Portsmouth's plights is a hot topic for discussion around the press this morning as they face possible extinction at the high courts. Both Pompey and Cardiff face court dates and David Conn at the Guardian examines the plight of both 2008 FA Cup finalists.

"The 2008 FA Cup final was scripted as a romantic Wembley journey for two solid clubs from football's provinces but today, only 21 months on, Portsmouth and Cardiff City meet again in a more sobering ­London setting: the companies' ­winding‑up court.

Both Pompey and Cardiff were ­hopeful yesterday that after making down-payments on tax bills of £7.5m and £2.6m respectively, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs would agree adjournments and accept plans to pay the rest in instalments.

Yet the very appearance of two of football's bigger clubs – and Southend United – who continue to receive millions of pounds in TV and other income, in a court where scores of small, hard-hit businesses will be wound up today, has concentrated minds again on the game's inability to balance the books, even in this boom time.

Since 1992, the year the Football League's First Division clubs broke away to form the Premier League, and therefore not share their TV rights bonanza with the other three divisions, Football League clubs have fallen into insolvency a staggering 53 times."

Another club that is struggling with its owners is Manchester United, as fan pressure against the Glazer family begins to reach the sort of fever pitch levels last hit when they initially took over the club. Patrick Barclay at the Times looks at the Manchester United paradox - the more successful the club become, the more restless the fans become, because their argument against the owners appears weaker.

"The more Sir Alex Ferguson calls for unity, the more the split becomes apparent; when even the stewards cannot agree on whether the Glazers should be tolerated or defied, the very name of Manchester United verges on the satirical. But the green-and-gold protest is a serious one. For its peaceful and dignified tone alone, it deserves to be heard.

If only it had not begun so late. The time to have sought club-friendly investors in United, people willing to provide big money and a channel for the voices of the support, was before 1997, when Ferguson befriended John Magnier and J. P. McManus, and the Irishmen began to build up the 30 per cent stake that allowed the Glazers to take control.

The Americans can now, if they choose, just sit back and watch their asset’s value grow. Unless the protesters are prepared to countenance tactics, such as boycotts, that would drive the price down, it can only go up. The best guess is that the Glazers might eventually settle for £1.5 billion. Half of that represents the value of United when they bought the club. The other half is the debt with which they have saddled United in less than five years"

Staying at Old Trafford, Nani has been making the headlines for all the right reasons lately after some scintillating displays for Manchester United, with Tim Rich at the Guardian examining the winger's growing maturity, a quality that will only see him improve further.

""Sir Alex Ferguson is a very complicated man. He is tough. If things are all right, then they are all right, but when he thinks something is wrong, then everything is screwed. He can go from complimenting you to trashing you in a matter of minutes."

With these words did Luís Carlos Almeida da Cunha, the footballer known as Nani, appear to sign his death warrant at Old Trafford. Ferguson's lifelong socialism comes with a dash of Stalin and very few inside Manchester United get away with these kind of observations about the manager – especially those on the fringes of Manchester United's first team, as Nani was when he gave the interview to the Portuguese press in November.

What Nani said was not terribly revealing. Ever since Ferguson took charge of a playing staff of eight at East Stirling in 1974, everyone who has ever worked for him has been aware of a fearsome temper, an intolerance of the ordinary and an overwhelming desire to win. But reporters in Manchester remembered the furore stirred by Jaap Stam's autobiography in which he confessed he had been tapped up by the Manchester United manager while at PSV Eindhoven. The Dutchman was very swiftly sold after its publication, although Ferguson has always insisted that Stam's departure – one he came to regret – was forced by a £16m bid from Lazio which was thought too good to resist."