Dein tells Gunners: sell to Usmanov - Sport in brief - Evening Standard
       

Dein tells Gunners: sell to Usmanov

David Dein has warned the Arsenal hierarchy they risk being overtaken in the Premier League pecking order unless they allow Alisher Usmanov to seize control.

The Uzbekistani billionaire currently owns a quarter of the club's shares but would like to launch a full takeover through his company Red and White Holdings - which is fronted by Dein, the former Gunners chairman who has a frosty relationship with the board at Emirates Stadium.

Dein claims the Gunners board need to entertain a takeover from a super-rich investor, and insists it is the only way manager Arsene Wenger can be given the opportunity to succeed saying: "Luckily, they have Arsene but you have to give the man a chance."

He added: "I don't want to see Arsenal as the second or even third team in London.

"I can see the way the game is going. The wealthier are going to get wealthier and more successful. It is getting polarised."

Of Usmanov, he added: "He would change the whole dynamic of the club. At Arsenal, something has to break."

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