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Tuesday 4 September 2007

Who Needs Eastenders, When We Have The Arsenal Soap Opera

In reference to the comment left below, supposedly Fiszman has always been an Arsenal fan. However prior to Dein bringing his former pal into the club, I can't recall seeing Fiszman paying his Arsenal dues (albeit in First Class!), schlepping all over the country, amongst the besuited party one would often see in the front carriage of the train including messrs Dein, Friar etc. on awayday outings.

I could well be wrong, but my instincts are that Fiszman wasn't anything like quite such a committed Arsenal fan, until after he bought into the club. However in saying that we have to bear in mind that if it was down to Dein, we'd be crawling around the North Circular every other week, to Wembley right about now, with a home that was even less likely to ever feel like our own! What's more, credit where credit is due, as no matter how casual, or commited an Arsenal fan Fiszman was prior, I get the distinct sense that it was only his subsequent commitment to the new stadium and his force of personality that saw the whole project through to becoming a reality.

And I'm saying this as the sort of selfish, sentimental bugger who would've been far happier to have continued watching the Arsenal from my much more homely West Upper perch for the rest of my days, rather than being forced to come to terms with the inevitable winds of change. Nevertheless, bearing in mind this inexorable need for the Arsenal to move with the times, I guess we should count our blessings and be duly grateful, for without Fiszman, I very much doubt the new stadium would've come to fruition in quite such a timely fashion.

As for Dein, it would appear that his willingness to climb into bed with the Ruski is merely a reflection of his desperation to leverage his way back into the club at any costs, perhaps most motivated by a desire for revenge on his former pal, for having the "chutzpah" to give him the elbow, after David invited Danny to this exclusive party in the first place.

Moreover, watching the Sky coverage of Sunday's game again on Sky Plus, there was something I heard said which makes me wonder whether perhaps Kroenke has come to fully appreciate the levels of enmity felt between both parties and perhaps he's come to the conclusion that he's backing a losing horse in Dein's case, who ultimately might hinder his prospects of eventually becoming a major Arsenal player.

With such hostile battle lines now having been drawn between the current board and Dein's Red & White Holdings mob, perhaps the Yank might perceive this as an opportunity to switch sides? If Kroenke is deemed the lesser of two evils, the board's attitude towards him might soften somewhat and I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if we now see a concerted effort from the suits to bring Kroenke into the fold, so that they might make use of his financial clout to ward off any sort of hostile takeover from the Dein desperados?

All very intriguing and you couldn't possibly make it up! I only wish that the club we all love and adore wasn't the rapidly fraying rope in this extremly truculent tug of war!

Then again, so long as Arsène signs his new contract, as it could be a lot worse and we could all be pitiful Spurs fans, with a board that's shot themselves in the foot yet again, only four games into a new season, with the sort of ham-fisted shenanigans which are responsible for such an aura of insecurity around WHL that their Tony Soprano lookalike's position has become positively untenable :-)

TTFN
Bernard

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sure Dein IS an ardent fan of Arsenal.

However, watching his latest ego-driven moves gives me the feeling that he's an even bigger "Dein" fan than he is an Arsenal fan.

He had every right to sell his shares, but his attempts to destabalise the club for his own political ends shows him in a VERY poor light.

His attempts to cling to AW's coat tails, even more so.

As AW said, the price he got for his shares was him being "rewarded for his work at the club", but he should have taken his money, shut up, and moved on.

Anonymous said...

hi, good blog!

english football is a complete circus these days with arsenal the only really decent thing left in it - both on and off the pitch. david dein doesn't make himself look good by linking up with this russian billionaire. we don't need em and we don't want em!

Anonymous said...

That Russian billionare is really ugly, he reminds me of that rat in the Harry Potter movie.

Bern said...

There's absolutely no denying Dein is a devout Arsenal fan, as I've seen him standing on the touchline on a freezing cold morning up at London Colney, watching the kids alongside Wenger. What's more he deserves plenty of gratitude for the part he has played in the wonderful team we are watching now (bearing in mind Wenger wouldn't be there if it wasn't for Dein taking such a massive initial gamble) and our thanks for all his efforts to bring such talented players to the club.

What's more Dein would always stop to talk Arsenal with absolutely everyone and he only had to open his mouth for you to hear evidence of his earnest motives to make the Gunners even greater.

Whether or not this is still true is another matter but it's easy to appreciate how his actions might have become a reflection of his bitterness at having been ousted and the manner in which this was achieved. What's more I can well understand how this might have led to him becoming ego driven, rather than acting in the genuine interests of the Gunners' cause.

His downfall might have been of his own making, resulting from the discovery of his share dealing subterfuge. Nevertheless if any of us had worked for umpteen years to nurture the club that means so much to us, to a man (or woman), we'd all be seriously miffed to turn up one day, to find we'd been unceremoniously booted out of our office, with all ties severed to the point of taking away our mobile phone!

In truth these events are likely to have turned Dein into a seriously embittered creature, positively raging with thoughts of wreaking revenge on those responsible for his dismissal.

As a result, it's perhaps not surprising that this has lead to Dein demonstrating seriously questionable judgement in his subsequent decisions. I mean in his shoes I'd probably want to ingratiate myself with the likes of Usmanov, if only in the hope that he'd have the means to arrange to put out a contract on my enemies, or at least to make them an offer "they couldn't refuse"!

So while there not be an excuse for David Dein's "at all costs" efforts to reclaim some influence at the Arsenal, perhaps we should be able to appreciate the sense of loss that is fuelling his hopefully fruitless efforts to sell the club's soul to such an apparent devil?