Source: Daily_Mail
Manchester United boss Ferguson backs troubled Pompey manager Grant
High times: Manchester United are chasing silverware on three fronts Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson expressed his sympathy for Avram Grant as the Portsmouth boss prepared to take his bottom-of-the-table side to Old Trafford.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.' Ferguson, meanwhile, is focused on an opportunity to return to the top of the Barclays Premier League. So much so that the United boss insists he did not even realise leaders Chelsea were playing Hull on Tuesday when he went to watch son Darren's team Preston play Barnsley. Low point: Portsmouth are in trouble both on and off the pitch 'I left with five minutes to go and on the radio it said it was still 1-1 at Hull,' he added. 'I thought Chelsea were playing on the Wednesday, so it was a wee surprise for me.' Ferguson brushed aside concerns over Owen Hargreaves's future after he was left off United's Champions League squad list this week by insisting that the England midfielder can go to the World Cup despite being out with a knee injury for the last 17 months. Ferguson said: 'The recovery has been slow but I'm confident he will be back before the end of the season. I think he would be an important player for England.' Rio Ferdinand's appeal over his additional one-game ban for a 'frivolous' challenge to an FA charge of violent conduct against Hull's Craig Fagan will be heard on Friday.