I’m dismayed at the uncritical rehabilitation that David Dein’s image seems to have enjoyed since Arsene Wenger engineered a new golden era at Arsenal. Of course Dein deserves credit for bringing his largely unknown Gallic friend into the English game, and as such setting the wheels in motion for a successful period in our history, but some of the hysterical reaction from Arsenal fans and the media to his ejection by the Board has stunned me.

The prevailing attitude seems to be that his part in bringing Wenger to the club in some way makes him untouchable, and that rather like the ravens at the Tower, Arsenal will fall now that he’s gone. Dein’s business acumen is not in question, but the assertion that he’s an Arsenal fan, ‘with the best interests of the club at heart’, are contradicted by his actions both past and present.

Sometimes I think I’m the only person who remembers the Bond demonstrations on the old North Bank, and more importantly the reaction of the club and Dein in particular who actively suppressed our objections to the Bond Scheme, and even stopped a TV crew filming our ‘last stand’ at the end of the Southampton game in ‘92.

The ruthlessness with which those peaceful but noisy demonstrations were dealt with set the alarm bells ringing then, and they’re ringing even louder now. When the all-seater wheels were set in motion I’m quite sure a man as intelligent and savvy as David Dein knew where it would lead us in due course, and as we have seen season after season the traditional support has slowly but surely been driven out to be replaced by more affluent but arguably less passionate fans.

That suited Dein and the other money men in football, after all you can charge people a lot more to sit down, but has in many cases consigned ‘Arsenal families’ who have attended Arsenal games for generations to the footballing wasteland of following the team in the media, and rarely if ever getting to see a live game. And the club then have the cheek to complain about the lack of atmosphere in the ground – you reap what you sow!

Perhaps we were Luddites fighting an unwinnable battle against the Bond Scheme and the non sensical application of Taylor report recommendations, but we were fighting for something that we loved, and that we feared would disappear forever. Look around you now as you sit in the Emirates and judge for yourselves who won that particular battle.

However, I must be fair to Dein, and acknowledge that all-seater stadiums were coming whether we – the fans - liked them or not, but it was the enthusiasm with which he embraced the all-seater project that I think we all really objected to.

The conversion to a seated stadium was also mishandled in my opinion, and if it had been handled with greater foresight and long termism in mind, perhaps the move to Ashburton Grove would never have been necessary. The much vaunted (at the time) new North Stand had too few seats, and the subsequent redevelopment of the Clock End lacked imagination (and seats), thus reducing our capacity to a financially uncompetitive level.

Fast forward fifteen years and we now have a scenario where it would appear Dein would like to condemn Arsenal to hundreds of millions of pounds of added debt, possibly in the process making Arsenal the most debt ridden football club in the world, and adding us to the list of Stan Kroenke’s sporting ‘franchises’.

The short sighted ‘Johnny Come-lately’ fans, confuse this scenario with what happened at Chelsea a few years back, but the fact that we’d be owned by a foreigner with no emotional connection to the club is where the similarity ends. Maybe Kroenke would give Arsene 70 or 80 million quid to spend on players, but in due course he’ll expect a major financial return, and will be taking money out of the club in the long run.

Surely if Dein really had ‘the clubs best interests at heart’ he wouldn’t want that to happen, and he would realise that however soulless and un-Arsenal the Emirates may feel right now, it is undoubtedly a terrific earner for the club, and the revenues generated from it could and should propel Arsenal to the very top in monetary terms. I have always been very suspicious of Dein’s proclaimed love of the club, and I fear that grim experience has taught us that ultimately he’ll do what’s best for him and his ambitions rather than what’s in the best interest of the club and of it’s lifeblood – the loyal fans.

To paraphrase the popular chant of those anti-Bond demonstrations: "You can stick the Arsenal buyout up your arse...sideways!"

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