Manchester United are in crisis -- again -- and yet the people with ultimate control of one of the world's most historic soccer clubs are nowhere to be seen.

United are a dysfunctional mess, a club with no obvious leader and a manager waiting to be fired, but the Glazer family, owners since 2005, are silent and invisible.

Imagine owning the biggest and most glamorous house on a street and renting it to tenants who promise to upgrade and modernize it, only for them to start a fire that threatens to burn it to the ground. Right now, that is the view from the United States, where the Glazers are watching from afar as United plunges into turmoil and maybe even a Premier League relegation battle following almost three years in the hands of Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the minority owner to whom the Glazers ceded control of soccer operations in exchange for a £1.5 billion deal for a 28% shareholding in February 2024.

The Glazers have never been popular owners among United supporters, having saddled the club with £600…