David Buik: Malcolm Glazer Would Have Been Happy With Manchester United Investment

Financial analyst David Buik believes controversial tycoon Malcolm Glazer would have been happy with Manchester United's performance during his involvement at Old Trafford.

The 85-year-old, who died on Wednesday after a long illness, was at the forefront of the £790m takeover of the club in 2005.

Despite unrest among the club's support regarding the takeover, United's success on the pitch under Sir Alex Ferguson continued unabated with five Premier League titles and a Champions League triumph in 2008.

Buik believes the successes at United may well have impacted on American football franchise the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, which has been owned by Glazer since 1995.

"I would suspect, without being unkind, that he would be entirely ambivalent of what the fans thought of him," Buik said.

"He identified this club as being the greatest club in the world and its ability to be able to generate cash because of its extraordinary success over a protracted period of time.

"Shortly after this was bought in 2005 we did have the financial crash which affected the whole world pretty dramatically in 2008, and without this cash cow, in the form of Manchester United, who is to say, would they have Tampa Bay Buccaneers survived?"

Glazer's sons Joel and Avram have been running Manchester United as co-chairmen over the past nine years.

It is understood Glazer's death will not have any significant effect on the ownership of the Premier League club.