In a High Performance Podcast interview, former Arsenal vice-chairman David Dein says his 2007 departure was decided in minutes, and reflects on the Wenger partnership and Emirates-era constraints he believes shaped modern Arsenal
David Dein has offered a candid account of his time at Arsenal in an interview with the High Performance Podcast, revisiting the boardroom decision that ended his tenure in April 2007 and the relationship with Arsène Wenger that he believes underpinned one of the club’s most influential eras.
Dein, who spent 24 years as Arsenal’s vice-chairman, described the manner of his departure as abrupt and emotionally bruising. “Yes, it did. Tears in my eyes,” he said when asked whether it hurt. “18th of April, 2007, 5:00 p.m. I won’t forget that in a hurry. It was a shock and it hurt because I’d given the best years of my life to Arsenal Football Club.”
“Not at all… it was all over in about three minutes”
Dein said he was not given a formal platform to argue his position. “I was just told literally on the 18th of April 2007 to leave the club,” he said. Asked whether a board meeting took place with him present, he replied: “Not at all.” He then summarised how quickly it unfolded. “It was all over in about 3 minutes. The board have unanimous decided that you should leave now.”
He added a detail that, in his telling, captured the finality of the break. “When I got into my car, my mobile phone wasn’t working,” Dein said. “It was my own personal number was taken from me. I had to drive home without having a mobile phone.”
Dein suggested the decision was driven by internal politics rather than football logic, describing it as “a combination of jealousy and fear”.
Wenger wanted to leave, too, Dein claims
Dein also made the striking claim that Wenger wanted to resign from Arsenal on the night Dein was removed. “That night he came over to my house… and he said, ‘David, I want to leave as well. You know, we’re a pair. We’re a team,’” Dein said.
Dein said he talked Wenger out of leaving immediately. “And I thought about it. I said, ‘Arsène, you can’t do that,’” he recalled, framing Wenger’s decision to stay as important for stability at the club during a turbulent period.
“The Invincibles… we’ve still got a WhatsApp group”
Dein’s warmest reflections centred on the Invincibles era, and he suggested the bond around that squad has endured beyond football. “The invincibles, we’ve still got a WhatsApp group,” he said, adding they still message around birthdays and milestones.
Asked the name of the group, he replied: “It’s called the invincibles, funny enough.”
Dein’s thesis: risk, partnership and a brutal ending
Dein’s account is personal and self-interested, as memoir-style interviews often are, but the central message remains consistent. He believes Wenger changed Arsenal’s standards and identity, and he believes his own role was to make that change possible inside the boardroom and in the market.
He returned to a personal mantra he said shaped his decision-making: “You don’t get anywhere unless you stick your neck out.”
In Dein’s telling, that approach led to Arsenal’s biggest modern leaps, and also to the fallout that removed him from the club in 2007.
Watch the full High Performance Podcast interview with David Dein for the complete discussion on Wenger, recruitment, the Emirates move and his Arsenal exit.