David Dein walked into the Arsenal boardroom as a fan and leaves a bitter man, sitting on a shareholding worth almost £68 million in the club he has supported for a lifetime. For the one thing he wanted he could not have — power.

As the Arsenal directors closed ranks, perhaps Dein had decided that the only way he could achieve his ambition of running Arsenal is by joining forces with an outsider with the money and clout to take over the last of the Premiership’s Champions League clubs in English hands.

Stanley Kroenke, the American billionaire and owner of three sports franchises in the United States, has been the ghost in the Arsenal boardroom since he confirmed a week ago that he had acquired a shade more than 11 per cent of the club, buying ITV’s 9.9 per cent stake, plus some shares from Danny Fiszman, Arsenal’s biggest stockholder.

The question is whether Dein, alienated from his club because of his desire for more dynamic leadership, will provide the ammunition for Kroenke to load his big financial guns to launch an assault on Arsenal. Sources close to Dein are denying that suggestion, but nervous voices in the corridors of the Emirates Stadium are whispering that they would not be surprised to see Dein return as chairman and sidekick for Kroenke.

But the pair will not get the historic, old club without a fight. A statement last night said that the remaining eight members of the board — who hold 45.45 per cent of the club’s shares — would not “dispose of their interests for at least a year” and confirmed that they “intend to retain their interests on the expiration of this period”. In other words, their shares are not for sale.

The Times first drew attention on March 23 to the ripple of activity on the small Plus Markets Group, which was the first sign that Arsenal’s board members were digging in for a long resistance to a takeover. They said at the time that they were not interested in selling, even though the share price was soaring.

But Fiszman’s seemingly innocent decision to sell 659 shares to “get down to a round number” of 15,000 left the door ajar to a takeover. Kroenke was revealed to have paid £3.94 million at £5,975 a share through an intermediary bank for Fiszman’s shares. By the time Kroenke had bought out ITV, the price was £6,800 — and this for a stake in a club whose shares were valued at a mere £700 when they entered the Plus Markets Group in 1995.

The inflation caused alarm at the club. There would still be much to do, even if Dein aligned himself with the American. The Kroenke-Dein axis would hold, with Dein’s 14.5 per cent, about a quarter of the shares in the club but would be facing implacable opposition from board members horrified by the prospect of a takeover from across the Atlantic, which, they believe, would undermine traditions.

Despite his recent sale and his decision to live as a tax exile in Switzerland after retiring from his diamond business, Fiszman appears to be committed as ever to the club. He was behind the move from Highbury to the £357 million Emirates Stadium, while Dein favoured a deal to move into the new Wembley Stadium. With a little more than 24 per cent of the shares, he could prove to an immovable object, even though he could realise £100 million for his stake.

Lady Nina Bracewell-Smith, who holds almost 16 per cent, is a member of a dynasty whose association with the club goes back 60 years and she will line up behind Peter Hill-Wood, the chairman, and Richard Carr, a director whose family also has a long involvement with Arsenal.

Although Hill-Wood is 71 and largely regarded as happy not to be involved in the day-to-day running of the club, he appears to have been quick to see the danger and make preparations to head off a takeover.

Even Dein and Kroenke may not be able to break the rigid backbone of tradition that runs through Arsenal.

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