Mediocrity? ... have Arsenal settled for second best with the likes of Lukas Podolski and Olivier Giroud? Source: AAP
Arsenal shareholder Alisher Usmanov is concerned the Gunners are turning into a feeder club by selling players in their prime and claims that Thierry Henry has urged him to take over to stop the trophy drought.
Arsenal have not won anything since the FA Cup in 2005 and, in recent years sold striker Robin van Persie, midfielders Cesc Fabregas, Samir Nasri and Alexandre Song, and left back Gael Clichy.
Manchester United signed Van Persie; Fabregas and Song went to Barcelona; and Nasri and Clichy won the Barclays Premier League with Manchester City last season.
"The greatest achievement of Arsene Wenger, over the past 10 years, is to have created two teams: the one that now plays for our rivals and the one that is trying to be among the best in the Premier League,'' Usmanov said.
"That's why I say it's not enough to merely flatter the coach, but to give him the possibility to buy the best players, superstars.''
Henry was part of Arsenal's title-winning teams in 1998, 2002 and 2004 - the season Arsenal finished unbeaten and earned the nickname "The Invincibles.''
The Frenchman left in 2007 to join Barcelona - the year after Arsenal lost the Champions League final to the Catalan club - and is the club's all-time leading scorer with 228 goals.
"I like many footballers, and I'm in contact with some of them. Perhaps my favourite of the last 10 or 15 years is Thierry Henry,'' Usmanov said.
"He's pushing me to buy all of Arsenal's shares, but I cannot predict the future.''
Usmanov owns just under 30 per cent of the London outfit, less than American businessman Stan Kroenke.
Usmanov's comments are likely to reignite a simmering feud between the Russian and the American. It erupted in July when Kroenke was accused of selling the club's best players and replacing them with cheaper ones.
"We should have increased their salaries when they started to be courted, started to look elsewhere. I don't know why that wasn't offered to them,'' Usmanov said.
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