The American billionaire owner of the Philadelphia Eagles, Jeffrey Lurie, has revealed that he almost bought into Arsenal in the past and he regrets not doing so.

Lurie is the current owner of NFL team the Philadelphia Eagles, having bought into the franchise in 1994 for $195 million. Speaking to The Athletic this week, Lurie discussed opportunities he’d had to buy other sports teams, admitting Arsenal were the only one he regretted missing out on.

“I did look into buying other sports teams when I owned the Eagles, and I regret maybe one of them,” Lurie said. “There was probably an opportunity to be a significant owner of Arsenal.

“I wasn’t able to convince enough of the people that were possibly interested in selling at the time. But I saw it similar to the Eagles where it’s kind of a difficult stadium situation. And what if you build a new stadium and it’s right in London? I saw it as a refresh (to) energize that franchise, that team.”

Lurie’s Eagles have recently had some success, winning the Super Bowl in 2017/18, whilst Arsenal ended up being bought by Stan Kroenke. It’s fair to say Kroenke isn’t a popular figure in North London, but it’s hard to say how things would have been different with Lurie, given he’s never owned a (non-American) football team.

Lurie isn’t the only major sports-team owner who had the chance to buy Arsenal before Kroenke took over. Roman Abramovich could have purchased the side instead of Chelsea, according to reports from earlier this year.

Meanwhile, even since Kroenke became the sole owner, there have been regular rumours that Aliko Dangote will try to buy the club at some stage. For now, the Gunners appear to be stuck with their current owners.