Over recent months I’ve noticed the spreading of a new disease in football, its symptoms include memory loss, myopia and something allied to Tourette’s syndrome. I’ve taken to calling it Fickle Fan Syndrome and it seems to apply equally to all Clubs.

I first noticed this when Arsene Wenger sold his best players to Manchester City, Barcelona and Manchester United. Suddenly the fans began to berate the man they had lauded as a hero and seemed to me to have lost their faith instantly.

However after winning a couple of games he became a genius again and so it went back and forth until the season meanders to its end and Arsenal inevitably qualify for the Champions League and their annual exit at Group stage.

At Spurs, Ande Villas-Boas replaced Harry Redknapp in a sea of criticism and only a few months in he has somehow become a genius. The fickle fans have become his staunch allies.

Now these 2 men are the same people they always were, the fans have simply just changed!

Paulo Di Canio is the most amazing example of recent times. Derided as a fascist by many including the local clergy, he was forced to come out to defend himself and yet one win against the plummeting Toon and he is suddenly the greatest manager in recent times.

The fickle fans also celebrated the hammering of Newcastle United by Brendan Rodgers’ pretenders as though they won the league, asking Newcastle fans to rate their team on a scale of 1 to 6 before then letting in 6 of their own against a very poor Aston Villa side and so the fickle fan syndrome rose up against him and Di Canio’s political views suddenly somehow became relevant again.

At Liverpool the sale of the Club from 2 men who were hated for being absent owners to another absent owner, together with the return and subsequent destruction of King Kenny over the Suarez affair, brought the messiah Brendon Rodgers.

Despite his best attempts to make himself look a fool on Being Liverpool, the Bill Shankley style puns made fans believe that his Reading flop wasn’t of his making and that Swansea’s mid table survival made him the man for the job.

So while Michael Laudrup made Swansea even better than before, Rodgers has made Liverpool the same, although 8th to 7th and still behind Everton is a very slight improvement, now he is embroiled in another Suarez fiasco and if history is any judge he will soon be following the well trodden road of saint to sinner that Anfield has trotted out for the last 2 decades. The fans will turn, the dream will end.

At United we think we are fair and consistent, yet the reasons that birthed the yellow and green protest, as well as FC United, has dwindled while the owners sell everything. Naming rights to the training ground, a piece of the Club to the Stock Market (and yes I bought shares) and even seats at higher prices. Winning the league brings out the fickle fan syndrome in which the debt is overlooked as long as success on the field is constant.

Wenger has overseen a strict wage and transfer control policy designed to be fiscally responsible while Arsenal developed one of the best Stadiums in Europe.

By contrast United have a 1920’s Stadium with poor sight lines, no atmosphere and poor facilities. United remain in huge debt, owned by Americans and being sold around the world like a Happy Meal toy. The contrast in economic attitude is the most stark between these 2 Clubs in the Premier League and while only 3 places separate them the fans deride one and laud the other. Time will prove this to be wrong.

Between these extremes of debt and fiscal prudence lies the rich benefactor, the owner who’s motives are never quite clear and upon which the entire future of the Club lies. These owners pay over the odds for transfer fees and wages and place the Clubs in danger of doing a Leeds United when the sugar daddy calls it a day. Chelsea have something like 40 players out on loan after buying up talent from all over the place but with no structure behind the first team these players go wherever they are sent and have to go as they are told if they wish to keep taking their inflated wages. City paid £700m to win the title, vs £520m for United 13 titles, that’s nearly 20 times as much per title, while Chelsea’s cost £270m each and Liverpool have spent £600m for no titles.

However you look at it, this is silly money from the oil men and insanity from the red half of Merseyside.

Yet United, £350m in debt, march on while the fans who only a short time ago protested for the chance to buy out the owners, faded away as fast as the Red Knights arrived, and just as mysteriously. All Clubs discover in the end that this is a business, and its one with little regulation and high profile. As QPR discovered, throwing money at agents doesn’t buy success, and the ownership models of debt and rich mans plaything are ultimately unsustainable.

Those with fickle fan syndrome, basking in a 20th league title, could do a lot worse than to take a moment to reflect on what is going on at Manchester United and then taking a consistent stance about fiscal responsibility and the best interests of this great Club.

Wherever you stand be United, as those of us who supported the Club thru the long dark days of the 1970s and 1980s know, success doesn’t last forever and its harder to rise than it is to stay on top.

By Steve Burrows CBE @ifollowsteve