Manchester United, freshly dumped from the FA Cup, continue to maintain that servicing the debts the owning Glazer family took on to 'buy' the club is not a problem and that there is plenty of cash left in the kitty to buy new players if manager Sir Alex Ferguson wishes. But the BBC's resident financial wizard Robert Peston thinks not and this analysis should make Reds fans worry a little. The club's biggest problem is that it is paying an eye-watering 14.25 per cent on over £200m of so-called payment in kind notes, loan shark deals the Glazers struck with hedge funds to raise the money they couldn't raise through ordinary bank loans. It's now mulling a bond issue to pay off these debts but this would also mean it redeeming some of the bank loans which are cheaper than the payments it would need to make on a bond issue. A rock and a hard place you might say. Going out of the cup will cost the club revenue. Failing to qualify for next year's Champion's League would be a disaster of possibly terminal proportions. That hardly looks likely at the moment but any sustained collapse in form could see the club losing out to a renascent Manchester City, which will certainly buy in the transfer window. Spurs and Aston Villa are also potential threats as is a Liverpool which seems to have got the show back on the road. The real problem is probably next season as Fergie may need to sell another big player (as he did with Ronaldo in the summer) to try to balance the books with few funds to bring in anyone new. If a new age of austerity hits Man U Fergie may well decide it's time to retire and let someone else have a go.