Sources have revealed that Manchester United have sold only 18,000 season tickets for the 2010/11 season compared to 56,000 last year – and the deadline for getting one is Friday.

The club, of course, have said that there is always “a late rush to buy” but it’s hard to imagine that with only four days to go they will sell a further 38,000 just to match last season’s total.

The club’s owners, the Glazer family, are said to be shocked by the lack of sales, casting further doubt on any real late rush.

Manchester United are at the centre of a battle for ownership between the Glazers and a consortium called the ‘Red Knights’ but the Glazer family has always said there is no chance of a sale. Fan power, in the form of a season ticket boycott, looks like it could swing the balance of power in the Red Knights favour, however.

Struggling under debts of around £750,000,000, many fans fear for the future of the Old Trafford club and hold the Glazer family solely responsible. The supporters have been running a striking but largely ineffective ‘Green & Gold’ campaign to show their dislike of the Glazers and express their desire for them to sell. The Glazers remain unmoved.

I have always doubted the commitment of the club’s supporters to really follow up their desires by hitting the Glazer family where it hurts – in the pocket. Not for a minute did I think that the apathetic support – which doesn’t include the members of the Manchester United Support Trust (MUST) or the Independent Manchester United Supporters Association (IMUSA) – would go so far as to give up their tickets.

Yet it seems that they have and I applaud them for it. Money is the only language the Glazer family understands. If the supporters, who still provide the biggest income stream to the club on a match day, vote with their feet and refuse to go to watch their team then the Glazers will struggle to finance the interest on those debts, forcing a sale.

Whether or not this will happen is open to debate but the Glazers grip on Manchester United is under threat as never before. Whether or not the Red Knights really have the financial muscle to make a real bid for the club is also open to debate but they will be encouraged by this news and may redouble their efforts.

It will be interesting to see if fan power can truly affect the future of a club as big as Manchester United as it has at smaller clubs in the past.