Dein fallout continues

The Independent reports that Wenger will be consulted on who, if anyone, will fulfill Dein's role at the club. Ken Edelman is the hot favourite to take up the reins.

As I spoke about in yesterday blog, Arsenal's future largely lies in Arsene Wenger's hands; any decisions taken by the board or prospective bidders will be taken with Arsene Wenger's satisfaction in mind at all times. Nobody will want to upset the Frenchman - especially when his contract is so close to its expiry date in 2008.

While speaking about his 'strong links' to Arsenal yesterday, Wenger came very close to hoisting up a flag with Dein's face emblazoned on it:




“It is a sad day for Arsenal Football Club,” Wenger said. “It is a huge disappointment because we worked very closely together. David has contributed highly to the success of the club in the last ten years and even before that as well. Red and white are the colours of his heart.”

I'm perplexed by one thing about this whole situation: If Edelman was against a takeover by Kroenke, why was he so keen for the link up with Colorado Rapids to happen?

"This is a very important step for Arsenal as this becomes our first venture into the US marketplace," said Edelman of the link-up with Colorado Rapids.

Surely he had an inkling of what was going on? You would expect that he would have known something- especially if you were to believe all the reports suggesting that he was the power broker and Dein had become an isolated figure on the Arsenal board.

Something doesn't quite add up. Either Edelman hadn't a clue what was going or more worryingly, not everybody on the Board is being entirely truthful about their motives...

Who to support?
Make no mistake, we -the fans- do not know everything that is going on behind the scenes.

It's hard to know who to trust:

On one side there's the power-crazed, profit-hungry, Machivellian-like David Dein. He's also the man who was an obsessive fan to begin with; attended several games a week; took an interest in all the players - including the youths; and had a vision of Arsenal becoming a massive football club with style.

Arsenal were a dead club when he bought into it. He took a massive gamble on Wenger in '96. However, he did not support the move to the Emirates.

On the other side are the Arsenal traditionalists. People who represent Arsenal's history stretching back to the 20's... the good ol' Arsenal.

Or are they aristocrats whose only interest in the club is that their shareholding has passed from generation to generation into their hands? Did they care about the club as much in the early 80's? Peter Hill-Wood's motives are honourable. However, he only holds a small shareholding with 0.8% But what of Richard Carr, grandson of former chairmanSir Bracewell Smith? And what of Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith who married into the Bracewell-Smith family? What are their motives?

And then there's Danny Fiszman - a former diamond trader who ironically bought shares from David Dein in 1992. He controls the largest share-bloc at 24%. He sold 1%, apparently in ignorance to Kroenke last month. He sides with the traditionalists, for now...

Capitalism v Tradition;

Footballing Vision v Aristocracy;

or is it;

Profit Method A v Profit Method B

I'll support Wenger in what ever he decides to do. He has has his flaws -who doesn't?- but he's essentially a good man who loves football.

If he leaves over this, it'll never be the same again...

Takeover Bid Dein-ied

I was going to write a match report on our 3-1 victory over Manchester City... but I doubt you would be interested in reading it. In the last 24 hours the club has been thrown in to turmoil with the shock resignation/sacking of Arsenal Vice-Chairman David Dein.

For a while I've had an inkling that something was afoot behind the scenes at Arsenal football club. In recent months, Arsene Wenger has made some decisions which are the mark of a man who was not keeping his eye on the proverbial ball - dodgy selections; bizarre substitutions; and explosions of temper on the side of the pitch. It was all very out of character for the Frenchman; it was like something was distracting him.

In February, an intriguing game of power-broking chess at Arsenal began to filter in to the public domain: starting with the club's link-up with KSE's Colorado Rapids. Rest assured that the first pawn was moved long before that.

"This is a very important step for Arsenal as this becomes our first venture into the US marketplace," said managing director Keith Edelman.

"Unless I'm completely naive it's not a takeover," said Wenger.

