Why Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea instead of Arsenal | OneFootball

Roman Abramovich was dissuaded from buying Arsenal by a group of short-sighted Swiss bankers.

Abramovich purchased Chelsea almost 16 years ago, and his time in control of the club has yielded five Premier League titles, five FA Cups, three League Cups, the 2012 Champions League and the 2013 Europa League.

But revelations published in a new book called The Club written by two journalists from the Wall Street Journal claim that Abramovich had originally intended to buy Chelsea’s London rivals Arsenal instead.

The Russian oligarch is said to have sought advice from Swiss bank UBS about the economics of English football, and he was subsequently advised that the Gunners were “categorically not for sale”.

However, former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein tells the book that the club’s owners would have been happy to sell to Abramovich if an offer had ever arrived.

Elsewhere, The Club also alleges that Abramovich made several unsuccessful attempts to bring Thierry Henry to Stamford Bridge when the Arsenal legend was at the peak of his powers.

And the Blues owner also briefly considered purchasing Tottenham Hotspur and even met with the club’s chairman, but “while his Mercedes trundled along Tottenham High Road, he looked out and said in Russian, ‘This is worse than Omsk’ — the grim Siberian outpost where he had a refinery.”

The Club: How the Premier League Became the Richest, Most Disruptive Business in Sport by Jonathan Clegg and Joshua Robinson is out now.