The Glazers have a credible way out of Manchester United. It is now over to them.

United demand our fascination not just in success but by collapsing to the bottom of the Premier League as a laughing stock against Brentford; by sliding into a hapless mediocrity that seemed unthinkable not so long ago; in uniting a nation in a great wave of guffaws.

And they compelled our attention again, in the past 24 hours, by becoming the subject of feverish front-page speculation that they might be taken over by one of Britain’s richest men and the whole trajectory of this grand institution could be transformed once more.

A vast and palpable craving from supporters across many continents greeted the confirmation in The Times that Sir Jim Ratcliffe is interested in buying a stake and, indeed, the whole business. Suddenly a credible alternative had appeared to the Glazers. An alternative to complacency, mediocrity and to dysfunction; an end to the sense not just of fan frustration and rage but impotence, too.

All the anger that has poured into the Green and Gold campaign, protests, fanzines and podcasts, and anti-Glazer uprisings for more than a decade has most commonly felt like a waste of paint, smoke bombs, balaclavas and breath. Fans could scream and shout about the owners, and journalists point out the myriad failings, and it all seemed to dissipate in an instant in the Salford air.

Then, suddenly, in just a few words of confirmation of interest from Ratcliffe in response to reports that the Glazers are looking to bring in new investment, United’s vast army of supporters felt like there was something - someone - to latch on to. There was hope of better.

It is a surge of expectation at a particularly intense and potentially significant time given the team’s dire results, months of shambolic recruitment and the looming contest against Liverpool on Monday. Emotion may yet spill over.

Fan groups such as “The 1958” had already been planning a demonstration and every day since that 4-0 debacle away to Brentford - not least after Ratcliffe’s public declaration of interest on Wednesday - feels like it has raised both the stakes and the number of fans who are likely to take to the streets.

Those supporters sense, understandably, that United are at a crossroads in modern history. Which way now? Even the deluded owners must realise that the present direction does not work for anybody.

Their own complacency since Sir Alex Ferguson departed in 2013 has finally caught up with them. The team is in a woeful state and the recruitment department are running around like panicking men late on Christmas Eve trying to find something - anything - to buy before the shops close.

Erik ten Hag did not even have a honeymoon period before the bickering started - a new manager who inherited all the problems of previous regimes and found a few more all of his own.

Cristiano Ronaldo was brought back as a trophy signing but is now a millstone dragging down dressing-room morale; a club stuck with a megastar on pounds 500,000 a week. The new manager and his coaching staff do not want a sulking player but nor, it seems, does anybody else. What a mess.

Commercial revenues are at risk with repeated failure to qualify for the Champions League; Old Trafford is in need of massive investment and it is unthinkable - unless the owners really do want to provoke a riot - to load more debt on the club.

Hence the reports that the Glazers are looking at ways to bring in investment by selling a minority stake. There are six Glazer siblings and only two, Joel and Avram, engage in the club with further suggestions that some of the others are keen to cash out. They will have offers and options. The clout and cachet of United built up over many decades - combined with the ubiquitous appeal of the Premier League - is so powerful, and global, that it can endure even Glazer mismanagement.

An American private equity firm, Apollo Global Management, is reportedly in talks - though good luck explaining that as progress given the certainty that Apollo will want their money back before long with handsome profit on top. Perhaps that feels a natural fit for the Glazers.

Ratcliffe, left, is another path entirely. He did not become a billionaire in petrochemicals by being a silent investor or passive partner. The Ineos camp is clear that a minority stake in United is of interest - and a way to pay for stadium overhaul in the short term - but that long-term control is the goal.

The choice of direction lies with the Glazers who, typically, are saying nothing. There have not been talks with Ineos, certainly not yet. The owners’ stubbornness, and very thick skin when it comes to fan sentiment, have to be factored in when trying to ascertain if they will budge, and at what speed.

We can be sure they would expect a record valuation for United - certainly far above the pounds 2.5 billion paid for Chelsea this summer - and are unlikely to be bounced hastily into anything. But they also have a credible escape route now which could effectively give them a huge premium for failure on top of previous share sales of pounds 465 million and an estimated pounds 1.1 billion which has gone out of United in interest and debt repayments, dividends and directors’ remuneration.

Officially the club is not for sale. But there is also the knowledge that the Glazers need money for huge infrastructure projects and they are not about to reach into their own pockets.

Ratcliffe’s spokesman was also entirely correct when he used the word “reset”. The club cries out for it at every level. The Glazers have not only eroded performance culture on the playing side but cannot even claim to be commercial masterminds, with revenues flattening out compared with rivals.

These are not problems which will be instantly fixed by anybody. And, first, Ratcliffe has to see if the Glazers will even talk. A great faith has been invested in the Manchester-raised billionaire by supporters after this week’s disclosure of interest but that momentum needs turning into negotiations.

Thousands of fans will protest on Monday with renewed hope that they can push the Glazers into those discussions, and towards the exit. Of course it has not worked before - but then, previously, there was no credible alternative ownership publicly declaring that there is another, better way.

-The Times

Originally published as The Glazers have a credible way out of Manchester United. It is now over to them.