Arsenal fans have been warned not to get their hopes up about a potential takeover of the club from Spotify co-founder Daniel Ek, yet.
The Swedish billionaire revealed his intent to buy the club he’s supported since he was a boy amid growing uncertainty over unpopular Gunners owner Stan Kroenke’s future.
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It’s understood Ek has the backing of club legends Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira while former player Jens Lehmann was coy about his potential involvement.
This is a potentially exciting time for Arsenal fans, whose dislike for Kroenke reached new levels last week as they protested in their masses following the American’s involvement in the controversial European Super League plans.
Ek is understood to be worth over £3billion, which is more than Kroenke, but talkSPORT has been told that doesn’t mean the acquisition will be a straightforward process.
“On paper he has enough wealth to buy the club, but you have to remember that a lot of his wealth is tied up in Spotify stock,” Swedish financial reporter Jens B Nordstrom told Jim White on talkSPORT.
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“He can’t sell that without risking losing control of that company or getting into hot water with other investors of Spotify. He needs to look at financial solutions and how to leverage it.
“On paper he can do it [buy Arsenal] but in practice it’s going to take some manoeuvring and he might need to bring other investors into it.
“So my guess is he might be looking at who else wants to come with him on this journey.”
Nordstrom added that he suspects Ek doesn’t believe a takeover of Arsenal is possible right now.
However, the financial expert insisted there’s hope for the north London side in the future, as he pointed out Ek has defied the ‘impossible’ throughout his business career.
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“He’s quiet and likes to have things his own way,” Norstrom added. “I’ve spoken to him in public and said hello to him and he’s always declined interviews.
“This usually happens when people make a lot of money but he’s very private and doesn’t like the spotlight.
“This might be a shock if he does buy Arsenal as owning a Premier League football team means you are really in the limelight. You have fans that you have to listen to and he’d become much more of a public figure than he’s ever been.
“He’s a quiet guy but has a lot of patience. You can tell when you talk to him that he usually has a very set idea about what he wants to do and he usually states it quite openly. It might not happen immediately.
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“With a lot of his business deals he announces them and then the other party says ‘no, I’m not going to do that’ and then things take a while to come together.
“Usually Daniel Ek gets his way in the end, but it might take a couple of years and I think this might be true for the Arsenal deal.
“It might not happen this week or next month but it could be a reality in two years.
“My gut instinct is that he probably doesn’t believe [he can take over Arsenal] but Daniel Ek has done a number of impossible things his entire life.
“The first job he applied for was at Google and they came back to him and said that he needs to go back to university to finish his degree. His reaction was basically ‘sod off, I’ll build my own search engine’. That tells you what kind of a man he is.
“When he wanted start a music streaming service, everybody said it was impossible and that the industry wouldn’t allow it. Now Spotify is a reality.
“He is an ambitious guy and I think he wants to go for it.”
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