Manchester United fans had waited 17 years for a moment like this, so when the announcement came from the Glazers at 9.30pm on Tuesday that they were open to selling the club, they didn't want to hear that the process could still be a long one and that what comes next might also be unappealing.
Ever since this debt-laden takeover was first mooted United supporters wanted the Glazers out. Some walked away in 2005, more went after the European Super League fiasco, others have left when it's just become too much for them. Throughout it all, the sound of protests has never lingered far from the surface.
Those anti-Glazer sentiments were reignited after United's disastrous decision to sign up for the European Super League. The failure of that project in April 2021 may have sowed the seeds of this day. It certainly put a roadblock up to a guaranteed route to revenues and given their record at qualifying for the Champions League recently, United under the Glazer family needed that.
READ MORE: Red Knight Jim O'Neill would consider United bid if Glazers lower demands
So this was a momentous day at Old Trafford. Four hours separated the news that Cristiano Ronaldo was leaving with immediate effect without another penny in salary from the confirmation that the club was up for sale. Some supporters linked Ronaldo's criticism of the Glazers last week with this decision, but that really is giving him too much credit. This has been on the table for months.
Seeing Avram and Joel Glazer confirm they would consider selling the club was a red-letter day for United fans who felt their club would never realise its potential while the Americans continued to drain the club, via the dividend payments that now total £155million across the last seven years.
But the statement they issued doesn't mean new owners will be riding into Old Trafford next week. It just doesn't work like that anymore. For a start, the statement made clear that the Glazers were open to new investment as much as a sale.
Then there is the issue of who wants the club. Sources close to Jim Ratcliffe refused to comment on whether the Manchester-born billionaire would be interested when contacted by the Manchester Evening News on Wednesday morning.
Ratcliffe's Ineos company have branched out into sports in recent years. They already own Nice, in France's Ligue 1, and made a late bid to buy Chelsea when the UK government sold the club earlier this year.
The 70-year-old is a United fan who said in October "we would probably have had a go" if the Glazers had been selling in the summer. At least fans would know Ratcliffe's heart is in the right place, although there is a feeling within the game that he might have already moved on from a desire to buy his boyhood club.
Gatley-born Lord Jim O'Neill, the former boss of investment bank Goldman Sachs, was behind the Red Knights consortium in 2010 and has told the MEN he would consider getting involved again, but finds it "very difficult" to see a scenario where it all comes together this time around.
If Ratcliffe and O'Neill decide not to get involved, then the biggest battle for United fans might well start now. This isn't the case of better the devil you know, given how badly supporters have got to know the Glazers since 2005, but there is also the feeling that little good can come of a football club being sold for more than £4bn or £5bn.
There is the possibility of a sovereign wealth fund wanting to buy the club, of United heading down the 'sportswashing' route, despite years of ridicule of the clubs owned by states who have transformed the landscape of the European game.
That might appeal to the social media fanbase who fantasise about record spending in the transfer window, but to Mancunians who spend their money at Old Trafford every other week, it is an unappealing prospect.
The alternative is another round of American investors. When the firesale of Chelsea attracted such significant interest from across the pond, it showed that the interest of US business in the Premier League was as strong as ever and that clubs might be even more valuable than current owners anticipated, given the Todd Boehly consortium concluded a deal worth up to £4.25bn.
It felt telling that in their comments on Tuesday night, Avram and Joel Glazer referred to "the passion and loyalty of our global community of 1.1 billion fans and followers." Those are the kind of numbers that would speak to American investors with dollar signs in their eyes when they consider how to monetise that fanbase.
This is the potential problem with American ownership. They all want their pound of profit. If a US consortium or private equity firm considers buying United for £5bn, it isn't because they want to have fun with it, but because they can still see room to grow revenues and make money.
Whether that is through an expansion into digital streaming rights or another attempt at a breakaway league remains to be seen. But if a private equity firm pursues a European Super League model, they are unlikely to be swayed by protests. They are in the business of delivering profits to their investors and emotion rarely comes into a decision.
That's not to say that there aren't better owners than the Glazers out there. There clearly are. But bodies like the Manchester United Supporters' Trust and other fan groups need to be aware of the motivations of potential buyers.
It feels significant that the Glazers and Liverpool's Fenway Sports Group (FSG) owners have both gone public with a desire to find fresh investment or sell recently. With the essential collapse of the Financial Fair Play model, the cost of competing at the top has never been higher.
The Glazers are also trying to fund significant development at Old Trafford and Carrington at a time when global building costs are spiralling and the UK economy teeters on the brink of a recession. They have always wanted this club to be sustainable, but that is harder than ever to achieve, especially when your owners line their own pockets every year.
The difficulties they have faced in restoring this club to the top of the game have led to friction between the six siblings, some of whom have wanted to sell the club for a while.
The sale of Chelsea and the desire of the Glazers and FSG to consider an exit suggests the boom time for Premier League clubs is still here. But how much further can these clubs go in terms of value, and what sort of owners are being attracted at the prices talked about? We could be about to find out.
READ NEXT:
