IAIN MACINTOSH: Mansour does not need to follow Abramovich’s example

With a 15 point advantage and only nine games remaining, even if Manchester United did a ‘Devon Loch’, as their manager would have it, they’d still win the title.

They’d have time to pick themselves up off the turf, give a whinny of defiance and then slowly moonwalk over the line while Manchester City were still jumping the final fence.

For United, this season has been a triumph of squad rotation. Neither injuries nor form nor gloom of night has slowed them in their relentless pursuit of title number 20. For City, it has been a rather less impressive campaign. The Premier League has been squandered, the Champions League was a disaster and it is unlikely the FA Cup will provide much consolation. So where do they go from here? The obvious reaction would be to hand Roberto Mancini a large cardboard box and tell him to clear his desk of post-it notes, nick-nacks and David Platt. After all, he’s had more funding than most space programmes. Sheikh Mansour, whom we are led to believe is a very reasonable sort, might have accepted a second place finish from Mancini, but there are varying degrees of second place (if that is where they do finish). To concede the title race by mid-March is very much at the lower end of the scale. So hand him his P45, take one last look at that hair, maybe even press your nose against it and take a deep drag, but then be of stout heart and send him on his way.