Dein Shows His Hand
Aug 30th, 2007 by 'holic
How strange, that on the day, almost at the same hour, that Arsenal were handed a relatively encouraging Champions League draw, David Dein should raise his head above the parapet once more.
On the face of it the former assistant chairman has pulled a very fat rabbit out of an extremely large hat, from his point of view. Dein has sold his shareholding of slightly less than fifteen percent of the Gunners for a reported seventy-five million pounds.
Just to muddy already murky waters further the buyer is not Stan Kroenke, the American with whom Dein had allegedly plotted prior to his ‘departure’ from the Grove. The new investors have created a holding company, Red and White, and Dein himself has been appointed chairman! Joint investors in the new company are the delightful Alisher Usmanov and London-based, Iranian born, fund manager Farhad Moshiri.
The questions are many, and the options do not on the face of it appear too attractive to the Arsenal faithful.
The likelihood of Kroenke being successful with a leveraged buy-out have just plunged. That will please the existing board, who were less than enamoured with the advances of the Colorado Rapids owner. It also seems that the American and the Russian oligarch would make unlikely bedfellows. That suggests that Dein no longer enjoys Kroenke’s confidence.
There might well be a more favourable reception to Usmanov’s bid from those who want to see Arsenal attract investment at any price. The fact that Dein is now firmly in his camp will lend credibility to the bid in the eyes of those who see the former director as some kind of modern day football messiah.
It is a strange logic that suggests Dein invariably acts in the best interests of Arsenal when he has turned an initial investment of less than a third of a million pounds into a vast personal fortune. That same strange logic ignores the allegations that Dein has acted in less than the best interests of the club, which was the reason for his departure in the first place.
I don’t deny for one moment that the man has been truly pivotal in the transformation that Arsenal Football Club has undergone in the last decade. For his significant contribution I will be eternally grateful. However, please do not ask me to blindly follow him when he brings someone with Usmanov’s reputation to the table.
There is little doubt that the Red and White group have put themselves into pole position to win any future challenge for ownership of Arsenal. Kroenke may already be considering the profit he would make by selling the shares he has accrued to the Russian.
The existing board may find it harder to keep at bay a group who quite clearly could bring their own cash to the negotiating table. The smell of real money can mask a number of objectionable odours.
For long enough we have criticised the Abramovich regime at Chelsea. Now it will be interesting to see for how many fans it is deemed more acceptable closer to home.
Buckle up Gooners, this could be an uncomfortable ride.
6 Responses to “Dein Shows His Hand”
Not this gooner. I’m strictly in the Peter Hill-Wood camp. Arsenal doesn’t need new ownership.
Couldn’t agree more Gooner. It would take a very short memory to not remember that Mr Dein has smoothly executed a dramatic U-Turn from his historical opposition to foreign investment in Arsenal FC (especially Russian Oligarch investment ala Chelski). It also begs the question, why did Mr Dein need to sell his entire stake to Usmanov in exchange of the Chairmanship of Red & White Holdings? Could he not keep his stake and form an investment company of his own to potentially take over the company? Mr Dein wanted to both liquidate his holding (generating vast personal wealth) as well as remain in the picture as far as forcing his way back to the AFC boardroom is concerned. Talk about having your cake and eating it too.
Usmanov has acquired Mr Dein’s stake for a sound financial reason. When the next round of AFC Financials hit the market (reflecting increased gate receipt/ sponsorship/real estate/ TV deal revenue), his 75 million GBP investment will sharply escalate in value. According to Forbes, AFC is already the third most valuable football club in the world after Man U and Real Madrid. With its revenues improving by the day and the debt incurred for the stadium decreasing by the year, the day is not far when Arsenal becomes the most valuable football club in the world.
Wenger has already admitted that money is available to buy any player he likes but he is not prepared to pay over the odds for them. There is no guarantee that if Wenger is hypothetically given a 70 million GBP transfer budget, he would go ahead and spend it. It’s just not his style. Therefore Mr Dein’s talk of foreign investment being essential to competing with Man U, Chelsea and Liverpool just doesn’t cut any ice. The foreign investors are staying invested for large potential capital gains and not for any love of AFC.
It’s a relief to read a blog that’s not forecasting the complete downfall of Arsenal or predicting that we will become the new Chelsea.
I don’t want Red & White holdings to gain complete control of the club, but nor do I want Silent Stan to do likewise.
I was speaking to someone last night and they had an interesting take on the whole thing. Could it be that DD has looked at United and Chelsea and seen that both are dependant on their super-rich owners. as it stands Kronke and Red and White holdings have almost the same amount of shares. Could it be that Dein is trying to bring both parties to the table? At first I thought this could well be the case, but after giving it more thought it doesn’t seem likely. I don’t know anyone with the kind of money that these people have, but I do know a few very wealthy people, and one thing they all have in common is that they do not like to share.
There is also one other problem with having a billionaire owner – Arsene wont exploit it like Fergie, Rafa and Maureen have. Wenger shares the view that a club should not operate outside it’s resources. Now you could argue that the club could view the owners finances as resources, but they’re not, and Arsene will share that view, so will these rich owners realise that Wenger is a genius and let him work his magic? Or will they demand success straight away? In which case, will they consider Wenger’s future?
A lot of questions, no real answers. Only time will tell…again. 🙁
Simmo wrote: “Wenger shares the view that a club should not operate outside it’s resources.”
This is one of the brilliant things about Arsenal. Fiscal responsibility. It’s the best policy for the long term.
Good piece, ‘holic.
I hope most of our fans can keep their eyes peeled and not fall for the Orangecunt PR bullshit.
Thank you all for your responses, and my sincere apologies that the site has been down for more or less the last twenty-four hours.
Although this post, and your comments had been lost I have been able to recover them thanks to the wonders of cached pages on Google.
Sadly I have not been able to recover details of my visitors for the last couple of days in August, which is a pity for only one reason. The hit count for the site exceeded 100,000 for the first time last month, for which I thank you all.
I hope the experience of the last twenty-four hours will not be repeated anytime soon. Thanks for coming back.
‘holic.