David Dein may be a hero in the eyes of the Arsenal faithful, but he has angered sections of the Gunners support with his recent comments regarding Mikel Arteta.
Dein was Arsenal's vice-chairman during some of the club's most successful periods in a reign that spanned from 1983 to 2007. He was instrumental in the appointment of Arsene Wenger in 1996, a decision which transformed the club and helped secure three Premier League titles as well as seven FA Cups.
However, there are plenty of Gunners fans who have taken issue with Dein's assessment of Arteta's response to the recent controversial defeat away at Newcastle. The Magpies toppled Arsenal 1-0 at St. James' Park courtesy of an Anthony Gordon goal that Arteta felt should have been chalked off for a number of reasons.
VAR checked to determine if the ball had gone out, if Gabriel had been fouled by Joelinton and if Gordon was offside but eventually awarded the goal. That was much to Arteta's dismay, who labelled the decision a "disgrace" during his post-match press conference.
Shortly after, Arsenal released a club statement backing their manager and claimed they were on the end of "yet more unacceptable refereeing and VAR errors". The Gunners also stated that the "PGMOL urgently needs to address the standard of officiating".
Dein has since accused Arteta of tarnishing Arsenal's image as a result of his post-match conduct. “In 101 minutes of football we only had one shot at goal, so you can’t really say that the team deserved to win. It is what it is," he told talkSPORT.
“There is a process in place for how they deal with these things and I just think it was a little bit unnecessary. I don’t think it did the image of the club any good."
Dein added that such behaviour would not have occurred under his watch, claiming: "It wouldn’t have happened. But we’re in an emotional game and these things do happen, I think it’s unfortunate, and you live and learn."
He even went on to explain how he'd have "probably" punished Arteta for such strong comments, but admitted that he wouldn't want to undermine the Spaniard. The comments have sparked fury from a hearty number of the Arsenal fanbase online.
One wrote: "This is so poor from David Dein. It's a 38-game season... we won't be the best during every game we play. You can say we had one shot on goal. That's fine. It doesn't change that we shouldn't have lost as the goal was completely illegitimate."
His sentiment was echoed by another irate Arsenal fan, who added: "David Dein is a hugely important figure in Arsenal history, he left Arsenal 15 years ago. The games' completely different and the media needs to do a better job of discussing these sort of matters. Never mind the game, society is different! "Back in my day" is lazy analysis."
Another angry Gooner claimed: I’ll be forever grateful to David Dein for everything he did for our club but to say that if he was still at Arsenal, Arteta’s outburst wouldn’t have happened is ridiculous. Arsene Wenger was as outspoken as anybody when he felt he needed to be."
Dein remains an Arsenal icon, but he may have misread the room with his stance on Arteta's outburst.
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