Manchester United fans suffer slow torture as Glazers bide their time

Purgatory spiced with speculation, hope blunted by stasis. So it goes for Manchester United supporters, for week after interminable week.

It is nearly seven months since the Glazers put the club up for sale – the “anniversary” is Thursday. Yet the family remains in situ, still inflicting the sort of slow torture that would make Torquemada flinch, still desperate to make every last penny before they depart. If they depart.

At least the Glazers have been consistent. They started their 18-year-old reign at the club by stiffing fans. They appear to want to go out the same way. But every week that passes without a sale risks jeopardising United’s chances of improving again next season. If you were an agent of a player lined up for a move to Old Trafford, wouldn’t you wait to see if the Qataris, with almost bottomless pockets, took over first?

The sense both publicly and privately is that Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad al-Thani’s Nine Two foundation has slipped ahead of Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos bid after making a fifth and final offer this month. That said, it is understood both parties were still in active and detailed discussions last week, and few behind the scenes are willing to make firm bets.

That is partly because of the opaqueness of the process, and the uncertainty of the Glazers’ full motives – along with the way Raine, the US bank running the sale, has repeatedly tried to ramp up the price. Even so, most believe we are now in the endgame.

But when the takeover fog does eventually lift, and United’s new owners swan into Old Trafford with smiles and promises, the indelible stain the Glazers have left on English football must not be fast‑forwarded over, or forgotten. It is astonishing, even with 18 years’ distance, to remember