That’s FC not MUFC, FergieSource: Daily Star Sunday (no online content)
by STEVE MILLAR
THE other United boss works a mile away from Sir Alex Ferguson’s palatial footballing home.
It could well be a million in terms of lifestyle.
Karl Marginson, manager of Manchester United breakaway club FC United, is up at 3.30am six days a week to deliver groceries.
When he looks up from loading his van, the formidable fortress that is Old Trafford towers above his frozen food depot where he works as a driver.
Protest
But Marginson, a life-long Man United fan, couldn’t be happier. He has won the League – Sir Alex has not.
Marginson, 35, has steered FC United to the North West Counties League Division Two title in just 10 months after being hurriedly formed in protest over the £790million debt-laden Malcolm Glazer takeover.
Life is as sweet as the oranges he delivers. Not even Ferguson’s snub fazes him after supping so much champagne.
Ferguson, when asked the other day if he would congratulate Marginson, said: “Who?”
Marginson shrugged it off with a smile and said: “If someone said to me, Joe Bloggs in the Cornish Second Division had won the league, I’d have said ‘well done’.
“It’s an achievement winning any league at whatever level. So it’s so easy to say ‘well done’. But it doesn’t bother me.”
At least 5,000 of his United fans know his name. And so do scores of players who have phoned him wanting to play for FC United.
Marginson has been catapulted into another world of United – and doesn’t miss the real thing one bit.
He added: “The last time I was at Old Trafford it was to see United beat Inter Milan in the Champions League. I got a corporate ticket.
“When I went down at half-time there were people who hadn’t moved. They’d just sat there and not been upstairs to watch the game.
“They were eating, drinking and watching EastEnders. What’s that all about?
“Yet I still remember the first time my Auntie Pammie took me to Old Trafford as a boy of seven, hearing the singing. Kids can’t get those memories any more. They can’t afford to go and aren’t part of the club. It’s too big.
“Now they can come to us and enjoy football again. We have had 4,300 watching us at our temporary home at Bury and more than 5,000 came with us to Blackpool.
“It’s fantastic to see kids who wouldn’t normally get a chance to go to football. One old fella came up to me and shook my hand.
Proud
“He just said, ‘Karl, thanks. You have given me the best time in 30 years of my football life’. Other fans have told me they have got the belief back.
“I can’t tell you how proud I am to be associated with the club. It would be nice to get recognition from across the road but I’m not bothered.
“They will never admit FC United exist because of the powers-that-be over in Tampa. Someone said the Glazers aren’t bothered because they are used to living in debt.
“They are not living in debt. Manchester United are.”
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