The timing is impeccable, even if some of it is coincidence – Arsenal have made a good start to their Premiership campaign, Arsene Wenger looks set to sign a new contract (at the very least he’s making all the right noises), the players are maturing and financially, Arsenal is doing better than most people feared. Best of all, the whole ‘Kroenke’ thing has died down.
So David Dein, at least publicly, and only for the moment, disassociates himself from Kroenke, brings in investors and is now the front man and is backed by a Russian billionaire and a London-based Arab Iranian. If people were prejudiced against Kroenke for being a Yank, I don’t know how far they’ll go with these guys this time. The kicker is, it’s Dein they’re going to be dealing with, and while Dein may be considered a pariah he is still a part of Arsenal’s history, and therefore much less likely to be hated by the fans.
Contrary to speculation in the media (stemming from the press release that the holding wanted to increase it’s stake in Arsenal but wasn’t interested in an immediate takeover), Arsenal are NOT under the ‘threat’ of a takeover. Right now I think that instead of Dein selling out to Kroenke, we might have a situation where Red & White Holdings buys out Kroenke.
Is Dein making a play to get back on the Arsenal board? That, plus acquiring Kroenke’s shares (assuming that no one on the board would sell till next year), would seem the logical next step.
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