Malcolm Glazer’s advisers yesterday delivered A formal proposal to buy Manchester United to the club’s representatives in the City.

The plan, said to contain more detail than February’s rebuffed version, is a final attempt to win support from the Old Trafford board, before the businessman launches a hostile bid for the club.

“It would only be difficult to make progress if there was outright hostility,” one City source told The Guardian newspaper.

United’s directors have described the 300p price as “fair” but their advisers Cazenove are expected to take at least a week to respond.

In the City, United’s share price rose 5p to 277.5p yesterday – a gain of almost 2%.

The board’s previous objection to Glazer’s bid was to the planned use of high levels of debt and the level of debt, about £300m, is understood to be about the same figure in the new plan.

Glazer’s new plan includes a commitment to provide a £20m transfer fund for new players. He also backs the club’s plans to expand its Old Trafford stadium.

Fans’ groups remain vehemently opposed to a Glazer takeover.

“This talk of a £20m sweetener is a total con,” Independent Manchester United Supporters’ Association spokesman Mark Longden told the BBC.

“He is borrowing the money anyway, so it is the supporters who will have to pay that back.

“And as for more of the debt being in his name, once he bought Manchester United, it would be regarded as an asset just like his caravan parks in Florida.

“If he couldn’t pay back the money he owed, the club would be sold off just like everything else.”