"I've never heard about a possible takeover and I don't think that is at all behind our partnership."

Intriguing. Not least because somebody other than Dein was involved in opening the door to a potential hostile take-over.

Dial 9.99%

Next came the sale by Danny Fiszman of 1% of his shares. I was concerned to read that David Dein apparently didn't know about Fiszman's sale of 1% of his shares until two days after the
transaction. That 1% might sound small but the sale took Fiszman under the 25% threshold needed to maintain a veto on any changes to the club's statutes.

Something was definitely up. Somebody was telling lies.

Then the rumours of the sale of ITV's shareholding to Stan Kroenke's 'Kroenke Sports Enterprise' (KSE) started to filter out. The rumours were met with vehement denials from KSE:

"There is no interest from KSE in buying any shares of Arsenal or any Premier League club."

That didn't put my mind at ease:

My first instinct was that they were trying to cool the share price. They might not have wanted to announce their intentions until they had purchased their first block in order to calm the speculation which would cause the share price to rise.

I did think it was unlikely, however, that they would make such a definite statement and thought it more likely that an individual in the family or one of the companies that KSE were involved in might make a bid.

You should always trust your first instincts. This followed:

ITV plc have announced they have unconditionally sold
their 9.99% shareholding in Arsenal Holdings plc to American Stan
Kroenke's KSE UK Inc: link

KSE had blatantly lied about their intentions, although I'm sure they would say something along the lines of: "We never said that there wouldn't be any interest from our UK branch."

The Gordon Gekko phrase "Greed is good" just won't stop echoing in my mind.

Dein's final days

Over a week ago we learnt -from this Arsenal statement- that Kroenke owned approximately 1.3% more shares than we thought. We can only speculate on the nefarious reasoning of purchasing the shares in his name as opposed to KSE's.

Ed. Mysteriously, this statement has been removed from the Arsenal website...
Ed. again.... it's back now.

Last night, things came to a head when Dein, who brought Wenger to Arsenal in 1996, quit because of "irreconcilable differences" with fellow board members.




The Times, noting that 63-year-old Dein holds 14.5 percent of the club's shares, said there was an "intriguing possibility" that he could sell to American businessman Stan Kroenke, who recently bought an 11 percent share. That could force a hostile takeover bid, said the paper.

The Sun's business editor said Dein's departure almost certainly means that in financial jargon Arsenal are "in play".

What next?

One can only speculate on the goings-on in the Arsenal board room. According to Paul Kelso, of the Guardian, Dein has become more and more isolated in recent years. Apparently he was vehemently opposed to the move to The Emirates - possibly preferring the option of moving to Wembley.

One thing that seems to have slipped the media's attention is that Dein certainly wasn't the only man who was behind the original link-up with Kroenke's Colarado Rapids back in February... Edelman and Wenger were certainly involved. Whether they knew more of what was going on is anybody's guess.

And what exactly was Fizsman doing selling those shares over a month ago?

I think the whole thing may have reached a stalemate for the immediate future. The board's pact not to dispose of their shares for at least one year, effectively blocking a takeover will depress the share price so I can't see Dein just selling his shares to Kroenke just yet.

One possibility that everybody seems to have ignored in all the media
clamour is that Kroenke may still just see himself as an investor in
the club, who wants to see the 9.99% he owns make a profit without
actually wanting control. He may have offered a 'no-strings-attached' cash injection which Dein might have supported- only for the rest of the Board to clam up at the thought of accepting the American's money.

If it was a simple cash injection that Kroenke offered without wanting control, we may as well say goodbye to Arsene now.

The general consensus, however, is that Dein was backing a Kroenke bid. Whether he actually comes back with Kroenke to mount a takeover remains to be seen. I don't think he knows himself yet. I would certainly imagine that Dein is kicking himself over relinquishing control of 28% of the shares in the early 90's!

