Sir Dave Brailsford was with Sir Jim Ratcliffe at Old Trafford on Friday morning as the INEOS founder met Manchester United officials for takeover talks.
Qatari delegates were in Manchester for talks on the behalf of Sheikh Jassim on Thursday and it was the turn of Ratcliffe's team to visit on Friday.
Both Ratcliffe and Sheikh Jassim submitted bids in February, and talks over a potential takeover have moved into the next stage with both parties.
Among Ratcliffe's delegation was former British cycling chief Brailsford. Brailsford was appointed Director of Sport at INEOS in December 2021 and his responsibilities include overseeing the teams sponsored by the group.
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Who is Sir Dave Brailsford?
For fans of British cycling, Brailsford may not need any introductions. But for those unaware, the 59-year-old was responsible for the development and subsequent success of Team GB and Team Sky in cycling during the last decade.
Brailsford first became famous following his success with Team GB at the Olympics. He managed to transform British cycling from winning two golds at Athens 2004 to eight golds at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
Following that success Brailsford became boss of road squad Team Sky as they chased Tour De France glory. Brailsford oversaw Bradley Wiggins, Chris Froome and Geraint Thomas' victories between 2012 and 2018.
In 2019, Team Sky changed to Team INEOS Grenadiers following a new sponsorship deal being agreed. Brailsford kept his place as the team's principal following the change.
How do Ratcliffe and Brailsford know each other?
Since 2019, Brailsford has worked closely with INEOS and in December 2021, he became Director of Sport at INEOS. This took the Derbyshire native's focus away from primarily cycling to other sports under the INEOS banner.
This includes football where, most notably, Brailsford will have worked closely with INEOS owned Nice in France and FC Lausanne-Sport in the Swiss Super League. INEOS' sporting success also branches out to Formula One with Mercedes and Rugby Union with New Zealand.
What can United expect from Brailsford?
Should Brailsford jump on board with the United project, the Reds' supporters can expect him to stick to one of his main principles. British cycling managed to reach such great heights by adopting his 'marginal gains' philosophy.
While leading Team GB's record breaking cycling programme, Brailsford was asked about the secret to Britain's success and he explained the approach. "The whole principle came from the idea that if you broke down everything you could think of that goes into riding a bike, and then improved it by 1 per cent, you will get a significant increase when you put them all together," he said.
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