Arsenal chairman Peter Hill-Wood says he is prepared to talk to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, but he insists rthe club is not for sale.
Former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein, who sold his shares to Usmanov, now fronts a company for the Russian that wants to gain a majority holding in the Gunners.
Hill-Wood told BBC Sport: “The major shareholders have no intention of selling and wouldn’t welcome an offer.
“But we will have a dialogue with any principal or major shareholder.
“If they’ve got some sensible proposals we’ll listen to them.”
However Hill-Wood’s remains resistant to the prospect of negotiating with Dein.
“I see no major point in that, I’ve had 25 years of listening to him,” added the Arsenal chief.
Dein resigned from teh Arsebnal board after Hill-Wood and the other board members snubbed his attempts to bring in investment from American billionaire Stan Kroenke.
He sold his 14.58% stake in Arsenal for £75m to Red and White Holdings Ltd – a company co-owned by Usmanov and business partner Farhad Moshiri – and was then appointed its chairman.
“I have no objection to foreign investors coming into the Premier League, it’s going to be beneficial,” continued Hill-Wood.
“Most of them are investment people and they’re not buying into clubs because they have the passion for the local team they have supported since they were two years old.
“They think that football and the Premier League is an attractive investment and they want a return on that.
“That will work in our favour. There will be a more sensible attitude in transfer fees at silly levels and all this sort of thing.
“People putting £100m in are going to want to see how they can make a profit. To go on paying more to players is not justified or sensible.
“We have always run Arsenal as a business and kept within reasonable bounds.
“All this nonsense about needing a billionaire to put a whole lot of money in to help shore up the annual deficit is not going to happen – it’s lunacy.”
