The Glazer family are planning to delve deeper into offers for Manchester United as they invite the leading bid contenders for negotiations in the coming days.

Fears the controversial owners may now be planning to retain overall control have been raised by well-connected figures in European football. However, sources within United insist the Glazers remain open-minded and will continue pursuing all available options.

One major factor is likely to be to establish the absolute top price that Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and Jim Ratcliffe are willing to pay for an outright sale.

Offers of £5 billion (€5.71bn) are believed to have been tabled already for a deal which would obliterate the record purchase of a sports team following the sale of the Denver Broncos American football franchise for £3.8bn last year, but the Glazers have been looking for as much as £6bn (€6.86bn) to sell, and it remains to be seen if any of the bids will be sufficient to persuade the Americans to end their 18-year reign.

Four of the Glazer siblings – Kevin, Edward, Bryan and Darcie – are believed to be eager to sell at the right price, but Joel and Avram, the United co-chairmen who have been the most invested of the family in the club, are said to be more resistant and have remained open to the idea of a partial sale or minority investment.

There are also understood to have been a range of minority sale and share options raised by American investment groups in recent weeks. Elliott, the US hedge fund, filed new terms to New York brokers a fortnight ago offering a minority stake deal. The former AC Milan owners previously offered to provide financing to any potential bidder.

Their revised offer, submitted before the original deadline, is for “a small amount of common equity” in addition to an offer to provide financing for any bidders.

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2023]