My evening with David Dein (Pt 3) and his chat with Arsene Wenger

Now, some of what I’m going to say, most of you will already know,  but there are some who might not… so please bear with me.

David told how it was his wife who first met Arsene and introduced him to Le Prof later that evening.

Their friendship bloomed into something special and culminated in Arsene’s appointment as The Arsenal manager.

David told the audience that he got Arsene to buy a house as near to him as possible and he would call in whenever possible to discuss everything football.  Arsene commented that David’s wife said he saw more of him than she did!!

When the board decided to terminate David’s contract, Arsene was asked if he contemplated leaving, something he confirmed he discussed with David.

It was DD who persuaded him to stay… and we know the rest.

David was asked if Arsene should be part of the club today, and his answer was that if he’s good enough for FIFA, surely he was good enough for The Arsenal.

Arsene was asked if he had ever been back and would he consider taking a position at the club.

He said that he did not want to be around and be a distraction to his successor and that he still believes it to this day.

He was convinced that Mikel Arteta was doing a great job and could see no reason why top four, or even champions, couldn’t be possible.

He declared that no team was dominating the PL this season and he felt that MA was bringing a real sense of camaradery to the club.

Arsene left the stage and David was asked about his life after leaving the club.

He was totally involved with football and lost all of it when he was kicked out, including his roles within the FA etc.

He decided to do some community work, including the Twinning Project – local professional clubs being involved with the prisons and their inmates, trying to help them to not re – offend.

Then Alex announced that all the ex players who had attended the evening would come on the stage to show their support of David Dein.

Jens Lehmann, Sol Campbell, Gilberto, Kolo, Martin Keown, Vieira, Henry, Lauren, Wrighty, Arsene Wenger and Pat Rice all made their way up, and those first seven all spoke about their admiration for this great man.

Lehmann joked about the size of his lounge, Sol talked about all his trophies coming during his years at The Arsenal, Martin noted that he was the oldest player at the time and how, despite not seeing each other like this, it was like it was only yesterday.

Patrick dedicated his mic time to talk about how he so admired both David and Arsene, Gilberto and Kolo both spoke in the same vein of thought and Wrighty asked the audience to support David’s charity work… it was such a surreal end to the evening, seeing these legends together again.

Finally, as David and Arsene took centre stage while shaking hands, someone started the “What do you think of Tottenham” chant and the response was deafening!!!

I really recommend the book, it is a fantastic read and part of it goes into David selling his shares, the fact that he offered them, initially, to Kronkie, who turned them down, and why that made David look elsewhere. It also discussed the Danny Fizman shares.

That’s it folks, hope I’ve been able to give you a feeling of what the evening was like.

ken1945