David Dein has revealed that Arsenal were close to keeping Ashley Cole at the club before he left in 2006.
The left-back, who won two league titles including in the 'Invincibles' season, left to join fierce London rivals, Chelsea, in 2006, with William Gallas coming the other way.
It was during a period shortly after the move to the Emirates stadium in which the Gunners fell short of their previous highs and struggled to recover. Dein, former co-owner and vice-chairman of the club, admitted something was close to being agreed.
Speaking with his autobiography Calling the Shots, the 79-year-old candidly opened up on the struggles that the club went through financially with the opposition, including heavily backed clubs paying more for players, saying, "You look at football now — Chelsea, Manchester City, even Newcastle. We didn't have the same muscle. We had wealthy people, but not billionaires. We didn't have enough money to finance the new stadium and the team. We were trying to dance at two weddings.
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"Arsene and I would come out of board meetings feeling we'd been knocking our heads against a brick wall. We lost Ashley Cole over five grand a week. It was a very difficult time. There was a lot of friction because of the stadium cost, and we had to ration the salaries. Arsene used every bit of skill in his body to find cheap players. A lot of managers wouldn't have taken that."
After losing Cole in 2006, Arsenal would take ten years before finishing above third again. That was after winning two of the previous five seasons and a spell of finishing top or second in eight consecutive seasons. It was a time in which large transfer sums were being used worldwide, but Arsenal didn't go above £50m for a player until 2017 with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and still, to this day, have only spent more than that on three players.
Under Wenger, Dein said that attention was turned to cheaper players to help maintain financial stability. "He did it without qualms, he just got on with it, but the last year or so was uncomfortable for me," Dein admitted. "We had been a harmonious group, and now there were factions. So yes, I stuck my neck out. You don't get anything unless you stick your neck out. I was in commodities. You go long, or you go short. You have to take a position."
After Dein's brutal departure, which he says still hasn't been properly explained, Wenger also tried to leave, he said. "It wasn't so long before that we'd been Invincible. We'd just moved into our new stadium. We had so much going for us. It took a lot to get over it. It did feel like a death in the family. Arsenal was part of my life since the age of 10; I'd helped deliver 18 trophies for them.
"Arsene and I had such a wonderful working relationship. It was Lennon and McCartney, according to some. He bled for me, I bled for him. He is still my closest friend. Seeing that taken away was such a shame. It wasn't in the best interests of the club. We spoke that night. He didn't think he could stay. I persuaded him to stay."
The Frenchman has since left the club after what Dein believes was a tough sacking done in the wrong way. He also thinks the club should have done more with their longest-serving manager.
"He was a miracle worker, and they just let him go. He left in a similar way to me. I thought the club owed Arsene a duty of care, at least a discussion. 'We need a change, but how do you want this to be done? Do you want to be involved? What can we do? Would you like a different role? Would you prefer to exit elegantly?' You must have dialogue. It didn't happen in my case, it didn't happen in his. And that really hurt him. I would have done it differently.
"Look, you don't find a brain like his every day of the week. He's an Arsenal man, 22 years at the club. Wasn't his knowledge worth cultivating? Look at where he is now. So he's not good enough for Arsenal, but he is good enough to be head of global development for FIFA, in charge of 211 countries.
"He should have been used by us surely, his knowledge, his skill, his encyclopaedic awareness of players. He's got to be used."
Arsenal have since spent time recovering from the struggle after moving to the Emirates and have only this season made strides to correct transfer market errors made in the past, some under Wenger.
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