NIGERIAN billionaire Alhaji Aliko Dangote has reiterated that he will still buy English Premiership side Arsenal despite seeing an initial attempt fail as he believes he has what it takes to turn the club's fortunes around.
Currently Africa’s richest man, Alhaji Dangote, is optimistic that he will buy Arsenal, otherwise known as the Gunners in the nearest future. Valued at about $15bn by Forbes Magazine, Alhaji has long been interested in buying the north London club and in 2010 he launched a bid to acquire a stake in the club that failed.
Alhaji Dangote, who is now worth nearly eight times as much as he was when he tried to buy the team originally, said he still wants to buy Arsenal, as he is keen on turning its fortunes around. He wanted to purchase a holding in the Gunners when former director Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith was selling her stock but was not successful.
Arsenal’s current majority shareholder is American tycoon Stan Kroenke, who has a 66.64% holding in the company and remains committed to the club for the long term. Uzbek magnate Alisher Usmanov controls around 30% and has also expressed no desire to offload any of his shares.
Yesterday, Alhaji Dangote indicated once his work in the establishment of an oil refinery in Nigeria is complete, then he would consider revisiting his interest in making a move at Arsenal. He added that he feels Arsenal, who last season retained the FA Cup, can mount a challenge for top honours again, albeit perhaps with a different outlook from the boardroom.
Alhaji Dangote said: "When we get this refinery on track, I will have enough time and enough resources to pay what they are asking for. There were a couple of us who were rushing to buy and we thought with the prices then, the people who were interested in selling were trying to go for a kill.
"We backtracked because we were very busy doing other things, especially our industrialisation. Arsenal are doing well but they need another strategic direction as they need more direction than the current situation, where they just develop players and sell them."
Arsenal has been a struggling club over the last 10 years, unable to compete with the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United for the English Premier League. This season, Chelsea won the Premier League title with Arsenal failing to put up any serious challenge, although the Gunners won the FA Cup.
