Where does the Magnier-McManus move leave Alex Ferguson, a man with enough troubles already? That's the question, writes Mary Hannigan.

Alex Ferguson isn't a man who often elicits sympathy. Actually, he isn't a man who ever elicits sympathy, but even Arsene Wenger, the Manchester United manager's chief adversary in English football, must have thought the gods were a bit rough on the old knight yesterday.

Indeed, he would have phoned Ferguson to offer some consoling words if he wasn't too busy running around Highbury singing Allez les Dieux.

If, while chewing on his Shredded Wheat yesterday morning, Ferguson happened to tune in to the latest business news on his television or radio...

"Manchester United are at the centre of fresh takeover rumours after it was confirmed that JP McManus and John Magnier had doubled their stake in the club. The Irish racehorse tycoons, whose holding company was already the club's biggest single shareholder with an 11.4 per cent stake, now own 23.15 per cent, the bulk of their extra shares bought for £62 million (€87.5 million) from British satellite broadcaster BSkyB."

... there's a reasonable chance that he'd have needed surgery to remove the Shredded Wheat from his windpipe.

By then Ferguson already had enough troubles. His £30 million defender Rio Ferdinand had been dropped by England for moving house while he should have been undergoing a drugs test - not the first time, United supporters will attest, the player has been in the wrong place at the wrong time, such is his suspect positional sense.

There was even talk of Ferdinand being banned from football for two years, at the end of which he'd be worth £29.9 million less than United paid for him. Depreciation in the value of assets is a fact of life, but janie.

United promptly became embroiled in the mother of all rows with the English Football Association over the issue but it had no negative impact on the club's share price - by lunch-time yesterday one United share would have bought you Leeds United (255p), such was the positive market response to the McManus and Magnier news.

But where does all of this leave Ferguson? Well, that's the question. It's not too long since the popularly held theory in Manchester was that McManus and Magnier would take over the club and see to it that Ferguson, their buddy, would ascend the Old Trafford throne - that is, they'd make him chairman.

Now the Manchester grapevine would have you believe the Irishmen are intent on taking over the club so they can sack Ferguson as retribution for his dispute with Magnier over champion racehorse Rock of Gibraltar's stud fees.

This theory has, though, been somewhat dampened by those who say that spending in or around £750 million just to annoy someone who's annoyed you is a touch fanciful. Football might be a funny game, but buying football clubs is a less comical business.

The most troubling aspect of all of this, though, for those of a United faith, is the sleazy, squalid and nasty allegation against McManus that is currently doing the rounds. We probably shouldn't repeat it here, we'll no doubt end up in the High Court (but word has it that McManus is an Arsenal supporter). And Arsenal supporters are, after all, notoriously unstable, so few would put it past any one of them to spend £750 million of their hard-earned cash just to subvert the institution that is Manchester United.

Stud fees, Rio, and a rich man with Arsenal sympathies? What next? Is it any wonder, then, that Ferguson choked on his Shredded Wheat yesterday?