A lot of people are calling for the return of David Dein, and making the argument that once Dein left, that's when things started to go downhill for Arsenal in comparison to when he was at Arsenal, and we were winning things. So we need some fact checks, for starters, our downhill trend began while Dein was at the club. Our downhill trend began in the 2006 season, when we managed to scrap for 4th on the last day of the season, and ended trophyless. Now we also need to put that season in context, dropping to 4th and barely scrapping away from Spurs was a MAJOR DOWNFALL for us at the time, considering the fact that only the previous season we ended 2nd with the FA Cup, and the season before we had just gone unbeaten. So to go from that to the way we ended in the 2006 season was a major fall for the Arsenal. And Dein was at the club during the whole affair. Then came the 2007 season, which again, was another fruitless terrible season, 2007 goes down as one of my worst seasons, it was beyond bad, by March we were out of all competitions (lost 3 within a week) and had nothing to play for as we even had 4th place quite secured, so it was 2 months of nothing for the Arsenal, and Dein left around April time, so he practically was there again with us in another fruitless season. So the fact is, Dein was with the Arsenal when the downhill started, it's not the other way round that the downhill started when Dein left, it very much started on his watch. And need I remind you, it was when Dein was with us in which we lost Vieira without buying any adequate replacement for the man, sure Wenger takes blame too, but people always say with Dein at Wenger's side he does the the transfer side of things etc, well what happened?
I think we are suggesting that DD would be a force in getting Wenger's purchases put through, rather than persuading him NOT to sell (Vieira for example).
Nah - with DD we bought good players, good quality players. It is not the case now and for that reason alone he should come back. You cannot blame Dein for failures on the pitch with the calibre of players we had. Campbell and Lehmann at the back and Ashley Cole, Pires, Ljungberg, Fabregas, Henry, thats the spine of a great side. We still had Gilberto ... nah .. the quality was eroding but if the club decide to sell your best players, players that Dein bought, then .. you cannot blame Dein.
To be fait those players were not big names, with the exception of campbell, I want wenger to get back to buying players that are in there early to mid 20s again, players that he can make better. People like pieres were not regarded as special players when we bought them. People seem to forget that we never really bought big names when we were successful, we actually bought players that had either failed to live up to their billing, like henry, or players that were regarded as average, and we made them better, for example peires and petit. With regard to dein, people are making him out to be this saint and savour, and that is only because of our current predicament, he did some good things at the club, but is not the messiah that people think.
Plus in 2008 we were SO CLOSE to winning the league, only lost 3 times in the league, two of which came away to Chelsea, and United. We eventually ended only 4 points behind United, and this was one of the best United teams in a while too, and all without Dein. So Dein isn't the one who will automatically solve all the problems and return us to glory.
Too simplistic from the OP. Dein is no saint, but it's undeniable that he had a brilliant working relationship with Wenger. For that reason alone I think he should be at the club. But it was his knowledge of the transfer market, agents and ability to broker a deal that meant he was really effective on the board.
Under the current model, he would be bound by the same financial parameters as the rest of the board. So it would be difficult to sign top players. For all the talk of money making no difference, the fact is that it does, and has done significantly since Chelsea and City started spending bucket loads. When Dein was negotiating deals, there was a slightly more level playing field, although he was still able to drive a bargain. In today's market, I still think he would be able to get good deals though. The man's contacts and guile in the game is second to none. The current board are missing a trick not having him on board, but PHW is at odds with him, so his personal differences are at the forefront, not the club's needs.
Every one of the players bought at the time were good though - save for the obvious lemons .. like Grimandi, Garde etc etc. Pires at the time was building an effective reputation in France and was one of the best wingers in the country when we bought him. Overmars similarly was viewed as potentially a top player when he was at Ajax but his knee injury put other clubs off I think. Wenger took the gamble and it paid off. It was a far less gamble buying Henry who was one of the best young players around when he was at Monaco, but his stock dropped after he flopped at Juventus. Ljungberg was on the way to being a top player when we bought him. I remember a game against England when he tore them up and at the time we had been linked to him, he had the tools to do well in England. So while the players were not the biggest names they were certainly on the rise and we got to them just in time. They certainly were not "no name" or "small names". But as you say, it is these types of players we need to be looking at and they are currently in the £15m to £25m bracket which we should be able to afford.
