After the return of Sol Campbell to Arsenal , I was asked on the forum, Which former Gooner would you want back at Arsenal? Flamini? Sidwell, Upson, Bergkamp, Henry, Vieira???
The only person I would bring back to Arsenal is David Dein.
David Dein was a class act and he was the man who forced the rest of the board to gamble of Arsene Wenger who was unknown outside of france and japan.
Remember the headlines “Arsene Who ” on the back pages when Wenger took over at Arsenal?
Dein overlooked the transfers of players and advised Wenger on contracts of players and did all the paperwork and ran the day to day goings on at the club and left Wenger to deal with coaching, For me Dein was the best in the game.
The reason dein walked away from Arsenal was due to the fact he felt the club needed outside investment to be able to compete with the other top clubs,Dein was removed from the Arsenal board for bringing in Stan kroeneke, who has since been courted by the board and greeted with open arms after Peter Hill-Wood first said “We didn’t want his type at Arsenal” I find it very odd that Dein wanted Kroenke in the rest of the board didn’t, and now Kroenke is the biggest shareholder at Arsenal.
The board changed there minds about kroenke only after Usmanov came to the table, So in everything Dein has been proved RIGHT!
Dein felt we needed to find extra spending power to compete with Chelase , Man Utd and now Man City.
It is hard to say he isn’t being proven right.
Just look at what happened since Dein walked, Players leaving on free transfers like Flamini, Missing out on countless transfers, won nothing since 2005. Wenger is now more of a accountant then a football manager.
And what has Ivan Gazidis done? apart from giving the media a few interviews and signing injury prone Rosicky and Eduardo on new contract extensions.
David Dein was Mr Arsenal, And Wenger is missing his right hand man and its showing.
This summer Arsenal FC need to do everything they can to bring Mr Dein back to Arsenal and then we will see the glory days return.
At last someone talking some sense. I couldn’t agree more. David Dein was also very approachable, you could bump into him around the ground and have a nice chat. All in all we should be having a petition to bring him back and not to oust Wenger!
What you are asking is unrealistic. Besides, Dein only did what Wenger told him, he wouldn’t go and find signings for Wenger – he wasn’t a scout! I think the Flamini business could have been handled better, but Dein was still at the club a few months prior to Flamini leaving, so there’s no reason why Dein couldn’t have done something about that situation if Wenger wanted him to? When you see all the contracts that have been extended lately you can be sure Gazidis now has a good grip on things – but I would still take Dein back, he was Wenger’s confidant – now Wenger lives in a world of his own.
Dein would have ensured we signed Chamakh last summer, he would have given Wenger backing in the transfer market.
Gazidis is a great businessman and will over time make Arsenal a financial force, but Dein loved Arsenal as a fan.
Well said OC. I have always liked the business side of football, and David Dien is one of the best. When roumered he was going to Liverpool I was very fearful of what he could do. However, he did sell his shares to Usmanov, so thats a no return for him.
David Dien did bring Kroenke to the table. Then when he was outed he brought the FAT Uzbeck in turn selling all his sahres to him for 90 odd MILLION quid. But tell me this how much has wither of them out up for transfers??? FUCK ALL thats what. The reason the board turned about face with Kroenke is because he is the lesser of two evils. He runs sports businesses and as such may not (Or may because its unknown what his plans are) heap a whole lot of debt on us if he does decide to take us over.
wow intresting view but now that u mention it its true. before i was skeptical about outside investment from the likes of kronke but if he payed of our debts which he was rumoured to be doing it would mean we would be making gd profit annualy to buy players.
cannot stand the man since the despicible way he treated fans over the north bank shares fiasco. lost a lot of true fans who if we still had them would create a great noise at the emerites.
He sold them down the river and they never returned!
If this is what we want then God help the morals of us gooners!
Players and managers come and go but arsenal Abides
Yeah, Arsenal and all gooners we need to address this is issue of bringind DAVID DEIN on the board because of what he did for the club.
Genarally the game needs him, not only arsenal but football world wide is lacking thak guy, and gunners we are luck to that DAVID in the gooners family.
