Calling the Shots: How to Win in Football and Life

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It was Dein’s search for a billionaire that first took him to Khaldoon Al-Mubarak, who fronted Sheikh Mansour’s Abu Dhabi Manchester City takeover. They met through Bernie Ecclestone whose daughter Tamara was then dating Dein’s younger son Gavin. “We had some good chemistry there [with Khaldoon] and I felt he could be a good owner for the club. In the end the timing wasn’t right and then a year or two later he bought Manchester City.” It has been fascinating to see so many extraordinary situations unfold from the inside, and I hope my memoir provides entertainment and inspiration for football and non-football fans alike when it comes to business, leadership, building a winning team and calling the shots." Little, Brown imprint Constable has snapped up Calling the Shot s: How to Win in Football and Life , the “explosive” autobiography from football’s David Dein. Although much of it has been hinted at over the years it is fascinating to read of the growing rift between Dein on one side and on the other, Fiszman, Peter Hill-Wood, the late former chairman, and Keith Edelman, then managing director. Dein and his wife Barbara were “ostracised” on away trips in Europe. He believed there was jealousy at his profile as the corporate face of Arsenal. Most of all there was disharmony on how they would fund a new stadium.

Calling the Shots by David Dein | Hachette UK

It eventually led him to Kroenke, whom Hill-Wood would first haughtily dismiss and then later sell all his remaining shares. So too did the other key stakeholders in the board, including Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, handing Kroenke control and eventually the leverage to get Usmanov’s shares too. On Kroenke, Dein is withering. He writes in “Calling the Shots” that he had thought Kroenke would have been a bigger investor in the club. He says that Arsenal is just part of Kroenke’s portfolio and not his whole life.

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Probably not winning any witters awards. The opening chapters hit you with waves of premier league excitement, but then drifts into an autobiography of David and the writer does manage to lose the attention of the audience at times. I think they are coming through it,” Dein says. “The club is, by and large, well run. I think they have made mistakes for sure with transfers, salaries, and certain players they have bought, they have overpaid. For the 20 years Arsene and I worked together we were in the Champions League non-stop. You won't see that for a long time again. It was never on my agenda to come fourth. I wanted to be No 1 or worse No 2.” But there is also a sadness for Dein that it ended so abruptly in 2007 and the Wenger era never recovered. He describes Wenger’s exit in 2017 in the book as “a knifing”. He says that the Frenchman was never offered another role at the club. When I point out that similar arrangements rarely ended well with great managers of the past at other clubs, he immediately offers the reasons why it would have worked. There’s no doubt that Dein has been one of the most significant and influential figures in British football for over three decades – operating at club and international level. He was a prime mover in the creation of the Premier League, hugely influential within the England set-up and, of course, was the mastermind – along with Arsène Wenger – in creating the glory days of Arsenal Football Club, leading the team for almost a quarter of a century. Connected to the most senior figures across the global game as a friend, rival, advisor, and collaborator, Dein has been central to major turning points in the game.

David Dein on his pain at being forced out of Exclusive: David Dein on his pain at being forced out of

According to Campomar, Calling the Shots is an incisive analysis of football past, present and future and promises to be revelatory in its detailed disclosure of what went on behind the scenes at Arsenal and the Premier League. To lose a talent like that was a mistake,” he says. “When you see what is going on at City and satellite clubs they have around the world. Last week he was in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and Panama [with Fifa] teaching coaches. Using his skill and knowledge. Arsenal could have used him for that. Developing things globally and helping other coaches. You need quality people. You’ve got to have good talent. You don’t often find an Arsene Wenger in football.”There's no doubt that Dein has been one of the most significant and influential figures in British football for over three decades - operating at club and international level. He was a prime mover in the creation of the Premier League, hugely influential within the England set-up and, of course, was the mastermind - along with Arsene Wenger - in creating the glory days of Arsenal Football Club, leading the team for almost a quarter of a century. Connected to the most senior figures across the global game as a friend, rival, advisor, and collaborator, Dein has been central to major turning points in the game. Fifteen years on from the day that David Dein was forced off the Arsenal board and out the club one Wednesday evening in April 2007 still feels like a turning point in what was arguably the greatest era at one of English football’s biggest clubs, and at last he is telling his side of the story. I always voted against Dein at the AGM as I felt he got the shares too cheaply.Unfortunately I was proved right. Calling the Shots” is an engrossing read, from a man who has found himself at the centre of so much modern football history. Not just the rise and fall of the great teams of the man he calls his best friend, Arsène Wenger, or the battle for control of Arsenal that was won by the US billionaire Stan Kroenke. Dein was an architect of the new Premier League in the 1990s. He negotiated Sven Goran Eriksson’s England contract in the Rome apartment of his daughter Sasha. He lost a fortune. He made a fortune. He once put on a West End show. A life well-lived and now in his eighth decade launching a charity that uses the power of football to help the inmates of Britain’s prisons. Our servers are getting hit pretty hard right now. To continue shopping, enter the characters as they are shown

Calling the Shots by David Dein | Waterstones

The long-awaited memoir from international football ambassador, former co-owner of Arsenal FC and legend of the David Dein.

Exclusive: David Dein on his pain at being forced out of Arsenal and how Arsene Wenger was 'knifed' Andreas Campomar, non-fiction publisher, acquired world rights from Jon Wood at Rogers, Coleridge & White for publication on 15th September. Dein, pictured with Arsène Wenger and Danny Fiszman in 1998, played a key role in the shaping of Arsenal under the Frenchman