Date: 19th August 2011 at 11:58pm
Written by:

When David Dein speaks, we listen. Or at least most of us listen, most, not all, but most of the time. A man of not many words, he knows his stuff, be it financially as by trade or be it all things football and Arsenal in particular. A real visionary, a real Arsenal man, and the catalyst, the spark, behind our emergence as a great power during the mid 1990s. That did of course go hand in hand due to his perceptive appointment and formidable friendship, partnership, and alliance with one Arsène Wenger.

We can now only count the cost of Dein’s infamous departure back in April 2007. Back then we were in transition.

Here we are years on, also in transition, only not in the direction that Dein and Wenger, nor anyone else, would have had in mind back then.

And so I found Dein’s latest views in a rare BBC interview as baffling as they were intriguing. In it, he implied that Arsenal supporters have lost respect for the embattled manager, calling for us to blindly “trust Arsène’s judgement”. Well and good. But not so when such words of staunch support are followed by speculations that Wenger perhaps reckons the present squad at hand, minus Fàbregas and soon Nasri, will be good enough to challenge for honours. Even though he does insist on claiming Wenger’s awareness of all the weaknesses that everyone has been crying out about, especially following last season’s criminal collapse.

Err, I beg your pardon?

Such words from one of very few men who could, just could potentially know just how Wenger’s head functions simply do not add up. Makes for an enticing watch and listen when it comes to the interview, that’s for sure, but with the chills of uncertainty and flux very much at the core of it all.

What I found even more alarming were the verbal cues throughout this interview, with Dein seemingly uncertain whether there will indeed be any further signings in this transfer window, citing a “dearth of talent”. Again, what? Can we really be so arrogant in thinking that, as good as Jack Wilshere is and will be, there is NO ONE out there to replace the top performers who have left/about to leave the Club?

If anything, one cannot even be sure that the so little quality left at the Club a la Wilshere and the like will find Arsenal a very attractive proposition to hang around much longer should we fail to replace quality with real quality and instead rely on some choice acquisitions from the master himself. Because you know, an 18 year-old from League One definitely justifies a £12 million splash whilst the centre back spots are left in the custodian arms of Laurent Koscielny and Sébastien Squillaci. Or you know, an unknown teenager from the Caribbean definitely has what it takes to play for Arsenal whereas the likes of Mata do not!

Just the other day, Wenger staunchly defended his infuriating ego by claiming that he is not against spending money, yet the idea of spending money on average players is what stops him. Which is why he had gone out and got Almunia, Eboué, Squillaci, Koscielny, Diaby, Denilson, Bendtner and so on of course. Not just gone out and got them, but persisted with them long after everyone else had realised they have been conned!

The end result of which no one quite knows when and if we will strengthen the squad with 12 days of the window to go and potentially decisive clashes against Liverpool, Manchester United and Udinese on the way. And, painfully, a consensus that any convincing amount of strengthening would have just about set for fourth place, not the ideas nor promises that Wenger et al had had in mind for us!

So in response to Mr. Dein, and of course, as ever, the manager himself, the long and short of it is this: we have respected such ways, such a vision for years on end now, taking each knock during those six trophyless years on the chin, and hoping that you would finally, FINALLY, come to your senses and act. This has not happened, so how can you possibly not expect the supporters, the absolute majority of whom have frankly had it, to lay down a protest, voice their dissatisfaction? And whilst no one is calling for a deplorable riot, this is a free country after all!

If you do not expect criticism, questioning, heck, even barracking on the back of record rises in season and match tickets, a lack of communicable transparency and constant underachievement without due problem-solving, then I’m sorry, but you have also lost all sense of reality as well as most of your legitimacy.

As the interview came to an end, and with hints of a desire to return, something which I think most agree would be a more than welcome move, Dein asked fans to judge the manager and his side “at the end of the year”.

The time for judgement is long, long gone. Time to deliver. Or to step aside.

 

Comments are closed.