My gut feeling is that nothing will happen for the next six or seven months... and then all will be dependent on Arsene Wenger's take on the situation. The Frenchman will soon have to decide on his future- his contact is up for renewal in summer 2008.

Wenger certainly is good friends with Dein. He also respects Dein professionally and said this recently: “In ten years, David Dein revolutionised not only Arsenal but the whole of English football.”

On the other hand, Wenger has been rather outspoken on the club's ownership remaining in England and since '98 he has been a major supporter of a move to a bigger stadium... so even if they were seen clinking beers in a restaurant in Islington on Tuesday, it appears they had different points of view on the club's future.

Expect many twists and turns and reams of copy on this story in the coming months. Who will get to utter the words 'checkmate' is anybody's guess.

Man City tonight; Meet the Oracle

Arsenal's bid to guarantee the fourth Champion's League spot continues tonight with Manchester City visiting the Emirates Stadium.

There will have to be one change to the starting line-up as Freddie Ljunberg is out with a hamstring injury. Rumours that his injury were caused by overexerting himself at his latest Calvin Klein underpants modelling-shoot have been vehemently denied by the club. Well no, not really... I just made that last sentence up.

Arsene will select what will hopefully be a match-winning team from this group of gentlemen:

Arsenal (from): Lehmann, Eboue, Toure, Gallas, Clichy, Hleb, Fabregas, Gilberto, Rosicky, Ljungberg, Adebayor, Almunia, Diaby, Baptista, Senderos, Aliadiere, Denilson, Djourou.

I think it will look something like this:

GK Lehmann
RB Eboue
LB Clichy
CD Toure
CD Gallas
LM Rosicky
RM Hleb
CM Fabregas
CM Diaby
CM Gilberto
CF Adebayor

Subs: Poom (ed. that should have read Almunia); Senderos; Djourou; Denilson and Baptista

This is what I think Wenger will plump for. I don't think Baptista has done anything to warrant a place ahead of Aliadiere but after the latter sat out the whole game against Bolton, I think that he is slipping further down the pecking order.

This Blogger still has high hopes for the Frenchman, so I hope I'm wrong.

Another man who seems to have drifted out of the first team squad is Justin Hoyte. I must admit that I feel a little sorry for Hoyte -who played for the reserves the other night.

While he may not have the skill of Eboue, his certainly has a far better attitude and I don't think he's let the side down once when he has played at his natural position of right back.

In other news, Cesc Fabregas has been nominated for both the PFA Player of the Year and the Young Player of the Year which is no mean feat as he hasn't performed as well as he can this season - which can be partly explained by some of the swamp donkey performances of the players around him.

Meanwhile, Arsene spoke about how he might have signed Drogba for Arsenal when the striker was playing in the French lower divisions. Pointless talk really, I'm sure the winning lotto numbers have passed through my mind at some stage of my life. It doesn't mean that I ever filled out a winning lotto slip.

Well that's it really...

Oh, hang on... my brother has asked for his opinions to be entered on to this blog. So welcome to a new regular feature of The Gooner Times.


On Theo Walcott's appearance against Everton:
"That Walcock [sic] fella is fuckin' shite. What the fuck is he doin' on the pitch with a broken shoulder..."

On Sol Campbell:
"Sol's got a lovely set of teeth..."
I have no idea what the hell that meant.

On Freddie Ljungberg and Sylvain Wiltord:
"I don't care what any of you fuckin' say. Freddie's shite. Wiltord's a far better player."

"Look at the state of Freddie wearin' that hat. He's always fuckin' lookin' for attention.

On Roy Keane
"Keane's always lookin' for attention. He's like bleedin' Geri Halliwell."

On Cesc Fabregas
"What the fuck did I tell you? Once Fabregas starts scorin', we'll be all right. Put that in your fuckin' blog. I want to be known as The Oracle."

More from 'The Oracle' next week. Or sooner, if he decides to impart any more pearls of wisdom.