A Middle Eastern consortium is expected to launch a £1.5bn bid for Arsenal in the next few weeks. The bid would value the club at twice the valuation of two years ago. It is interesting that the news has come out on the morning of the North London derby with Tottenham.
A Middle Eastern consortium is expected to launch a £1.5bn bid for Arsenal in the next few weeks. The bid would value the club at twice the valuation of two years ago. It is interesting that the news has come out on the morning of the North London derby with Tottenham.
The consortium would like to take over 100 per cent of the club, but the key target is majority shareholder Stan Kroenke. He would make a £400m profit on the deal.
Alisher Usmanov may not be willing to sell his stake, but the consortium thinks that they could work with him in a way that the current board has not sought to do. Arsene Wenger’s services would be retained.
In a bid to appeal to the club’s increasingly frustrated fans, the consortium has made it clear that substantial transfer funds would be made available and ticket prices reduced. The club’s debts would be wiped out.
A bid source told the The Guardian: ‘Arsenal is at a pivotal position at the moment. The fear is that the club is facing a cycle of decline like Liverpool. From our point of view it is the perfect moment to make this bid because at this moment in time you can still genuinely justify this extraordinary valuation on the club.
‘We will not bid for Arsenal if they go into decline. Kroenke and Usmanov will not get this kind of valuation if Arsenal do not succeed and will not get this kind of valuation ever again. We think that bidding now is the key because it is going to give every shareholder maximum value. We are giving them peak valuation.
‘The amount of capital required to pump into Arsenal to make it competitive within England, Europe and the world means that the valuation cannot go any higher.’
The source said the group had identified the detached approach of Kroenke and his son Josh as the reason for the club’s inability to step up to the next level. “The biggest problem with Arsenal is that it has no owner, no face and there is no one to report to. The management of the club at every level is not put under scrutiny and does not have to report to anyone.’
The group would also seek to maintain the club’s approach of developing young players, and was confident, the source said, of complying with the coming Financial Fair Play rules.