Henry Warns Arsenal Takeover Could Take A “Very Long” Time

Former Impact coach and Arsenal great Thierry Henry has warned fans of his old club any potential takeover by Swede Daniel Ek would not go through quickly.

Spotify founder Ek, is a long time Arsenal fan and wants the club to re-discover its identity.

Henry and other club legends, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira have hopped on board with the Swedish businessman in his bid to wrest Arsenal away from American Stan Kroenke and son Josh, who are on record recently stating they do not want to sell and that they are, “100% committed to Arsenal.”

“He [Ek] wants to re-inject the Arsenal DNA, the identity that’s gone,” Henry said.

“You don’t have Arsenal people there among the board that can sometimes show the right direction and that is what Daniel wants to do.

“Daniel is an Arsenal fan - he hasn’t said that for publicity, he has been an Arsenal fan for a long time.”

Each of the three legends were approached by Ek and when they realized that first and foremost he wanted to involve the fans, met with the Arsenal Supporters’ Trust to bring them back on board.

Henry confirmed on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football that Ek has “reached out” to the Kroenke family to present an offer to buy Arsenal Football Club. Henry didn’t discuss figures but It is believed Ek’s bid is in the region of £1.8bn and will be presented by the end of this week.

Henry further added, “Daniel will not move away” and will wait “to see if they want to sell” in the future.

“That is going to take a long time.

“We know what we want to do but first and foremost we need to make sure we can take over, if they are listening.

“Let’s see where it is going to go, he reached out. I don’t know now how far they went.”

The Spotify owner is confident Kroenke will listen to the offer - which he considers to be a compelling one. He’s said he’s already collected the funds to make sure a significant bid is possible.

“There needs to be a discussion,” said Henry.

He added: “I think it’s going to be long and not easy - if it does ever happen. One thing that I want to reiterate is that Daniel will not move away, he will be there waiting to see if they want to sell.

“They now need to listen. A lot of people have been screaming that they want the owner out. We are trying to offer a solution involving the fans and getting the DNA of the club back.”

Henry says Ek’s priority is to re-establish Arsenal’s identity - which the Frenchman feels has been lost under the Kroenkes - by handing power back to the supporters and reintroducing people who know the club’s traditions to the board.

Arsenal’s all-time leading scorer also discussed potentially using a “golden-share” scheme, which could give supporter groups the power to reject board decisions.



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