Manchester United fans could still get what they want with Sir Jim Ratcliffe bid

Football is boom or bust now. Driven by the 24-hour news cycle, there is very little middle ground, very little time to step back, and reactions are instantaneous. It's great or it's grim and perhaps nowhere is that range of emotions as magnified as at Manchester United.

So when news broke late on Saturday afternoon that the Qatari bid for United, led by Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, was withdrawing from the process to buy the club, it sparked a social media meltdown. The reaction summed up 18 years of Glazer rule at Old Trafford and the prospect of that disastrous reign now reaching two decades.

In truth, this shouldn't come as a surprise. The mood music for a while now has been that the Glazers - especially Joel and Avram - were leaning toward staying on. A full sale hasn't been a likely outcome for a while.

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Part of the reason Sheikh Jassim's bid has collapsed is that this was the only option from that camp. There was no attempt to get a foot in the door. It was all or nothing and it will be nothing.

But the doomsday scenario presented in the immediate aftermath on Saturday is an overreaction. This isn't the end of Manchester United as a serious football club, or any other such dramatic notion. Certainly, in the short-term, the presence of the Glazers staying in charge makes life more difficult for Erik ten Hag. It makes success harder to achieve.

When United play home games against FC Copenhagen and Manchester City next week, protests will increase in ferocity once again. But the ire of those protests - and the focus of the online anger - should remain the Glazers, rather than Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is set