BBC choose Scot in toilet to England in Final; new Sun hoax released

Yesterday the BBC chose to put tennis on TV, and the same match on BBC Radio 5, relegating the European U21 final to 5 live Sports Extra – a digital channel. I can’t get digital radio in my car, and as I was on the way to a gig (not a very big gig, but …

Who do you trust the most: the Times or Mr Usmanov?

So it looks like Liverpool are being further financed by Royal Bank of Scotland (who own Nat West) despite protests from Liverpool’s own supporters. And Mr Usmanov has (according to the Guardian and the Times today) suggested that there should be a £100m rights issue at the Arsenal. The Times says, “Red & White believes …

The Redknapp Legacy: how disaster follows Harry every step of the way

Henry James Redknapp is round about the same age as me, although I think I am better looking. He is a darling of the media and almost always gets a good press. But what is his career and his brush with the law? Given that he now resides at the other end of Seven Sisters, …

Evening Standard launch another hoax Arsenal story, but its not very good

Just as I was thinking we’d had enough of hoaxes on this site for a while, a post turned up claiming that “Wenger is London’s least popular Premier League manager in the eyes of his club’s own supporters with Roy Hodgson, Guus Hiddink, Gianfranco Zola and Harry Redknapp all polling higher marks for last season” …

Man responsible for Sun Fábregas hoax arrested by police

Anthony Kastrinakis. the man behind the Sun’s famous Fábregas-to-Madrid hoax has been arrested by police. Kastrinakis’ article which claimed that Fábregas was ready to play for Real Madrid was picked up by Arsenal blogs and national newspapers, making it the most successful football hoax in the history of football journalism. The Sun had for some …

Blogs and press caught out by Sun’s Fábregas hoax

A hoax mistranslation of an interview given by Cesc Fábregas in Spanish in relation to Spain’s Confed Cup defeat has been repeated as fact by newspapers and blogs alike around the world. The Sun was the first paper in the UK to run the story, and from there it spread very rapidly indeed. The original …

Loss of pound disrupts Arsenal’s preparations

According to reports on Team Talk today, the Bank of England has lost the pound, sending Arsenal FC into chaos. Numerous players – most notably Andre Adebayor, Armand Almunia and Amaury Arshavin – have demanded an immediate renegotiation of their contracts. “I had no idea that the pound could be lost,” said the Russian ringmaster, …

There are 3 ways of running a top EPL club. (Two don’t always work)

Articles on Untold Arsenal are so good that they also appear on Team Talk. The same is true with much of our correspondence. The name of the “author” is changed on Team Talk. Team Talk have been told repeatedly, but won’t stop the activity, so, I think we should celebrate this situation. Read it here, …

Doomsday postponed

Doomsday postponed, but Paradise Lost, maybe. We now know it is to be EPSN that shows the Setanta programmes – probably charging us a fee per game. So the EPL have got their money – at least for this season. Although the small print suggests that there is a question about how much the 3 …

This transfer window, who is doing well, who is quivvering, & who is on police bail

As we entered the close season I planned this as a sort of weekly revue of EPL clubs, and how they are coping. I expected to be fighting off the usual “Oh my God its a disaster, Man IOU has signed everyone and we haven’t” but in fact its not quite like that at all. …

Arsène Wenger has not left the building

There’s a story that has cropped up a few times recently, and it goes like this… Arsène Wenger is on holiday or in the Far East or both, when he should be concluding deals in Europe. If he can’t take the club seriously he should be sacked. As has already been said here by others, …

We will remember 19 June 09 for many years to come

We’ll remember this day for three reasons. First and most pointlessly, because today I was proven right on the transfer market for the third time in a row. I called Nasri, Arshavin and now Vermaelen correctly, all weeks before the actual transfer. Clever me. I feel rather chuffed. Much more to the point is the …

Why you should join Arsenal Supporters Trust today

By Greg Adams At a time when most of the major Premier League clubs have been bought by Russian, American and Arab investors and mortgaged to within an inch of their survival we should be grateful that, for the time being, ownership of Arsenal remains largely in the hands of those that love the club …

United in insolvency: the story of Real Madrid & Manchester U

By Ronny Lamb and Tony Attwood Aided by the growing number of correspondents around Europe who are now contributing to Untold Arsenal I’ve been pulling together the financial doings of Real Madrid. And here’s the irony. They are just like Manchester IOU. Each is as bust as the other – and there are serious doubts …

The Arsenal Stadium Mystery: 70th anniversary

As far as I know there have only been two books which are not primarily about Arsenal but which make Arsenal a central part of their story: Fever Pitch and The Arsenal Stadium Mystery. (There are of course other novels that mention Arsenal in passing, but I’m speaking here of stories where Arsenal FC is …

Bosnian football & EPL – spot the difference

Bosnian football and the EPL by Armin Medic In a hilly, small Balkans country called Bosnia there is a Premier League. Which sounds a bit like England – but that’s where the similarity ends. But even so, we should not ignore the Bosnian League, because of the story that follows… In the season 2008/9 FK …

The most stupid stories & events in football this season.

The central theme of this last season was the change in the way newspapers report football. The Times preoccupation was rewriting the news – in one case (Bugduv) they even went so far as to remove previous entries on the story from old pages of their web site. Just as KGB Fulham do with their …

Wenger’s 25 most memorable transfers

There was a little comment from a reader about Arsenal being a selling club with a cheapskate manager. I’m long beyond taking any notice of such drivel, but I thought I would take a look at the major transfers that Wenger has been involved in since he came to the club. And I was surprised …

What does Ronaldo’s move mean for Arsenal and the EPL?

There is muttering in Spain. Real Mad are known to have government support – the deal they did over the training ground, the way they can borrow when others can’t – I won’t go into that in detail – you can read it all elsewhere. So Barca et al are unhappy, but, at least for …

Who are the most depressed supporters in the EPL?

Depression is not worry – it is a lot worse than that, and can alternate with manic hysteria or with a short-term feeling that everything is wonderful. So it we look for these traits in EPL supporters, where do we find them? Newcastle Zebras must be top of the league – except they are not …

Redknapp, Bond, the police, the court case…

I spent a jolly afternoon on Wednesday in London, doing my bit being interviewed for a DVD review of last season, pontificating in front of the cameras on the Lord Wenger and all his doings etc. Of course the great danger is that one can, in the heat of questioning, make a prediction or two, …

Arsenal signing & financial disaster news

UPDATE – since I wrote this article it seems Setanta is going bust. I have added an update commentary based on that view, in the correspondence column that follows the article. Here’s the original article….. Shock horror, English football is falling apart – and Arsenal are making a signing of someone who is not 11 …

How did you come to support Arsenal?

If you follow the correspondence in this site you’ll know that an annoying plagiarist has just been banned from this site. For what it is worth, I suspect this writer is not an Arsenal supporter at all but was simply here to annoy us and cause mischief. It is frustrating that he/she occupied our time …

All Arsenal supporters should write to RBS about Liverpool’s loans

Although this article doesn’t start with anything Arsenal it gets there in the end. If you have a mind to, stay with me. Writing (as I am) as many Europeans exercise their right to vote for Members of the European Parliament I am reminded of John Philpot Curran and a speech he made on the …