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Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al-Thani missed a flexible deadline to submit enhanced takeover offers earlier this week, suggesting Manchester United’s sale process was getting a bit ridiculous.

Both requested extensions, and The Raine Group, which is overseeing the process on behalf of the Glazers, unsurprisingly agreed to that. ‘Soft terms’ are simply there to move the procurement process to the next step.

Ratcliffe submitted his offer on Thursday, a day after the Wednesday deadline, but Sheikh Jassim had not yet submitted his. Around 48 hours of confusion followed, but the second Qatar-led bid was finally recognized on Saturday.

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The acquisition process has become a pantomime, and when the curtains close, it may end in tears. Avram Glazer and Joel Glazer are reluctant sellers for the club and rejection by big players wouldn’t come as a total surprise.

The Qataris want 100 per cent of the club and Ratcliffe wants to buy Glazer’s combined shareholding of around 69 per cent, but the American family also has the option of selling a minority stake, with equity firms smelling blood in the water.

A sale of a minority stake, especially to an equity firm that could provide short-term funding, would seem to be a good fit for the Glazers, since they would still control their most valuable asset; however, it would be a nightmare scenario for supporters.

It would be a disaster, as it would not only squander the opportunity for genuine change with Sheikh Jassim and Ratcliffe at the table, but could potentially mean welcoming an equity firm, which exists solely for profit.

Such companies would demand a return on their investment. The Glazers have been the only Premier League owners to receive dividends in recent years and an equity firm investing in the club would risk bringing in even more vultures.

Fortunately for fans, that nightmare scenario is still some way off. Sheikh Jassim’s camp ‘remain confident’ and ‘believe his offer is the best for United’, while Ratcliffe believes his local roots can help the club become a ‘community asset’ .

It is clear that a change of ownership is necessary for a better future. United fans have protested against the Glazers since their controversial leveraged buyout and if a sale to Sheikh Jassim or Ratcliffe does not follow through, chaos would ensue.

Around 10,000 supporters marched against the Glazers from The Tollgate Pub to Old Trafford on a rainy August afternoon before United played Liverpool and the protest had a militant feel, with supporters tangible anger.

Just 15 months before that protest, Old Trafford was raped following protests against the Glazers amid plans to join the European Super League. That day’s game was postponed and green and yellow smoke surrounded the stadium.

The Glazers’ apology for the Super League debacle has yet to be accepted, though that was never in doubt because there are no words they could have said to reverse nearly two decades of their debt-plagued regime.

Those two protests in particular have been the largest in recent memory, but the Glazers should prepare for unprecedented backlash and ramifications if the club’s sale doesn’t go through this year.

They have two candidates willing to buy the club and their greed seems the only potential stumbling block.

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