The power vacuum at United is being filled under Sir Jim's due diligence

SIR Jim Ratcliffe ought to know the lyrics: 'What a friend we have in Jesus, he's our saviour from afar, what a friend we have in Jesus, and his name is Cantona.

- SAMUEL LUCKHURST

Trawlers Limited, the company owned by Ratcliffe that is acquiring up to 29 percent of United, is a reference to Cantona's immortal 'seagulls' sermon in 1995.

What do you get for a man worth nearly £30bn on his 70th birthday? A recorded message from his hero.

Ratcliffe was surprised when Cantona appeared in a clip that included well-wishes from Sir Alex Ferguson and David Beckham.

Cantona is topical. Earlier this month, United went four games without scoring for the first time since November 1992 and they resolved to address that famine by signing Cantona at the end of the month.

The Christmas Eve timing of the Ineos announcement offered a Biblical illusion though Ratcliffe is not crass enough to liken himself to the deity Cantona. As much of a throwback to the glory days as the uproarious recovery against Aston Villa was, this United is not a catalyst away from ending another championship drought. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are not newsy periods. Waiting a few more days for an announcement that had been in the post for so long a pigeon could have carried it might have piqued United supporters.

"The timing of this is truly awful and no functioning organisation would even think about it," Gary Neville harrumphed. Salford City sacked their manager two days after Christmas.

United's latest filings were released within minutes of the final whistle against Villa, owed to the timing of the New York Stock Exchange's closure at 5 pm (10 pm UK time). That kept the Old Trafford press room fuller as midnight loomed.

The reaction from Reds supporters was hardly going to be seismic.