Plse give him a second chance since he didn’t kill any one and for the best of ARSENAL and the game.Do not sack any one,but add on that talented guy, were all human beings liable to do mistakes. CHARLIE
I couldn’t agree more. Dein was/is Mr. Arsenal. He had the best interests at heart. Since he has gone we’ve done nothing.
I said at the start ofthe season arsenal will deserve what they get, and that means winning nothing. Even and a big IF they were to win something it would need a miracle and luck.
Times are changing, and people are now rightly calling for wenger’s head, and he deserves it to some extent. He could have come out and said I have £? money I cant get anyone. He should expose the board.
Stupid board, they sack him because he went behind their back, BUT for the good of the club knowing full well that we needed help to compete with man u / chavs.
And yet they (phw/fiszman) have now welcomed him onto the board, they look stupid now.
is this blog just another “fat and Orange” PR vehicle?
what evidence is there that Usmanov will do anything to rid the club of debt and not just load it onto Arsenal a la Glazer? this the man who issued a statement calling for shareholder dividends just after purchasing Oranges shares. what evidence is there that Kroenke will put investment in? he runs all his businesses as going concerns, not charities without business models a la Chelsea nd Citeh.
beyond unsupported nonsense about what Dein may have done re the Flamnini situation, what evidence is there that things would be better under Dein? this is the man who wanted to move to Wembley, making it all but impossible for many and maybe most to attend midweek games, making it hugely unattractive to go to weekend games due to the difficulty in getting there and back either along the North Circ or by public transport and which would have put the club at the beckon call of the idiot FA which created a stadium with a third ratepitchdespite negligible pitch use, which still arranges American Football matches in the weeks before big proper football matches and manages to spend nigh on a billion pounds buidling a stadium where foremrly there used to be , erm a stadium. there is no silver bullet. there is no white knight with a billion to bestow charitably. there is no better manager in the current economic climate. by all means clutch at straws but don’t expect your childish analysis not to be pulled apart by grown ups.
Well said!Dein is hugely missed at Arsenal and very few people make the connection between Arsenal’s trophy drought and Dein’s departure.He was not able to get on with Edelman who subsequently met a sticky end and has been replaced by Gazidis,but I suspect Dein and Fiszman had a serious schism relating to overseas investment.
I once read a quote attributed to Dein”Every morning I look in the mirror and ask myself what do I have to do to get a winning team?” I wonder how many other Board members ever ask themselves the same question.More likely it is “How can we make this club more profitable?”There’s a big difference in focus.I also think Dein was able and willing to tell Wenger when he disagreed with him.This Board are too in awe of Wenger and hate the prospect of him leaving because he makes them money season after season
Dein used to know all the Arsenal employees (including ground level staff) by their first names. He used to stop and chat with them. He represented the club in league meetings, and knew how every decision affected the club. He had the talent to negociate and discuss points with players, agents and club owners. He was the spirit of Arsenal. Oh, and he watched all the reseves games too.
I think that too many people are making false inferances. i.e. we were more successful when he was there,. Therefore the reason that we are now ‘less’ succesful is because he isnt there.
i think that we have missed having a person who who takes a lot of Wengers role away from him and freeing up his mental and physical time.
I am not sue if Gazidas is that guy. But i do think that we have missed someone.
having 30 years of watching us play (does not mean I am more of a fan) I think I can put things in some sort of perspective.
What we have missed is a manager who wholly concerntrates on managing the football team and for the last few years this is the case. I am hoping that this will be the case in the future with or without Wenger.
For me David Dein = Arsenal . So as long as Hell ( and not Hill ) Wood is Arsenal president we will still suffering , our board of directors r lucky to have a greedy person as Wenger !!! Unfortunately they dont want Arsenal to become a big team and that’s Dein left the team .
