Okay, I lied – there is no good. Just the bad and the ugly.
By now we all know about David Dein selling his shares to Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov for around £70 million. And we also know that Dein is the chairman of a company called ‘Red & White’ – how comforting.
But am I the only one who thinks this is bad, and quite frankly I can only see it getting more and more ugly as the weeks and months pass by.
It’s hard to see what the benefits of this are, and he had this to say:
“I’ve not lost my passion for the club.
“Indeed it’s greater than ever. I’ve always had the best interests of Arsenal at heart – I’ve had a love affair with the club since I was six.
“My ambition remains to play an active role in Arsenal again. My immediate intention is to work with others to provide the financial resources necessary to turn the vision of Arsenal as the world’s No.1 club into reality.
“To provide these financial resources, Arsenal need new investors.”
But whatever you might think, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that Dein wants to come back and run Arsenal but it wouldn’t be for the selfless reasons he’s publicly told the press.
Don’t get me wrong, he has done a lot for the club but how can all this so called ‘investment’ be good for Arsenal? It’s been suggested that when Arsenal’s accounts are shown later this year it will even impress the biggest business men on how much in terms of revenue generated.
The timing of the announcement couldn’t be more selfish.
It overshadowed the Champions League draw and Dein knew that instead of concentrating on who our group opponents were and it would put Keith Edelman on the back foot as he was interviewed after the draw. Then of course although it looks certain Arsene will sign a new contract the apparent ‘uncertainty’ is a great time for Dein to ‘return’ as if he would save Arsenal all by himself.
And this is going to get even uglier.
If the Arsenal board sacked David Dein for trying to get a wealthy, and apparently shrewd American businessman Stan Kroenke to takeover the club then do you think that the board will welcome unknown and quite dodgy entities in Alisher Usmanov and Farhad Moshiri?
Will all this new ‘investment’ actually make any difference? Has Arsene suddenly changed his stubborn transfer beliefs and decided to spend money on over-priced superstars instead of unearthing young talent?
And we know where Wenger and Dein stood on the Emirates Stadium issue.
Dein just wants to be the head of Arsenal no matter what it takes.
We’ll just have to see whether or not this is good or not for Arsenal.