By Tony Attwood
If you are a regular reader of Untold you’ll know that a little while ago I got rather excited when we announced that Bob Wilson had agreed to write the foreword to our book Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953-1970.
That book, as you may know, has now been published, and we’re moving ahead at full speed towards the publication of our next volume The Arsenal Yankee By Danny Karbassiyoon.
And we have just had it confirmed that Mr Wenger has agreed to write the foreword for the book.
As you may know Danny Karbassiyoon has written several articles for Untold, and indeed we have another from him coming up next on the site.
Danny was spotted by Arsenal as a highly talented youngster, played for us in the League Cup, went out on loan, and then got an injury from which he was unable to recover.
We all know the stories of the great heroes of Arsenal – the magnificent players who carved out a career with the club and gained national and international fame. But part of football – in fact a large part of football – concerns the players who were on the edge of such greatness but then were unable to follow it through.
But Danny, as you’ll probably know, did not let it all turn sour, having his dreams and ambitions wrecked at such an early stage in his career, for he went on to become Arsenal’s scout in North and Central America, and is credited with the discoveries of Joel Campbell, now a regular in the first team, and Gedion Zelalem who has already played for Arsenal’s first team and at the start of this season moved to Rangers on loan. That loan period was extended in January.
Since then, despite being only 19 years old, Gedion is already playing for the United States under 23 side.
We’re currently working on the final preparations for Danny’s book which will appear both as a paperback and as a Kindle edition via Amazon. I think it is a mark of the great respect that I believe Arsène Wenger has for Danny Karbassiyoon that he has agreed to write the Foreword for the volume.
As for Untold, if you read my piece at the time when we announced that Bob Wilson had written the foreword for The Long Sleep, you will have realised how delighted I was that Untold was publishing such a book. Now with Mr Wenger contributing also, as you can imagine, I am feeling rather chuffed.
This is the fifth book in our series of Arsenal volumes which have arisen out of Untold Arsenal, and the AISA Arsenal History Society blog , and we already have several more at the planning stage, so I am hopeful that over time we will become seen as something of a serious long-term player in the world of Arsenal books, as well as in terms of the blog.
Danny has written four articles for Untold Arsenal so far…
- How to Become a Football Scout
- A typical week in the life of an Arsenal scout
- How does an Arsenal scout decide if a player is good enough or not?
- Guns and bullets, carjackings and football: scouting for Arsenal.
… and as I say the fifth piece by Danny will be published next.
In the meanwhile, a thank you from me, both to Danny for entrusting Untold with his autobiography, and of course, to Arsène Wenger for joining the Untold Arsenal team!!!
————-
The Untold Books
The latest Untold book is Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953-1970 with an introduction by Bob Wilson, available both as a paperback and as a Kindle book from Amazon. Our previous three titles are all still available:
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Paperback edition. In the early 1890s a huge schism appeared within Woolwich Arsenal FC, which led to the club being kicked out of its stadium, with a rival team being installed in the ground in its place. This story was completely lost to history until the Arsenal History Society re-discovered it through a detailed investigation of the newspapers of the time. This is the story of how Arsenal survived the split, and rose from the ashes to become the team we know today.
- Woolwich Arsenal: The club that changed football – Kindle edition
- Making the Arsenal – The story of how the Arsenal came to be within minutes of total disintegration, but was then re-born in 1910, as told through the diary of a fictional young Fleet Street journalist given the task by his editor of covering Woolwich Arsenal, and the activities of Henry Norris, at the time.
- The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal – who went to the games, how did they behave, what was the away support like… This original research reveals much that was previously lost about the early days of supporting your local team.
Details of all these books and how you can buy them can be found at Arsenal Books on this site.
That’s massive news 🙂
Massive news indeed 🙂
Don’t think I’ve ever had the chance to read anything written by the great man himself, even a paragraph, and will definitely be looking forward to reading this book.
Great news indeed. I am reading ‘Arsenal: The Long Sleep’ at the moment and it is a brilliant book and recommend it to all football supporters. It in particular for me brings back many memories of those years when I was young and we didn’t win anything but my support never wavered. Our lean years are not so bad when compared to most clubs but when success comes it is enjoyed and appreciated all the more. Keep up the good work Untold Arsenal.
That’s rather a coup, look forward to the read. Well done.
Nigel – thanks for your comment. I’ll make sure the author knows.
I agree, it is a great book and I was really pleased to be offered the chance to publish it. I don’t think there is anything else on this era – or certainly nothing with such a coverage and level of research.
Congrats on above news.On a different subject-what happened to the two young Nigerian boys who were reported to be joining us prior to the closure of the transfer window?
That’s a bit of a coup . Congratulations.
Perhaps he’ll reciprocate by letting you write the foreword in his autobiography when it eventually comes out.
This is excellent news. I am looking forward to reading AW’s own words – rather than supposition ascribed to him by lazy or deceitful authors.
What’s next Tony??? The great man himself writing an article for Untold???? 🙂 One can dream… 🙂
Great news!!!