DOUBLE D WAS ALWAYS & WILL ALWAYS BE A GOONER WHO HAD THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CLUB AT HEART-UNLIKE A FEW OF THE CURRENT BOARD WO’RE ONLY INTERESTED IN THE SPREAD SHEET-I THINK WENGER MISSES HIM MORE THAN WE REALISE.DEIN HAD THE EYES & .EARS OF THE FANS .WENGER NO LONGER HAS THIS-THEY WERE A FANTASTIC PARTNERSHIP-LIKE CLOUGH & TAYLOR FOR THOSE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THEM.P.GOD ONE DAY HE’LL RETURN!!
i can see, how being under the age of consent may allow you to believe this ‘blog’ isn’t the worst of all the arsenal blogs. if you’re allowed into a pub though, you really have no excuse.
this is a blog for cheap laughs and making yourself feel better by clearly being more intelligent than the protoplasmic gutterhounds that dribble out this trash every few days.
Good blog. Been thinking along these lines for sometime and I’m glad to see I’m not alone.
Don’t know all that went on before Dein’s departure and I think we have had only a one sided version, but the bottom line is Wenger and Dein were a successful parnership. Since Dein left the team have gone nowhere on the pitch and each season Wenger looks less focussed, less competent and more frustrated.
Remember how long it took for Kroenke to pay for his share. The Uzbek guy paid over the odds and CASH for his. Be weary of investers from the US who have to borrow to pay for their shares.
You really are an idiot, when did you start supporting Arsenal? The fact is that when Dein didn’t get his way he sold his shares to a Manchester United fan who has no interest in the club – not the actions of a man who cares about the club. The fact is that football is cyclical and you can’t win all the time, you probably don’t know that as you probably started supporting the club in the Wenger years when success was taken for granted. Having grown up watching the likes of Selly, Morrow and Hillier I know what’s it like when things are really bad and at the moment we’re a million miles away from the team we had in the early 90s and I’m grateful to Wenger for that.
He may not have been a scout but he could always find the great players. When he was booted from the board he was in talks to bring franck ribery and pato to arsenal. Now im not saying that they would have come, but since then when have we ever approached BIG players like that ?
AW has lost the plot.Thanks to Dein he has become a god. Nobody dares to question his policy with regard to acquisition of wc kids height below 180cm.
That’s why Arsenal will continue to struggle. Yeah when the young gunners have developed and got experience they will blah blah .
It has been going on the last four seasons and each time in a major the gunners have fizzled out proving they are old hat.
So does anyone think Arsene’s choreography and his ballerinas will be enough to get a result at chelsea? We all know Arsene will have practiced his choreography with his ballerinas all week during ballet rehearsal, and we all know that Arsene will pick the ballerinas he feels can most deliver, not a win and 3 points, but rather a performance in the manner he envisions his choreography should be carried out. Arsene will then set his ballerinas off to start their performance of his choreography and after that it’s hope for the best. That is what choreographer’s do. They rehearse with their ballerinas and hope for the best once the performance starts. We certainly can’t expect Arsene to think on his feet and change the outcome of the performance. He is a choreographer. That’s what the ballet rehearsals are for. So, does anyone think that will be enough to get the result?
David Dein was Vice-Chairman of Arsenal between 1983 and 2007. He was appointed when he bought a 16.6% share of the club for £292,000 (he later sold a significant proportion to co-director Danny Fiszman) At the time of Dein’s purchase of the shares in Arsenal back in 1983, Peter Hill Wood Arsenal’s Chairman described Dein as “crazy” to invest his money in the club stating that “to all intents and purposes it’s dead money”.
Dein built up his shares until he owned 42% of the club in 1991. During his time at the club, he was responsible for football matters taking an active role in the transfer of players and contract negotiations where he was able to use his extensive network of football contacts. Dein was behind the appointment of the then little known Arsène Wenger to the manager’s job in 1996; under Wenger Arsenal have won the FA Premier League three times and the FA Cup four times, and Dein strongly backed him and his transfer wishes throughout.
David Dein was also influential in the transformation of Highbury into an all-seater stadium. Following the Hillsborough stadium disaster a report by Lord Justice Taylor called on all Premier League clubs to introduce all-seater stadiums. Dein was behind the introduction of a bond scheme to finance the redevlopment of Highbury’s North Bank and Clock End terraces into all-seater stands.
Dein also helped obtain Arsenal’s entry into the G-14 group of major European football clubs in 2002, and became President of the G-14 in October 2006.[3] A keen promoter of women’s football, he was also President of Arsenal Ladies Football Club, the most successful English women’s football team, while Arsenal vice-chairman.
