Man Utd boss Ferguson: You have to feel for Grant at Portsmouth

Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has sympathy for Avram Grant and his problems with Portsmouth.

Portsmouth are £60million in debt, due to appear before the High Court next week to face a winding-up order over an £11m unpaid tax bill and have failed to pay their players on time for the past three months.

Just to top it off, their new 'owner', Hong Kong-based billionaire Balram Chainrai, admitted yesterday that he knows nothing about football and does not even want the club.

Ferguson said: "When you see what's happening there, you have to feel for him. It can't be easy. How he's coping, you can only imagine.

"He was out of the game for a year and a half and it's an agonising thing for football managers because you can't go and get a job as prime minister or an accountant or a banker. They are football men and they have to wait until the next opening comes along.

"He's in an industry he wanted to get into and, unfortunately for him, it's a difficult spell."