications before today's match against Tottenham he might realise that his problems are worse than he realises. Far worse.

If the fanzines represent the view of the ordinary fan then United's come across as cynical, disillusioned and rapidly falling out of love with the man who once had the league title returning to Old Trafford as if it were a homing pigeon. The criticism of Ferguson and his increasingly prominent assistant Carlos Queiroz is unrelenting, and the latest Red Issue argues that mutiny could have broken out long before the manager was verbally abused during the defeat by Blackburn.

"That United's supporters could be so 'ungrateful' as to barrack Ferguson predictably led to the football establishment filing out to slate the spoilt hordes and defend the manager's reputation," it reads. "The old lines were trotted out: 'trophies won . . . should have a job for life . . . everything he's done' ad nauseum. What this has spectacularly failed to take into account is the mantra by which Fergie himself has always judged his players: medals in the cabinet are to be admired once retirement dawns; the bus rolling on to the next success carries no passengers. The fact is that United's support has been incredibly patient and the real wonder about the Blackburn hostility is that it didn't occur sooner."

The new regime at Old Trafford can take solace from the fact the pattern of dwindling crowds - down every match so far this season and culminating in more than 7,000 gaps against Lille - will end this afternoon. Yet the Glazers are entitled to be concerned, particularly with a £43-million project under way to increase the capacity to 75,000.

By any calculation, the Glazer family needs to increase income to pay off the debts incurred when they moved into power. This requires a successful team but there is little sign of one.

The Glazers's knowledge of football cannot be so threadbare that they are unaware of what most United fans think: that the current team will be devoured in the later stages of the Champions League. Certainly the Glazers couldn't have anticipated their new "project" would be 10 points behind Chelsea before the clocks turned back.

"Disillusionment is the best word," says Colin Hendrie, spokesman for the Independent Manchester United Supporters' Association. "I don't think the club would admit it, but our information is that before certain matches they have resorted to offering tickets to schools and selling executive boxes at half-price. The message to schools has been: we'll give you as many as you want. That's because there is no pressure on seats any longer. At least 4,000 regulars have stopped going as a direct result of the Glazers."

United refute this view, claiming 8,000 people are disappointed before every league game. "They're spinning figures," says Hendrie. "The fact is that people have woken up to the fact they're pumping an awful lot of money into a product that's not worth it."

Everything is relative. United's fans might struggle to explain the misery of a barren period to the followers of Newcastle United. One certainty, however, is that morale is at its lowest ebb for longer than Ferguson would care to remember.

Guardian Service