SPOTIFY founder Daniel Elk is said to be considering launching a bid to buy Arsenal.

The billionaire Swedish owner of the popular music streaming service is said to be putting together a formal offer to Gunners owner Stan Kroenke.

The plans are believed to include the input of club legends Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Patrick Vieira.

The move comes following intense pressure put on the north London hierarchy by the peaceful protests from up to 5,000 Arsenal supporters on Friday evening, which sent a strong message to the board.

Read Layth Yousif’s report from the demonstration: 

They emerged from the labyrinthine tunnels below and walked into the bright Friday afternoon sun. 

They came with their homemade placards, banners and flags. 

At first a steady trickle, before, as Tube after Tube carriage disgorged their passengers at Arsenal Underground Station, the flow of humanity grew. Drawn towards the site of the protest. The Emirates Stadium. Its Hornsey Road side to be precise.

“Love the club, support the team, hate the owner” one fan told me, replicating what he’d inked in black and red on his cardboard placard, which he then lifted with no little pride in underlining what he’d just said. 

There was anger in the air, and soon, well before the 6pm start, there was the smell of cordite, which came from the red flares. “No pyro, no party” someone I recognised in the throng said to me with a wink as they raced past.

There were also police helicopters too. The sound of their whirring blades hovering overhead, a constant soundtrack to the evening’s events. 

But this was a wholly peaceful protest. Yes, there was anger, yet it was channelled and it was controlled — aimed at one man: Stan Kroenke.

The club’s unpopular billionaire absentee owner whose decade in charge has seen a damaging stasis, where mediocrity has been encouraged and the status quo preserved. 

But that was until such a tiresome and underwhelming strategy saw this great club slide down the Premier League table, to the extent that even attempting to qualify for the continent’s second tier trophy is beyond the current squad. 

Where the riches of the promised land of the Champions League seem as far away as ever for this proud club. 

And where, in what Kroenke and his ilk at the so-called Big Six and rapacious giants elsewhere across Spain and Italy thought would be an easy fix to bolster falling revenues, the European Super League was announced.

But this ugly cartel of scheming billionaires — who know the price of everything and the value of nothing — were taken aback by the ferocity of opposition to such an appalling project from the whole of football. Not least by the loyal and passionate supporters of the Big Six in this country. 

Fans mobilised last week, prompting a huge backlash — which had the surreal affect of prompting a Tory government to threaten shameless capitalists over their shameless plans. 

How bad must your plans be when the appallingly inept and unprincipled Boris Johnson opposes them? Of course, it was simply craven grandstanding to the crowd from the PM, a man who cares little about the sport and knows even less. 

Because the real heroes — the only heroes — were the fans themselves, whose solidarity and unity were as awe-inspiring as they were powerful. 

And for Arsenal supporters, long frustrated with the lack of accountability from the distant US billionaire Kroenke, being part of the movement that smashed the ESL in fewer than 48 hours, was only the start of events. 

Buoyed by the effective result and emboldened rather than cowed, they went after the owner in a heartening display of further unity on Friday. 

“F*** off Stan Kroenke/get out of our club” they sang lustily, while displaying banners that said the same thing. There were so many homemade placards and flags, you felt as if you were attending a cup final from another era. Not least because all the best demonstrations contain wit and irony — important cousins to righteous anger and antagonism.

“Class, history, tradition?” one flag asked, adding: “My Arsenal…” in sardonic response, while another, showing a caricature of the owner, proclaimed: “Keep Highbury Tidy: Kroenke Out.” 

A man in a white shirt, red tie and a grotesque Kroenke mask talking about how greedy he was, pretended to be interviewed by another holding a stick as a makeshift microphone. It was as all good demonstrations should be, lively, with an edge, while displaying elements of humour. 

Other banners displayed the motto: “Class, history, tradition,” the three things that many consider intrinsic to Arsenal, with a line crossed through each word. 

Nobody escaped the irony that not half a mile from the protest, the fabled art deco Marble Halls of Highbury Stadium still exist, albeit as the foyer to the Highbury Square development, rather than as it was, an entrance for playing heroes to stride through. 

The resonance still reverberates, despite the beloved old ground long gone in the name of progress. “Legacy Fan 1 Kroenke 0” read another placard, in reference to the insultingly condescending label that Kroenke and the billionaires applied to those fans with decades of support.

No wonder so many feel Kroenke has trampled over such essential tenants in the race to squeeze as much out of the club as possible, leaving a soulless husk, and a frustrated fan base.

“Our club, our home — sell up Stan,” another banner. That was the essence of why thousands gathered to exercise their democratic right to protest peacefully. 

The protest went on well into the night, with Arsenal’s 1-0 home defeat by Everton rendering meaningless. The air punctuated with chants from protesters who wanted to make their voice heard. And they did. 

With the ESL dragon slain, could an intractable foe in Kroenke now be next? 

It will take more than one evening’s protest of course — look at Newcastle United’s long-suffering fans who still have to abide to Mike Ashley more than a decade on from his power grab at the faded north-eastern giants. 

But the powerful messages that were sent around the world from the Emirates on Friday evening are just the start of organised action to remove Kroenke. 

More demonstrations are planned for this season, not least a week on Thursday, when many thousands are expected to gather before the Europa League semi-final, second leg against Unai Emery’s Villarreal. Even if the competition among others has been indelibly sullied by such arrant betrayal this month. 

As graffiti artist, social activist and Arsenal supporter NorthBanksy reflected on Friday’s events he said: “It was a great day for us and a great day in Arsenal’s history. Fans finally united and started to flex their muscles. Hopefully it’s the first of many such demonstrations until we get these toxic vampires out of our club. And well will.”

Over to you Mr Elk and your Spotify fortune. 

In the meantime Arsenal protests against Kroenke are the start, not the endgame in concerted efforts to banish the unpopular billionaire from this once great club.