It's amazing. The more they hate us, the higher the value gets.

What started out as a murmur of discontent at the Glazers taking over Manchester United has become almost outright rioting in the streets which has been aided and abetted by the likes of IMUSA and MUST and the apparently imminent takeover bid by the mysterious “Red Knights”.

Before yesterday’s game against Stoke there were smoke bombs and all sorts going off outside Old Trafford and the streets were lined with green and gold.

Once United had put the game to bed by going 3-0, the anti-Glazer brigade turned their attention to the main agenda and began chanting things such as “F**k Off, Glazers” – what us Mancunians might lack in prose, we certainly make up for in concision. Makes me proud…

Anyway, the Red Knights have been on the scene for quite a few months now but their actions have so far remained very much “behind the scenes” and has been limited to words in the press and words from their supporters.

It has been almost three months since I suggested that the time for the Red Knights was fast approaching when they would either have to put up or shut up but even I had to concede that probably the right time to do any kind of deal was at the end of the season.

Which is where we are now.

Lo and behold, 24 hours after the season has ended, reports are coming through that the Red Knights “won’t overpay” for Manchester United.

“We have had productive conversations with potential investors in recent weeks which have reinforced our belief that it is wrong to offer above fair value.” Is one quote from a statement released by the group this morning.

So, what they are basically saying is that they won’t offer more than the amount that they believe the club is worth.

That figure is understood to be around the £1 Billion mark but, (and I don’t know whether this true or not), Manchester United put out word last week that they had already turned down a bid of £1.5 billion from another source earlier this year.

Possibly one of the problems that we are seeing here is partly of the Red Knight’s own making.

They have said all along that getting the money together is the easy part – it is getting the Glazers to sell that is the difficult part.

I have felt all along that there was something resembling dirty tactics going on with the Red Knights and their active encouragement of fans to withhold money from the club (on the pretext that it all goes straight into the Glazer’s pockets) was part of that. “Don’t renew your season tickets”, they said. “Don’t buy Club merchandise”, they said.

It became a game of hardball and the aim was to see how much the Glazers could withstand before relenting and handing over the keys to the Red Knights at a knockdown figure.

It is possible however that the Glazers are now turning this back on the Red Knights and are countering with, “You say you are in this for the love of the club, how much do you really love it?”

If the Glazers do sell, they will want the price that they have in mind and “fair value” is not likely to cut it with them – and why should it?

As for the Red Knights it is looking increasingly like the moment of truth has arrived and they are setting their stall out in such a way that if their bid is not accepted (likely) then they can walk away telling everyone that they “did their best”, put in a “fair” offer but the “greedy Glazers” would not play ball.