David Dein’s legacy at Arsenal cannot be overstated. Alongside Arsene Wenger he has helped to transform the club both on and off the pitch. Today Arsenal is seen as an example of a leading club in world football and is admired around the world. David Dein has been instrumental in transforming Arsenal into what it is today.
David Dein was responsible for bringing Arsene Wenger to the club. Following the dismissal of George Graham in February 1995 he tried to convince his fellow-board members to appoint Arsene Wenger as manager. They seemed reluctant to bring on board an unknown Frenchman managing in Japan and opted instead for Bruce Rioch. Following the dismissal of Rioch a year later, Dein again suggested that Arsene Wenger should be appointed as manager. His efforts proved successful 2nd time round and Arsene Wenger was appointed manager of Arsenal in October 1996. It was David Dein who introduced Arsene Wenger to his fellow board members and convinced them to appoint him as manager. No one denies that without Dein, Wenger would never have been appointed manger.
David Dein’s success in recruiting Arsene Wenger as manager in September 1996 is enough to ensure his legacy in the history of Arsenal. Together they spent the next decade transforming the club and helping it join the elite clubs of European football.
Dein believed that English football was falling behind other European leagues and was not embracing a forward-looking plan to improve. He saw Arsene Wenger as the man to help push Arsenal forward embracing new methods to achieve this. Dein also believed that Arsene Wenger would change Arsenal’s style of play which was seen as dogmatic and one-dimensional to one based on technique and speed more attuned with the approach adopted by teams from the continent.
Dein was instrumental in convincing some of the world’s biggest talents to join the club.
In September 1991 he helped Arsenal sign Ian Wright from Crystal Palace for £2.5 million
In June 1995 Dein flew to Milan “and returned with the signature of, for the first time in Arsenal’s history, a true international superstar” Arsenal bought Dutch International Dennis Bergkamp for £7.5 million from Internazionale.
Over the following years, Dein was also responsible for recruiting players such as Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars, Thierry Henry, Davor Sukur, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell, Gilberto, Gael Clichy, Kolo Toure, Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie. All were to contribute heavily to the success of Arsenal.
Not my words or opinion just the facts. I would have David back at the club tomorrow!! Top Man!!
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At last someone talking some sense. I couldn’t agree more. David Dein was also very approachable, you could bump into him around the ground and have a nice chat. All in all we should be having a petition to bring him back and not to oust Wenger!
What you are asking is unrealistic. Besides, Dein only did what Wenger told him, he wouldn’t go and find signings for Wenger – he wasn’t a scout! I think the Flamini business could have been handled better, but Dein was still at the club a few months prior to Flamini leaving, so there’s no reason why Dein couldn’t have done something about that situation if Wenger wanted him to? When you see all the contracts that have been extended lately you can be sure Gazidis now has a good grip on things – but I would still take Dein back, he was Wenger’s confidant – now Wenger lives in a world of his own.
Dein would have ensured we signed Chamakh last summer, he would have given Wenger backing in the transfer market.
Gazidis is a great businessman and will over time make Arsenal a financial force, but Dein loved Arsenal as a fan.
Dein sold his shares to Usmanov, not Kroenke. He was at Red and White holdings with Usmanov, not Kroenke. Get your facts straight.
Well said OC. I have always liked the business side of football, and David Dien is one of the best. When roumered he was going to Liverpool I was very fearful of what he could do. However, he did sell his shares to Usmanov, so thats a no return for him.
Sorry but you are wrong. It was Dein who put Kroenke forward for the takeover FIRST and after he was shown the door he then sold he shares to Usmanov
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/6571099.stm
David Dien did bring Kroenke to the table. Then when he was outed he brought the FAT Uzbeck in turn selling all his sahres to him for 90 odd MILLION quid. But tell me this how much has wither of them out up for transfers??? FUCK ALL thats what. The reason the board turned about face with Kroenke is because he is the lesser of two evils. He runs sports businesses and as such may not (Or may because its unknown what his plans are) heap a whole lot of debt on us if he does decide to take us over.
wow intresting view but now that u mention it its true. before i was skeptical about outside investment from the likes of kronke but if he payed of our debts which he was rumoured to be doing it would mean we would be making gd profit annualy to buy players.