This is proof that dreams do indeed come true. Congratulations guys and keep up the good work.
Brilliant.
Tempted to mention a couple of significant conclusions I draw from that, but probably best not to.
Excellent news though and enough to make me a bit keener to get my hand on Danny’s book in near future.
*Hands. I have two hands, thankfully
Excellent. Congratulations.
Tony,
That is absolutely brilliant news!
Well done..
Very exciting! Having read Danny’s article, looking forward to the book as well as the introduction.
Congrats UA. What a great news.
amazeballs!!
Well done , Tony , and like Walter , I too feel it would be a great coup if you could get AW to either write on Untold ,or maybe, even his autobiography ?
Part one , at least , as he still has a very , very long way to go yet !
Great news…
Looking forward to the book…
And looking forward to that day writers within the Untold fold could contribute to a huge book in each writer’s perception of the great Arsene Wenger. Everyone in his/her own words…a 500-page stuff.
Tai – February 9, 2016 at 4:26 am – A great idea . My contribution would probably start with this tale of excellence , which has always been the essence of Arsene Wenger’s philosophy in life ,art and sport .
A German once visited a temple under construction where he saw a sculptor making an idol of God…
Suddenly he noticed a similar idol lying nearby…
Surprised, he asked the sculptor, “Do you need two statues of the same idol?”
“No,” said the sculptor without looking up, “We need only one, but the first one got damaged at the last stage…”
The gentleman examined the idol and found no apparent damage… “Where is the damage?” he asked.
“There is a scratch on the nose of the idol.” said the sculptor, still
busy with his work….
“Where are you going to install the idol?”
The sculptor replied that it would be installed on a pillar twenty feet high…
“If the idol is that far who is going to know that there is a scratch on the nose?” the gentleman asked.
The sculptor stopped work, looked up at the gentleman, smiled and said,
“I will know it…”
The desire to excel is exclusive of the fact whether someone else appreciates it or not….
“Excellence” is a drive from inside, not outside….
Excellence is not for someone else to notice but for your own satisfaction and efficiency.
Don’t Climb a Mountain with an Intention that the World Should See You,
Climb the Mountain with the Intention to See the World
Some fine advice for ‘them’ .Do the needful and leave . Goodbye .
“Go where you are celebrated – not tolerated. If they can’t see the real value of you, it’s time for a new start.” – Unknown
BG, permission to post your comment on the sculptor on my FB timeline.
I like the idea of a book made up of Untold reader’s articles about Arsene. Let me think about it further and see what I can come up with.
Please do, Tony…
I’m certainly Arsene himself would gladly offer another foreword!
Great news Tony.
Nothing more than you deserve for the positive manner in which you support this great club. Well done, you must be delighted.
Untold stands as a beacon of light for the support of this great club. The club knows this is where true supporters display their love of the club – supporters who stand side by side with the club, the staff and the players – through good, bad and indifferent times.
PS: Tony, any chance a book could be written on the stadium project, from conception. A warts and all story about the challenges faced, including the finance problems, Granada, the bank loan, the reason behind the bonds, the impact the economic downturn had, the property collapse, the transfer policy, the wage problems, redeveloping Highbury and the affect it had on our ability to compete. Contributions form all those involved. This was a wonderful achievement that the ignorant refuse to acknowledge and a period that is used to beat up the club and especially Mr. Wenger about. It really is much needed and would be a best seller. People do not realise how big this club has become since Wenger arrived and he needs to be judged fairly at last. To whom do I pay my deposit?
@Tony,
Congratulations on your continued excellent work! Looking forward to reading the wise words of Arsenal’s legendary manager.
Exciting news!!! “Arsenal – the long sleep” sounds the kind of book, that should be in the next membership boxset (wink wink…)
Dear Tony, famous and not (so) famous Arsenal supporters writing about their views on and/or experiences of Arsene – I just love this idea. Starting off with more detailed planning soon, the work could be finished by October 2019 – what a marvellous timing to honour “Le Professeur” and his merits !!! 69 contributions to explain the mystery of Wenger with the final chapter titled “arsene knows” written by the man himself given all the missing answers 🙂
Actually, the first publisher getting the exclusive rights from Nick Hornby and likes will have quite an advantage, particularly if there could be several projects in the pipeline (who knows…)
Think of Arsenal winning the CL win that year and sales going crazy, … Revenues from sale will be so massive be that you could buy spuds and relocate them to … Norfolk, sorry! Am I getting carried away ???
Erm, looking at my last paragraph you should not ask me to do the proof reading … 🙁
This is incredible, Untold really grows in stature! A banner inside the stadium, now a contribution from Arsene Wenger… like Walter says, one can only dream!
Yet again, congratulations Untold!
@ Tai February 9, 2016 at 8:42 am – Sorry just logged on right now and saw your post . Please free to pass on any bits of my posts , as they are probably not copyrighted ( not by me anyway !) , and was forwarded to me by like minded friends .
Glad you like it.
Cheers !