The club have dominated English football for the past decade but finished third in this year's premier league, unable to counter a London-based assault from league champions Arsenal or resurgent runners-up Chelsea.

United remain favourites for the May 22 FA Cup final against first-division side Millwall but even a win in Cardiff will not change the view of fans at Old Trafford that the year has been a disappointment.

"It could have gone a lot better," said administrator Michael Garraway.

Garraway, browsing in the ground's 20-checkout "Megastore", said England captain Beckham's move to Real Madrid last year was not a major factor.

"He's a superb player, but was he right for the club any more?" Garraway asked. He said last year's Portuguese signing Cristiano Ronaldo had begun to assume Beckham's mantle. "He gives us more options than Beckham did."

John-Paul O'Neill, a regular contributor to United fanzine Red Issue, said Beckham's departure had made little difference and he was happy the distractions associated with having such a celebrity player were gone.

"Beckham was sold for a reason," O'Neill said in a telephone interview. "He's not really added anything to Real Madrid."

COMMERCIAL NOUS

Despite, or perhaps because of, its successes, the club is frequently lambasted by rival fans and some of its own followers for having an overly commercial approach to football. Old Trafford illustrates both the club's commercial nous and its self-confidence.

Posters advertise Man Utd savings accounts which pay bonuses every time the team qualify for the Champions League -- not a foregone conclusion this year after the third-place finish deprived the team of automatic qualification.

Some newspapers have suggested Ferguson has been distracted this season by a high-profile dispute with Irish racing tycoon J.P. McManus over the racehorse Rock of Gibraltar, but fans remained convinced of the manager's commitment.

"He took United from nowhere to one of the best teams in the world," said account manager Aleem Sheikh, who has followed the team for 23 years.

"A lot of United fans are only looking at the last 10 years," Sheikh added. The team have won eight of the premier league's 12 titles.

Accountant Graham Watson said Ferguson was shoring up the team again for further success.

"He's focusing on the future," Watson said. "He has a bit more of a long-term view than a lot of the media think."

Technician Rick Leighton said: "The man's been glorious for a long time."

United had been beset by numerous problems, chiefly captain Roy Keane's absence through injury, and key defender Rio Ferdinand's eight-month suspension after he failed to take a drugs test, Leighton said.

BITTER RIVALS

English football's powerbase has shifted south this season as London sides have claimed the top two slots for the first time in the premier league, but fans said that was preferable to bitter local rivals gaining ground.

"It isn't good but Manchester City could have been ahead of us, or worse still, Liverpool could have crept into third," Leighton said.

"You can't argue with Arsenal -- they're the way we were in 1999," he said, alluding to the year when United triumphed in the domestic league, the FA Cup and the Champions League final.

"It's a fantastic achievement (for Arsenal)," Leighton said. "It gets right up my nose."

Red Issue's O'Neill said the biggest disappointment of the season was a lack of entertaining football and the willingness to take risks.

"In the last couple of years, we've just been grinding out the results like Liverpool at their mind-numbing peak in the early 1980s, rather than the swashbuckling side we were in the 90s," O'Neill said.