Nigerian businessman Aliko Dangote wants to buy Arsenal and then sack Arsene Wenger.
Dangote is the richest man in Africa and has expressed his interest in owning Arsenal in the past.
In a recent interview with Bloomburg, he confirmed that he still wants to takeover Arsenal, and announced that the first thing he would do would be to sack Arsene Wenger.
“The first thing I would change is the coach,” he said.
“He has done a good job, but someone else should also try his luck.”
I’m sure there’d be a decent number of Arsenal fans who would support that decision.
However, regardless of what people think of Wenger, a lot of considerations have to be made before he can be removed from his position.
Immediately dismissing Wenger would be careless, given the lack of a management structure at the club. That’s before you get into the issue of who would replace him.
Dangote isn’t the only one who wants to takeover Arsenal. Alisher Usmanov made another attempt last season, but has his offer rejected by Stan Kroenke.
The bid prompted Kroenke to release a public statement reiterating his intention to not sell the club.
Dangote, though, believes that Kroenke and Usmanov would sell their shares if they received the right offer.
“If they get the right offer, I’m sure they would walk away.
“Someone will give them an offer that will make them seriously consider walking away. And when we finish the refinery, I think we will be in a position to do that.
“It’s a great team, well-run. It could be run better, so I will be there. I will wait. Even if things change I will take it.”
The refinery that he references is the ‘largest single train petroleum refinery in the world with a production capacity of about 650,000 barrels per day’. It is costing €12bn to build within the Lekki Free Trade Zone in Nigeria and is expected to create hundreds of thousands of jobs.
The refinery is scheduled to open in 2019 which is when, if we believe Dangote, he will then have enough money to convince both Stan Kroenke and Alisher Usmanov to ‘walk away’