Why timing of Manchester United fans’ anti-Glazer protests should not be ignored

On a good day for United and Solskjaer, some fans still made their feelings known

Was it the sight of green and gold scarves in the away end which provoked the first sustained anti-Glazer protests of the season inside Old Trafford? Was it because the transfer window is open and speculation surrounding Sporting midfielder Bruno Fernandes had heightened over the preceding 24 hours?

Was it because Ed Woodward's annual earnings were revealed in club accounts a day earlier; £3.16m for a season in which Manchester United finished sixth and missed out qualifying for the Champions League? Was it a response to the defeat four days earlier, when Manchester City wiped the floor with their neighbours?

Or was it because United were actually playing well? The chants directed at the Glazer ownership and Woodward - some more unsavoury than others - only began once Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side had gone 3-0 up against Norwich, after a Marcus Rashford penalty and Anthony Martial header had all but assured them of victory.

It emanated from a section of the Stretford End reserved for the Red Army, a group of United fans who are working with the club to improve Old Trafford’s match day atmosphere. Their efforts have been well received by insiders and encouraged by discounted drink prices in that section of the ground. You wonder, after Saturday, whether those prices will start going up.

The chanting lasted for around 15 minutes all told and jarred with the harmony of United's play on the pitch. It was briefly interrupted by the fourth goal, scored by Mason Greenwood, but it started up again soon after. And on a day when practically everything went right for Solskjaer, it was the only difficult topic of conversation in his post-match press conference.

“I'm not sure if the players [heard] it but I noticed, yes,” he said, before appealing to the fans for unity. “As a club we've got to stick together. We've got to be united. We are a family. I can only say from when I've been here I've been backed by the owners, I've been backed by Ed and they're supporting me. So for me, make sure they stick together.”

This is awkward ground for Solskjaer and not only because it pits him between the supporters and his paymasters. He has taken sides in the past, speaking out against the Glazers while still a United player in 2005 and having become a patron of Shareholders United, a group seeking to frustrate the leveraged buy-out.

Sir Alex Ferguson is thought to have taken a fairly dim view of those comments at the time and Solskjaer is now the one sitting in Ferguson’s chair. As we all know, the Scot is the greatest influence on his managerial career. His defence of the club hierarchy and attempt to be a bridge between them and the fans should therefore surprise no one.

Solskjaer went on to point out - somewhat optimistically - that United are still fighting in all four competitions which they entered at the start of the season.

“[The supporters have] just got to believe me when I say I feel we are doing loads of good things behind the scenes,” he added. “We are going in the right direction. See the group today; the attitude, the work-rate, that's the core of the group that's going to go forward.”

But the most striking fact about Saturday’s events was that they came when that attitude and work rate which Solskjaer spoke about was on display.

This was a good day for United but fans made their feelings known regardless. Whatever the rights and wrongs of what was heard from the Stretford End, that context means their protests cannot easily be dismissed as a knee-jerk reaction to a poor performance.

Nor could its authenticity be questioned. Most examples of anti-Glazer sentiment over the last year have come online, in hashtags and trending topics. Many match-going supporters have criticisms of the way the club is run but also make a distinction between themselves and the most vociferous on social media, where anonymity puts legitimacy in doubt.

That was not the case on Saturday, when a small but significant group of regular match-going supporters made their feelings known. In the same way that a good win at home over near-certainties for relegation did little to answer questions about Solskjaer’s suitability for the manager’s job, it also could not mask an undercurrent of discontent within the fan base.

That discontent could grow or it could ebb away, but Saturday showed that whether it does or not may not simply depend on results.