Bang on , no trophies , a Wenger who has aged rapidly and a board that changes their minds when it suits them.
Wenger has done and is still doing a great job but would probably do even better if Dein was back.
I still see Dein driving of in his Maserrati while sitting fishing at the lake next to his house and always wish he would stop for a chat.
The good old days
cannot stand the man since the despicible way he treated fans over the north bank shares fiasco. lost a lot of true fans who if we still had them would create a great noise at the emerites.
He sold them down the river and they never returned!
If this is what we want then God help the morals of us gooners!
Players and managers come and go but arsenal Abides
Yeah, Arsenal and all gooners we need to address this is issue of bringind DAVID DEIN on the board because of what he did for the club.
Genarally the game needs him, not only arsenal but football world wide is lacking thak guy, and gunners we are luck to that DAVID in the gooners family.
Plse give him a second chance since he didn’t kill any one and for the best of ARSENAL and the game.Do not sack any one,but add on that talented guy, were all human beings liable to do mistakes. CHARLIE
I couldn’t agree more. Dein was/is Mr. Arsenal. He had the best interests at heart. Since he has gone we’ve done nothing.
I said at the start ofthe season arsenal will deserve what they get, and that means winning nothing. Even and a big IF they were to win something it would need a miracle and luck.
Times are changing, and people are now rightly calling for wenger’s head, and he deserves it to some extent. He could have come out and said I have £? money I cant get anyone. He should expose the board.
Spot on, the club died a bit when he left.
Stupid board, they sack him because he went behind their back, BUT for the good of the club knowing full well that we needed help to compete with man u / chavs.
And yet they (phw/fiszman) have now welcomed him onto the board, they look stupid now.
Get Kroenke on board, and employ Dein again
What does this Gazidis actually do ?
is this blog just another “fat and Orange” PR vehicle?
what evidence is there that Usmanov will do anything to rid the club of debt and not just load it onto Arsenal a la Glazer? this the man who issued a statement calling for shareholder dividends just after purchasing Oranges shares. what evidence is there that Kroenke will put investment in? he runs all his businesses as going concerns, not charities without business models a la Chelsea nd Citeh.
beyond unsupported nonsense about what Dein may have done re the Flamnini situation, what evidence is there that things would be better under Dein? this is the man who wanted to move to Wembley, making it all but impossible for many and maybe most to attend midweek games, making it hugely unattractive to go to weekend games due to the difficulty in getting there and back either along the North Circ or by public transport and which would have put the club at the beckon call of the idiot FA which created a stadium with a third ratepitchdespite negligible pitch use, which still arranges American Football matches in the weeks before big proper football matches and manages to spend nigh on a billion pounds buidling a stadium where foremrly there used to be , erm a stadium. there is no silver bullet. there is no white knight with a billion to bestow charitably. there is no better manager in the current economic climate. by all means clutch at straws but don’t expect your childish analysis not to be pulled apart by grown ups.
some people who do not want david dein back are not arsenal fans.
Dein had arsenal’s interest, what have the current bloody board done? I think we were probabaly better without the stadium
Well said!Dein is hugely missed at Arsenal and very few people make the connection between Arsenal’s trophy drought and Dein’s departure.He was not able to get on with Edelman who subsequently met a sticky end and has been replaced by Gazidis,but I suspect Dein and Fiszman had a serious schism relating to overseas investment.
I once read a quote attributed to Dein”Every morning I look in the mirror and ask myself what do I have to do to get a winning team?” I wonder how many other Board members ever ask themselves the same question.More likely it is “How can we make this club more profitable?”There’s a big difference in focus.I also think Dein was able and willing to tell Wenger when he disagreed with him.This Board are too in awe of Wenger and hate the prospect of him leaving because he makes them money season after season
Do not speak ill of my new fav blog! this blog speaks the truth.
U, Sir..are out of order.
Agree. I have been saying that for 2 years.
Dein provides back up and checks and balances for Wenger.
A henry comeback would be great, wouldn’t it? He is the one!
