When the Glazers confirmed that they were open to selling Manchester United three weeks ago the expectation was that they had fired the starting gun on the richest auction in football.
United 's owners for the previous 17 years left the door ajar for new investment in the club, a deal that would allow a minority stakeholder to come on board and leave the Glazer family in charge, but nobody who was familiar with the process or the sale of elite clubs expected that to happen.
The family had been seeking investment since the summer, with significant projects underway in the redevelopment of Carrington and, especially, Old Trafford, but the fact they had now gone public to float the possibility of a full sale seemed to indicate that was the direction of travel.
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With costs rocketing in the building trade the budget for any development at Old Trafford will be high and United were coming off the back of a record spend in a transfer window. A confluence of events seemed to have pushed the Glazers to this decision, with the failure of the European Super League and the surprisingly-high price that the Todd Boehly-Clearlake consortium paid for Chelsea among them.
But after weeks of speculation, Avram Glazer once again floated the idea of this process being about investment as much as a potential sale in Qatar on Wednesday. Attending the France vs Morocco World Cup semi-final, Avram was asked by The Athletic for an update on the sale and said: “It’s not necessarily a sale, it’s a process and we’re going forward with the process, so we’ll see what happens.”
Perhaps that is a stock response from someone who co-owns a billion-pound business that is on the market, especially from a family who haven't been shy of prizing every last cent out of the club they own. But it also hinted at what may yet be the biggest difficulty during the sale process, which is getting the six Glazer siblings to agree.
Joel and Avram are the most prominent when it comes to the running of United, but Kevin, Bryan, Edward and Darcie are all directors with a shareholding and will have a say in what comes next.
The Manchester Evening News has been told that the six siblings haven't been seeing eye-to-eye on United for "some time", which might explain why Avram, who like Joel is more invested on a day-to-day basis in the running of the club, is still floating the possibility of investment, rather than a full sale.
The Glazers have appointed The Raine Group to oversee the process and there was an expectation an agreement could be struck in the New Year, with the possibility of a handover of control by the end of the season. But the suggested asking price remains sky high and it's still not entirely clear whether the family all want out, or if there is hope that somebody will come forward with significant investment, which might help fund the Old Trafford project, for example.
Updates are likely to be rare during the process and Avram Glazer offered very little when he was spotted outside the Al Bayt Stadium on Wednesday, but what he did say might well have hinted at the uncertainty that could stalk the process.
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