Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team
"I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art." A Wenger
By Walter Broeckx I think almost everyone has something from the past on which he thinks : If I had done so and so at that moment in my life what would have happened to the world. You can imagine that people who have met, let’s say, someone like A. Hitler long before he was …
Read More “Me and Wayne Rooney. How I nearly changed the world”
By Phil Gregory A crunch tie for Arsenal’s title hopes looms in the form of Manchester United’s visit to the Emirates. The Mancunians (not to mention the hordes from Cornwall – ed) will be no doubt buoyed from Wayne Rooney’s late winner in a heated Manchester derby, sending thgem into the final. Alex Ferguson’s side …
Read More “Well what do you know? It’s us against that other lot.”
By Phil Gregory I read a great book over Christmas, Michael Lewis’s Moneyball. Despite my total lack of knowledge on the sport it is concerned with, I was fascinated because it’s actually a baseball book which follows a particular American team that consistently outperforms its rivals despite severe financial constraints (see where I’m going with …
By Walter Broeckx Martin O’Neill was angry at Arsène Wenger because (and I quote what Wenger has said) “They [Aston Villa] play a very efficient English game, with long balls and it is very physical. They are a good side at counter attacking. When we took the gamble to go forward and they won the …
Read More “Who is insulting whom? A deeper review of the O’Neill comments”
It is hard to imagine that a tactical analysis of how the other team play could constitute “the biggest insult” that one can give a team. Yet that is what the rather strange M O’Neill said about our Lord’s statements concerning the 0-0 draw in northern Birmingham. I have in the past had a bit …
I have been interested of late at the way the Anti-Arsenal brigade has been developing its tactics. In the olden days (ie last year) they would mostly spend their time saying that our players were all leaving just like Flamini and Hleb before them. Cesc was going to Barca and the world would end. Now …
Read More “How Wenger Used the Doom and Gloomers to his advantage”
by Simon Bailey My mum hates football. She loves racing, athletics, tennis, snooker, rugby, just not football. But within her dislike of football is her loathing of anything Manchester United. Even as a dedicated non supporter of football, my mum, I am proud to say, is an ABU. Anyone but united. Whilst they were capturing …
By Walter Broeckx I don’t like the ritual from Delap when he is going to take a throw-in. On Sunday I watched the game and I have timed how much time it takes to get the ball back in play when Stoke City can take a throw and they let Delap do it. You have …
Read More ““A towel has immense psychological value” (Douglas Adams)*”
There were a couple of comments yesterday that in the face of an exit from another competition to the effect that I should not be so positive in my comments on this site. A defeat, an exit from the Cup, is a time for sadness and reflection on what we should have done. So, in …
Today’s game is in the FA Cup, or Facup as it is known in the Latin tongue which still dominates the region where Stoke play. As with all nouns in Latin the word “facup” can be conjugated and it is vital to be able to do this properly if wishing to discourse with the locals …
Read More “Stoke is not in Stoke (and the first ever football blog to try a joke in Latin)”
By Walter Broeckx Some hate us for what happened to them in the past. The 1989 Liverpool victims. Or the ones like Shearer who came across Arsenal and Arsène Wenger in his Newcastle days and almost always lost in the league and in cup games. Then you have the Tottenham connection like Linneker and if …
Today, 22 January 2010, is the 100th anniversary to the day of the meetings that marked the end of the old Arsenal, and the birth of the club we know and love today. Newspapers played a major part in giving us an understanding of that story, not least because Henry Norris himself wrote a lot …
Read More “How to be a lying toad: the ten rules of football journalism”
By Walter Broeckx So here we are where the doom and gloomers never expected us to be: top of the league in January. They will point at the fact we played one game more now and (having done my sums) I wouldn’t disagree on this. But we are in it and by the look of …
Read More “We’re bottom of the league (if you hold the league table upside down)”
To begin a few days ago. Billy the Dog predicted on this very site that Bolton would score first and the goal would be scored with the left foot. I haven’t seen the TV of the game, but from where I sat, it looked pretty much like that. Now I admit that this was a …
Read More “Perfectly perfect: Bolton, Arsenal, the crowd, Billy the Dog”
Special advanced notice: although much of the commentary consists of mindless gibberish there is a bit of serious stuff part way through, which is all true. You have to guess which bit it is. Part the First: The Evil Empire Bolton Wanderers, known as Notlob, make the Evil Empire look like a troupe of ballet …
Read More “How to speak Notlobian and what a man in the Isle of Man has to do with this match”
E D U A R D O!!!! by Walter Broeckx With the current injury crisis at Arsenal, well one could say with the back to normal business injury crisis, we have seen a change in players up front. If we take a look at our season so far then at the beginning we played with …
To recap and explain (or vice versa) Football 1.0 started when Preston North End were thrown out of the FA Cup in 1884 after a complaint from Upton Park FC that Preston had been paying their players. As a direct result of this Preston got together with other northern clubs and formed the Football League …
Read More “Welcome to Football 3.0 and bid farewell to the old regime.”
Billy the Dog was not quite in the best of moods or the finest of fettle when I met him on the allotment to discuss the game against the almighty Notlob in the Land of the Fabled Beast. I started by asking the question everyone asks, “Is there life in Bolton?” “It doesn’t really matter,” …
Read More “Life in Bolton, and other elements of chaos theory”
This is it: the big day. The very big day. The biggest day of biggest days of all biggest days. For today is the day (the exact day, the very exact day, the precise day). And already it has been celebrated by the most extraordinarily bizarre and eccentric radio broadcast about football ever. Which is …
Read More “Laugh? I nearly died. John Aldridge on Liverpool, Jacko Jones on Arsenal.”
I have only just found out about the Soccer Lens Awards (thanks to our good friend Gf60) so there is only a day or so left for getting entries in. (Sorry I have been so taken up with all the events of the last few days. Fancy Liverpool losing all their players at once. Well …
Read More “3 new players, 11 “almost new” players, and a vote for Untold Arsenal”
Well hi diddley dee do! I have just spent 2.5 years screaming about the insanity of football in the EPL and how it will all end in tears, and what do you know? It is all ending in tears! (Apart from those down the pub where it all ends in beers). There is so much …
Read More “Every EPL club going bust except Arsenal. Extra, extra, read all about it.”
By Walter Broeckx Thomas Vermaelen has been voted best Belgian football player outside Belgium. Every year in Belgium we have the election of the golden boot. It is the election by reporters and trainers of the best player in the Belgian league. I must admit I hardly take notice of this election as football in …
Read More “Vermaelen wins “Best Player” award and reveals allergy to grass and Spain”
The news has just emerged that the Revenue is having a battle with Manchester United over the issue of who pays tax on image rights. The offer document for the new bond mentions that there might be a legal case over the matter. It also seem that Man U have difficulty in remembering their own …
Read More “Revenue and Customs let rip as football falls apart”
By Walter Broeckx Alexandre Dimitri Song Billong is the full name of our defensive midfield player. The first time he really caught my eye was two seasons ago when we played in the Carling cup against Blackburn in the season 2007-2008. For those who can’t remember it, it was the game in which our youngsters …
Clubs can have financial problems. Clubs can have people problems. Club can have squad problems. And clubs can have supporters who have fallen out of love with the board. We see it all the time. And I mean all the time, because at the moment on the Making the Arsenal blog (www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk) I’m covering Arsenal’s …