Dein used to know all the Arsenal employees (including ground level staff) by their first names. He used to stop and chat with them. He represented the club in league meetings, and knew how every decision affected the club. He had the talent to negociate and discuss points with players, agents and club owners. He was the spirit of Arsenal. Oh, and he watched all the reseves games too.
DAVID DEIN,MR ARSENAL,WE ARE LOST WITHOUT HIM.
I love this blog, I agree yet again
I think that too many people are making false inferances. i.e. we were more successful when he was there,. Therefore the reason that we are now ‘less’ succesful is because he isnt there.
i think that we have missed having a person who who takes a lot of Wengers role away from him and freeing up his mental and physical time.
I am not sue if Gazidas is that guy. But i do think that we have missed someone.
having 30 years of watching us play (does not mean I am more of a fan) I think I can put things in some sort of perspective.
What we have missed is a manager who wholly concerntrates on managing the football team and for the last few years this is the case. I am hoping that this will be the case in the future with or without Wenger.
Arsenal abides!
For me David Dein = Arsenal . So as long as Hell ( and not Hill ) Wood is Arsenal president we will still suffering , our board of directors r lucky to have a greedy person as Wenger !!! Unfortunately they dont want Arsenal to become a big team and that’s Dein left the team .
DOUBLE D WAS ALWAYS & WILL ALWAYS BE A GOONER WHO HAD THE BEST INTEREST OF THE CLUB AT HEART-UNLIKE A FEW OF THE CURRENT BOARD WO’RE ONLY INTERESTED IN THE SPREAD SHEET-I THINK WENGER MISSES HIM MORE THAN WE REALISE.DEIN HAD THE EYES & .EARS OF THE FANS .WENGER NO LONGER HAS THIS-THEY WERE A FANTASTIC PARTNERSHIP-LIKE CLOUGH & TAYLOR FOR THOSE OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER THEM.P.GOD ONE DAY HE’LL RETURN!!
i can see, how being under the age of consent may allow you to believe this ‘blog’ isn’t the worst of all the arsenal blogs. if you’re allowed into a pub though, you really have no excuse.
this is a blog for cheap laughs and making yourself feel better by clearly being more intelligent than the protoplasmic gutterhounds that dribble out this trash every few days.
Good blog. Been thinking along these lines for sometime and I’m glad to see I’m not alone.
Don’t know all that went on before Dein’s departure and I think we have had only a one sided version, but the bottom line is Wenger and Dein were a successful parnership. Since Dein left the team have gone nowhere on the pitch and each season Wenger looks less focussed, less competent and more frustrated.
Remember how long it took for Kroenke to pay for his share. The Uzbek guy paid over the odds and CASH for his. Be weary of investers from the US who have to borrow to pay for their shares.
Brilliant. Please explain how 38,000 a game attendances would have helped compete with Chelsea and Man City?
You really are an idiot, when did you start supporting Arsenal? The fact is that when Dein didn’t get his way he sold his shares to a Manchester United fan who has no interest in the club – not the actions of a man who cares about the club. The fact is that football is cyclical and you can’t win all the time, you probably don’t know that as you probably started supporting the club in the Wenger years when success was taken for granted. Having grown up watching the likes of Selly, Morrow and Hillier I know what’s it like when things are really bad and at the moment we’re a million miles away from the team we had in the early 90s and I’m grateful to Wenger for that.
He may not have been a scout but he could always find the great players. When he was booted from the board he was in talks to bring franck ribery and pato to arsenal. Now im not saying that they would have come, but since then when have we ever approached BIG players like that ?
AW has lost the plot.Thanks to Dein he has become a god. Nobody dares to question his policy with regard to acquisition of wc kids height below 180cm.
That’s why Arsenal will continue to struggle. Yeah when the young gunners have developed and got experience they will blah blah .
It has been going on the last four seasons and each time in a major the gunners have fizzled out proving they are old hat.
