Just finished reading Arsènal. Great book.
Some things that i remembered:
- Wenger truly has less money to spend since the move to the Emirates and especially since the Highbury real estate project turned out to be less of a goldmine than the Arsenal board thought it would be.
-Stan Kroenke is a sphinx and the fact that there is another big investor (Usmanov?) may have avoided a Glazier scenario for Arsenal.
- Things went pear shaped after David Dein was sacked.
- Arsène Wenger is a stubborn man.
- Theo Walcott is among the players who cares most about the fans (i.e. one of the few players who genuinely takes his time to go to fan events and talk with the fans, that was a surprise after all the rather negative things i've read about him in this thread).
- The Arsenal board room seems a warzone.
- The deal with Emirates and with another big sponsor (Nike?) is a very bad deal. Arsenal needs people who are commercially more shrewd and astute than they had a couplr of years ago.
- Arsène doesn't like more experienced players.
This book is a good read for all people interested in Arsenal and a must read for fans who want to understand what happened since the move away from Highbury.
I read that too, some 2 years ago.
The Highbury Square development was a brilliant idea, but the 2008 crisis hit it right in the beginning. However, at the moment the whole development is nearly sold out and can be considered a success.
The sponsorship deals was a very bold move. The values are so low compared to some other clubs, but the advantage of it was that Arsenal got money up front.
Now things will go back to normal, it seems Arsenal has agreed a lucrative deal with Adidas to be the new kit supplier/sponsor. And the Emirates shirt sponsorship should be renegotiated as well, I think around 2014.
The thing that will remain still for a long time is the naming rights for the stadium.
The book shows how Arsene Wenger and David Dein are (or at least were) true friends. When they sacked Dein, Wenger went as far as asking him if he should quit too. I wonder how the book had access to these things, who was the source and if we should take with a pinch of salt.
But then again, I wouldn't be surprise if he did, such a loyal man Arsene Wenger is.
He is irritatingly stubborn, has some other flaws of course, but what I like about him the most is his integrity. Wenger wants to do things the right way and he goes by his principles no matter what.
PS: I have no idea of Wenger's relationship with David Dein nowadays. He is working with Usmanov in Red & White Holdings, being therefore opposition to the people Wenger works closely with (Gazidis and Kroenke - although nobody seems close to that man).
Another interesting thing to note is that Dein's son, Darren, is a football agent who has been systematically turning the heads of his clients who play for Arsenal - and some of those players just happened to be among the most talented ones in the team.
