When the Glazer family took a key step towards clinching a £790 million takeover of Manchester United in May 2005, fans outside Old Trafford burned an effigy of Malcolm, the patriarch. When three of his sons visited as owners for the first time the following month, they were greeted with chants of “die, Glazer!” and eventually had to be escorted from the stadium by police.

When the Glazers floated the club on the New York Stock Exchange in 2012, the head of a supporters’ group described it as “another slap in the face”. And on the day last November that Malcolm’s six children finally announced they were considering selling out, star striker Cristiano Ronaldo quit, having told TalkTV there had been “zero” progress at the club since Sir Alex Ferguson retired as manager almost a decade earlier.

The Americans have been hate figures among United fans almost from the moment they emerged as alternatives to Irish tycoons John Magnier and JP McManus in a simmering bid battle 19 years ago. Having loaded the club with high-interest debt and taken out about £200 million in dividends and other payments, they have overseen a period of managerial churn and under-investment — and are now running one of the strangest sale processes in memory for a trophy UK asset.

Raine Group, the New York-based investment bank that helped sell Chelsea FC last year, promised the Glazers it would attract 200 to 300 potential buyers before it won the mandate, according to a source close to the situation. Raine is well connected with US tech buyers as well as traditional sports investors — for example, it advised Manchester City’s Middle East owners on the sale of a stake to Silver Lake, a previous backer of Dell and Skype, in 2019. There was thought to be potential to make poor assets such as United’s in-house TV channel fit for the streaming era.

As things stand, though, the auction of the Premier League’s most globally renowned club has flushed out just two serious suitors. Sir Jim Ratcliffe, chairman of the Ineos petrochemicals empire, has pitched a complicated deal under which he would take a partial stake and potentially allow two of the Glazer siblings, Joel and Avram, to stay involved. Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani, the son of Qatar’s former prime minister, has offered to buy United outright.

Both mooted bids are said to value the club at about £5 billion. “That is a price, seemingly, the Glazers find unattractive,” the source close to the situation said.

Last weekend, the Mail on Sunday claimed United would be taken off the market, saying the Glazers were holding out for up to £10 billion. The story caused the shares to slump by more than 15 per cent. It was denied by a source close to Raine, who insisted the process was ongoing.

But with doubts over whether Ratcliffe’s deal can be delivered — and with the Qatari side apparently unwilling to bid against itself — the sale seems to have stalled. “Raine are just incompetent,” the family source said. “They have a very difficult client, because it’s difficult to understand what the Glazers’ real objectives are. But nothing’s really progressed. We are where we were four months ago … There’s no momentum in the conversations — and unless you have momentum, deals die.”

Ownership troubles are in United’s DNA. In the 1960s, it was bought by Louis Edwards, a meat vendor from Salford. His son, Martin, flirted with selling it to Robert Maxwell and, in the late 1980s, to the property entrepreneur Michael Knighton — who soon admitted he could not afford the £20 million purchase price. JJB Sports founder Dave Whelan then turned down the chance to buy a majority stake for £11.5 million because he feared other clubs’ fans would stop visiting his stores.

Edwards jnr floated United on the London Stock Exchange in 1991. Eight years later, Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corporation ultimately owns The Sunday Times, saw his attempt to buy the club through BSkyB shot down by the Monopolies and Mergers Commission. The Glazers’ stakebuilding in 2003 and 2004 came amid a feud between Ferguson and Magnier and McManus over the stud rights to the racehorse Rock of Gibraltar.

The Glazers’ history is also chequered. Malcolm’s father, Abraham, worked as a watch repairer but died suddenly in 1943, when the fifth of his seven children was 15. “If you have a father who dies when you are young, you don’t trust the future any more,” Malcolm said years later.

He took on the watch repairs business, expanding into property, trailer parks, shopping centres, food processing and oil explorations. He was softly spoken, but his exploits as a low-rent corporate raider in the 1980s led one judge to brand him “a snake in sheep’s clothing”. After the death of his mother, Hannah, in 1980, Malcolm became embroiled in a bitter legal fight with his four elder sisters over her $1 million estate. It lasted 16 years and ended in a confidential settlement.

Malcolm died in Florida in 2014, aged 85. While his six children are often seen as a collective, people close to the family suspect their diverging interests might be a factor in the dysfunctional United sale process. “There isn’t such a thing as the Glazers,” said one. “There are six people. The only thing I can assume is that they are all over the place in terms of not reaching unison. It’s the only explanation — otherwise, this is just sheer incompetence.”

The six siblings own 69 per cent of United but control 95 per cent of the votes through a dual-class share structure more common in the US than the UK.

Joel, 56, who is executive co-chairman, has the biggest individual stake, controlling about 19 per cent. He is seen as the most hands-on, spending most of his working days on the club’s affairs and getting involved in transfers.

Avram, 62, the other co-chairman, speaks for about 14 per cent of the votes. He is seen as being more non-executive, travelling the world and attending events such as the World Economic Forum in Davos. The others — Bryan, Darcie, Edward and Kevin — are less involved. Darcie is said to spend more time on the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, the NFL team the Glazers bought in 1995.

Ratcliffe initially proposed a deal where Ineos would buy about 50 per cent of United and allow Joel and Avram to keep about 20 per cent, which they would sell to Ineos over time. It has since been reported that all six Glazers could stay in with reduced shareholdings, which they would sell to Ineos gradually using derivatives.

The Ratcliffe structure could face legal and technical hurdles. Minority investors holding the less powerful “A” shares could sue if the Glazers were paid a big premium for their super-voting “B” shares. And United’s stock exchange filings state that B shares will be automatically converted into A shares if the Glazers sell them.

While the Qatari bid may appear more straightforward, there are doubts over both. Ineos is heavily indebted and it is not clear whether Sheikh Jassim is simply the frontman for a Qatari state-backed deal that would run into regulatory problems. And if not, does he really have access to billions? The United board is ready to form a special committee to examine a firm proposal from either party. But it has not had cause to do so yet as no firm proposal has materialised.

The six Glazer siblings seem as immune to pressure as their father was. While the sale process goes into extra time, discussions over expanding Old Trafford’s capacity remain stuck in limbo, and uncertainty over the ownership has added to the problems engulfing manager Erik ten Hag. Apart from the abuse scandals surrounding forwards Mason Greenwood and Antony, the team are languishing in mid-table in the Premier League. “There’s a very strong feel of drift — of rivals having visions and strategies, and Manchester United doing what they need to keep ticking over, and no more than that,” said Chris Rumfitt of the Manchester United Supporters Trust.

The Glazers were among proponents of Project Big Picture and the European Super League — attempted money-spinning reforms of the Premier League and Champions League. Those blew up, but there may be legitimate reasons to pause the United sale and wait for other changes to take effect. From the 2024-25 season, the Premier League should get an extra place in the Champions League, with more games — and money — for participating clubs. And at the end of that season, Fifa’s updated Club World Cup will take place for the first time.

Asked about her brother’s motives during his takeover of United, Jeanette — one of the sisters Malcolm fought for years in the courts — said he was “centred on one thing”. “He’s like a machine — money, money, money,” she told an interviewer. “There’s no other dimension.”

There is no reason to believe his heirs are much different. A £6 billion price tag would neatly give each Glazer £1 billion — not a bad return, considering the family’s initial £270 million outlay (many observers think even that was borrowed). But with the sale of United stuck in a goalless draw, that number seems a long way off.

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