Ferguson enjoys life under Glazer management

Sir Alex Ferguson has revealed that the Glazer family have not attempted to interfere at any stage with his management of Manchester United.

Malcolm Glazer's £800m takeover of United in 2005 attracted fierce opposition from a section of the club's support, some of whom subsequently launched the breakaway club FC United, who have just been promoted to the Unibond League.

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Even though Glazer Snr has taken a back seat, leaving sons Joel, Avram and Bryan to run the club, life at Old Trafford has largely continued as normal, helped by a massive new television deal and an excellent season on the pitch for Ferguson's team. And the United manager, who was confronted by angry fans at Budapest airport for not speaking out against the Glazers' ownership, has confirmed his contentment with the current situation.

"The Glazers have been fine since they took over," he said. "They haven't interfered with anything we do. I have had a couple of meetings with them, although [the United chief executive] David Gill obviously deals with them more regularly. Any time I have been with them, they have simply said to let them know if there is anything I need."

Although the Glazers' continued assurance that funds will be made available for major transfers has yet to be tested, they certainly were not found wanting when asked to stump up £31m to secure Cristiano Ronaldo's future for the next five seasons.

This comes at a time when the Glazers' holding company for their dealings with United, Red Football, has just posted a loss of £137.7m. While the figure would appear to justify those who fought against the takeover, sources close to the Glazer camp have claimed the losses were in line with expectations and would drop significantly over the coming years.

A high percentage of the loss comes from the goodwill - the difference between the cost of the takeover and the conservative estimate of the club's worth at the time - generated from the deal, which is £522.4m, a sum that will depreciate by £39.2m a year over 15 years.

Interest payments totalling £85.2m were made in the 14 months to last June, £27.2m of which came from cash flow. However, the Glazers are comfortable with the figures and will not be deflected from their aim of giving Ferguson the funds required to compete at the highest level.

"These are simple accounting losses, reflecting the leveraged buyout by the holding company, which is in line with expectations," said a family spokesman. "The Glazers continue to invest for the long-term, as demonstrated by the contract extension of Cristiano Ronaldo."

With Real Madrid and Barcelona showing interest in Ronaldo, Ferguson accepts it was a deal that had to be done, no matter what the price.

"Of course it was costly," said Ferguson. "But I told our people, 'Look, two or three years down the line, we could be playing Real Madrid and thinking to ourselves that we had the best player in the world and let him go'. Nobody would want that."

With the future of most of his squad now secure, Ferguson is already looking at potential signings. Bayern Munich's Owen Hargreaves seems certain to move to Old Trafford in the summer, while interest in Southampton's young full-back Gareth Bale could also be renewed.

In Italy, the Roma captain, Francesco Totti, has called on their Serie A rivals Milan to take revenge for his side's quarter-final elimination from the Champions League at the hands of Manchester United when they take on Ferguson's side in the semi-finals.

There was friction between the two sides off the pitch and crowd trouble in Rome during the first leg, which the hosts won 2-1 before being beaten 7-1 by United at Old Trafford.

"Good luck for their Champions League campaign," Totti said of Milan. "I'm sure the vast experience of [Carlo] Ancelotti's side in international matches will mean they can face United on an equal footing. I hope to see Milan in the final, it would mean they had avenged us.