I admit to taking some muffled pleasure at witnessing the events at Old Trafford on Sunday, when Manchester United were humiliated 5-0 by arch rivals Liverpool.  Now I feel  for those genuine locally born and raised United fans who have a loyalty to their club - suffering that kind of embarrassment is`t easy;  and I speak as a Southampton fan who has twice in the past two or three years been on the wrong end of a 9-0 drubbing, once at the hands of Man Utd themselves.  So I know what it`s like - been there, done that etc.....

But I also confess to a long standing disenchantment with the Damned United.   It stretches back a good many years.  Back in the day I did admire them when they were under the management of  Matt Busby and when they enticed David Sadler to Old Trafford from Maidstone United and his boyhood home of Yalding here in Kent.  And then there was the trauma of Munich and the pain and sympathy that reached out to the club during those times.

And then along came Ferguson with his deep seated aggression, his hairdryer, his ranting, assumed entitlement and disregard for the laws of the game and the sensitivities of others.  And whilst I acknowledge the results he achieved - the titles, the cups and all that - it was done so with an attitude that brought the game into disrepute and alienated many like me from any admiration we may have had.

I think what really set me against them was the experience of being at St. Mary`s Stadium for the last game of the 2004/5 season when, needing just one point to stay in the Premier League, Southampton lost 2-1 to Manchester United and were relegated to the Championship.  Hard to take of course - but at the end of that game United captain Roy Keane took it upon himself to wander round the touchline, waving goodbye and giving the thumbs down to us disheartened Saints fans.  Not necessary, cheap but consistent with the mindset of both Keane and the club he represented at that time.

So, Manchester United now find themselves apparently in deep trouble - it`s as if a national disaster has hit them;  cries for the manager to be sacked, the board to be attacked yet again and for sweeping changes and more investment to be made to build a team rather than simply collecting  world class players. Their fanbase are as sick as parrots... and yet they are seventh in the Premier League table.  If Southampton were currently lying in seventh place in the Premier League, I would be dancing in the street and over the moon.