Manchester City's new owner had eyes on Gunners

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Manchester City's new owner Dr. Sulaiman Al Fahim had tried to buy Arsenal FC before deciding to buy Manchester City....... It has now been revealed that Dubai tycoon met with one of Gunners' two biggest share-holders a few months ago over talks on pumping three hundred and sixty million US dollars into the Gunners' coffers....... According to English newspaper THE MAIL on Sunday, meetings did in fact take place between Arsenal's Russian stake-holder Alisher Usmanov earler this year, with a view to buying twenty four percent holding........ However, negotiations reached a deadlock after it was reported that THE ABU DHABI UNITED GROUP (ADUG) would have had to pay a premium on the shares in order to gain a stake at Arsenal but Usmanov was only willing to sell a proportion of his share........ With Usmanov's stakes in the Arsenal board amassing to US$360 million, a buyout would have ensured that ADUG would have been the biggest stake-holders in North London club, slightly more than director Danny Fiszman....... With Robinho joining City on transfer deadline day for a staggering US$64 million immediately after ADUG did indeed buyout City, it seems that the Gunners could have been able to rely on the extra-ordinary wealth of Sheik Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the man behind ADUG should the club had bowed to the Arab's request...... However, Fiszman and his fellow directors have agreed to offer first refusal on the sale of any shares to each other before selling out to foreign billionaires in a lockdown agreement which extends until 2012.