So does anyone think Arsene’s choreography and his ballerinas will be enough to get a result at chelsea? We all know Arsene will have practiced his choreography with his ballerinas all week during ballet rehearsal, and we all know that Arsene will pick the ballerinas he feels can most deliver, not a win and 3 points, but rather a performance in the manner he envisions his choreography should be carried out. Arsene will then set his ballerinas off to start their performance of his choreography and after that it’s hope for the best. That is what choreographer’s do. They rehearse with their ballerinas and hope for the best once the performance starts. We certainly can’t expect Arsene to think on his feet and change the outcome of the performance. He is a choreographer. That’s what the ballet rehearsals are for. So, does anyone think that will be enough to get the result?
The facts are as follows;
David Dein was Vice-Chairman of Arsenal between 1983 and 2007. He was appointed when he bought a 16.6% share of the club for £292,000 (he later sold a significant proportion to co-director Danny Fiszman) At the time of Dein’s purchase of the shares in Arsenal back in 1983, Peter Hill Wood Arsenal’s Chairman described Dein as “crazy” to invest his money in the club stating that “to all intents and purposes it’s dead money”.
Dein built up his shares until he owned 42% of the club in 1991. During his time at the club, he was responsible for football matters taking an active role in the transfer of players and contract negotiations where he was able to use his extensive network of football contacts. Dein was behind the appointment of the then little known Arsène Wenger to the manager’s job in 1996; under Wenger Arsenal have won the FA Premier League three times and the FA Cup four times, and Dein strongly backed him and his transfer wishes throughout.
David Dein was also influential in the transformation of Highbury into an all-seater stadium. Following the Hillsborough stadium disaster a report by Lord Justice Taylor called on all Premier League clubs to introduce all-seater stadiums. Dein was behind the introduction of a bond scheme to finance the redevlopment of Highbury’s North Bank and Clock End terraces into all-seater stands.
Dein also helped obtain Arsenal’s entry into the G-14 group of major European football clubs in 2002, and became President of the G-14 in October 2006.[3] A keen promoter of women’s football, he was also President of Arsenal Ladies Football Club, the most successful English women’s football team, while Arsenal vice-chairman.
David Dein’s legacy at Arsenal cannot be overstated. Alongside Arsene Wenger he has helped to transform the club both on and off the pitch. Today Arsenal is seen as an example of a leading club in world football and is admired around the world. David Dein has been instrumental in transforming Arsenal into what it is today.
David Dein was responsible for bringing Arsene Wenger to the club. Following the dismissal of George Graham in February 1995 he tried to convince his fellow-board members to appoint Arsene Wenger as manager. They seemed reluctant to bring on board an unknown Frenchman managing in Japan and opted instead for Bruce Rioch. Following the dismissal of Rioch a year later, Dein again suggested that Arsene Wenger should be appointed as manager. His efforts proved successful 2nd time round and Arsene Wenger was appointed manager of Arsenal in October 1996. It was David Dein who introduced Arsene Wenger to his fellow board members and convinced them to appoint him as manager. No one denies that without Dein, Wenger would never have been appointed manger.
David Dein’s success in recruiting Arsene Wenger as manager in September 1996 is enough to ensure his legacy in the history of Arsenal. Together they spent the next decade transforming the club and helping it join the elite clubs of European football.
Dein believed that English football was falling behind other European leagues and was not embracing a forward-looking plan to improve. He saw Arsene Wenger as the man to help push Arsenal forward embracing new methods to achieve this. Dein also believed that Arsene Wenger would change Arsenal’s style of play which was seen as dogmatic and one-dimensional to one based on technique and speed more attuned with the approach adopted by teams from the continent.
Dein was instrumental in convincing some of the world’s biggest talents to join the club.
In September 1991 he helped Arsenal sign Ian Wright from Crystal Palace for £2.5 million
In June 1995 Dein flew to Milan “and returned with the signature of, for the first time in Arsenal’s history, a true international superstar” Arsenal bought Dutch International Dennis Bergkamp for £7.5 million from Internazionale.
Over the following years, Dein was also responsible for recruiting players such as Patrick Vieira, Emmanuel Petit, Marc Overmars, Thierry Henry, Davor Sukur, Robert Pires, Sol Campbell, Gilberto, Gael Clichy, Kolo Toure, Cesc Fabregas and Robin Van Persie. All were to contribute heavily to the success of Arsenal.
Not my words or opinion just the facts. I would have David back at the club tomorrow!! Top Man!!