Elliott Management, who rescued Milan and still co-own the club, are progressing in the negotiations for Manchester United investment in a deal that could replicate their current set-up with the Champions of Italy.
The American investment firm had representatives at Old Trafford last night to observe their 4-1 Europa League Round of 16 win over Real Betis.
It is also suggested the Elliott crew was given a tour of the Manchester United facilities and spoke with the current owners.
They are through to the second stage of the takeover bid process, along with Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar.
While these two are seeking a complete takeover of the Premier League giants, Elliott Management are believed to be examining a different approach that could keep the Glazer family in control or help finance someone else’s bid.
It would be a replica of their current set-up at Milan, where Elliott sold many of their shares to Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Group, but kept a minority status.
Tellingly, Elliott also loaned some of the money to RedBird that they then used to purchase Milan.
Elliott are a US hedge fund who originally had merely loaned €303m to Yonghong Li, the Chinese businessman who came out of nowhere to purchase Milan from Silvio Berlusconi in April 2017.
When Yonghong Li failed to keep up repayments on the high-interest loan in July 2018, Elliott effectively repossessed AC Milan the same way a mortgage provider would repossess a house.
Elliott had been expected to simply sell the club on to the highest bidder, but instead helped shore up the finances – with the aid of taking a year out of UEFA competition to wipe the Financial Fair Play slate clean – and took them back to winning the Serie A title last season.
Just days later, Elliott sold Milan to RedBird for €1.2 billion, keeping a minority stake.