As we posted yesterday, the potential takeover of Arsenal by Alisher Usmanov is as out of order in footballing terms as His Excellency The Doctor moving in on Manchester City. There is little point in the Premier League having a fit and proper persons criteria for club ownership if reptilian psychos are repeatedly able to slip through the net.
Fortunately, from Arsenal's perspective, Arsène Wenger decided to put the record straight yesterday with respect to his personal attitude to the shenanigans of his former colleague David Dein. Wenger's decision to go public with his views regarding his club have had a dual impact. Firstly, the clarification has clearly drawn the battle lines for the takeover battle ahead and, secondly, his carefully worded statement together with other breaking news yesterday represents the Monica Lewinsky moment for neatly coiffured Mr Dein.
Lets have a look at the modus operandi of Dein.
* Throughout his public statements relating to the selling of his shares to Red And White Holdings (R&WH) and his acceptance of the position of chairman in the said company, Dein painted himself as a principled tactician who has a deep love for Arsenal Football Club. He also implied that he was working alongside Wenger to achieve this potential ownership structure. While Dein was able to secrete away his own and other's realities, this little scam worked a treat. Then along came August 31st 2007 - Dein's day of impeachment.
* His first misjudgement was in assuming that nobody would bother googling Mr Usmanov. To say that the man has a bit of baggage would be a sublime understatement. Mafiosi, the heroin trade, disappearing dissidents, journalists falling from windows and very thick files in the archives of Human Rights watch and Amnesty International tend to puncture the "for the good of Arsenal" angle that Dein was attempting to spin. Usmanov stated yesterday that his purchase was "not strategic or political but a portfolio investment" which is a clear indication that he sees value in the commodity of Arsenal and will sell when such value no longer exists. Usmanov has behaved similarly previously when he bought into Corus Steel in 2003 but pulled out when he was unable to secure a seat on the board.
* When Dein opens his mouth, words come out but not truths. Prior to selling his shares to Usmanov, he had attempted last week to sell them to Stanley Kroenke but the American refused to allow Dein to maintain an interest in the shareholding via a warped ownership structure once the sale had been completed. Obviously focusing on the good of Arsenal rather than the good of himself, Clintonesque Dein then struck a swift deal with Usmanov as he was offered the position of chairman of R&WH so long as he sold all of his shares in the club. In the medium term, Dein's influence has surely been diluted. Had he retained his shares his power would have been considerable, but without them he may be expendable to the billionaire tycoon from Uzbekistan.
* All of Dein's bluff about his love of the Gunners wears even thinner when one addresses the destabilising impacts he has had on the club he apparently adores. The split that Dein perpetrated in the board in April was selfish to the core and the man continued to undermine Wenger, the club and the board over the summer as Dein's son, acting as Thierry Henry's agent, solicited the Frenchman's transfer to Barcelona - no doubt, once again, for the good of the Gunners.
* By claiming that Wenger was somehow in cahoots with him, Dein made a further fatal error. Wenger made his position absolutely clear in his Friday press conference and the words from Wenger's mouth inversely correlate with the lies emanating from Dein's. "I'm concerned with the intent of people coming in," said Wenger followed by an unequivocal "Am I concerned that major foreign investment might affect the way we work here? Yes". The Arsenal manager sees no value in wealthy and unprincipled operators taking over the club as the whole structure of the club becomes dependent on the whims of one untrustworthy financial dealer. By choosing to focus instead on a fruitful youth policy, an economically viable transfer strategy and maintaining a culture within the Arsenal hierarchy that engenders teamwork and a shared attitude, Arsenal will be able to outmanoeuvre the short-termists who have jumped into the financier's lair. Wenger even managed to outflank Dein on the Henry transfer saga which was intended to create uproar but actually resulted in a great deal for Arsenal by selling a player whose value can only go downwards.
The attitude of Wenger and the board members opposed to Kroenke's and R&WH's psychopathic strategies deserve support from all fans who have a real devotion to the game. Premiership football teams are able to progress without selling out to the global betting market strategies of the new breed of owners and there are very few honest individuals left in English football and we should applaud their efforts to steer clear of the Far East markets and, instead, to develop a more creative strategy for success.
Finally, the editing of Wenger's press conference perpetrated by Sky News was quite revealing. Comments about Usmanov? Non. About the behaviour of Dein? Non. Anything on R&WH? Non. Just some highly selective and edited phrases relating to Wenger's new contract. You can always rely on Sky to misinform viewers about their realities. Similar disinformational rubbish has been printed by those other unreliable gambling organs The Racing Post and Sporting Life who share Sky's interests in the victory of the gambling elements in the game. The claim that Wenger is "unconcerned by the possibility of a takeover" as put out by Sporting Life is a particularly interesting slant on reality.
Somewhere between hostile and lukewarm would have been a more accurate reflection of Wenger's attitude...
© Football Is Fixed/Dietrological
