Chelsea abandon stadium project; ZZ leaves Real Madrid, Mr Abramovich withdraws visa request

By Tony Attwood And so the world moves on.  ZZ is leaving Real Madrid at a moment when they are perhaps going to struggle to get exactly the right person to take the club forward.   And Chelsea have (at least for a while) abandoned the project of rebuilding Stamford Bridge. It was only a few …

The 75 players (yes really, 75) we are buying with at least 3 NOW (or so I’m told)

By Sir Hardly Anyone Now the distraction of getting a new manager is over the fantasists (or “football correspondents as they like to be called) are back in operation throughout the public houses of central London and docklands.  Below is a list of players were are apparently signing so far, including some interesting recent additions …

Changes to the Women’s game for 2018/19

  by Andrew Crawshaw For next season the top flight of Women’s football will comprise of 11 fully professional teams.  It will be called the Women’s Super League.  The teams and their grounds will be:- Arsenal – Borehamwood FC  Meadow Park ground Birmingham City Ladies – Solihull Moors FC Solihull Brighton and Hove Albion – …

Does having the best players in your team always bring success?

By Tony Attwood In the first of Andrew’s two articles today the point was made that the title winning teams in England, France, Germany, Italy and Spain, between them had 39 of the 100 top ranked players in the world. As you might recall nowhere was this more extreme than in Germany where Bayern Munich …

Attacking players: have the top clubs already mopped up the talent?

By Andrew Crawshaw In the last article we looked at the link between winning the league and having the top defenders in the side. The overall figures gave us the number of top players for the top teams in the league. England France Germany Italy Spain Man City – 8 PSG – 7 Bayern – …

The (not always) obvious link between winning the league and having top players

by Andrew Crawshaw The league winners in the top 5 European Leagues this last season were Premier League – Manchester City France – Paris St Germain Germany – Bayern Munich Italy – Juventus Spain – Barcelona The question we look at here is this: is there a correlation with the number of players they each …

Arsenal about to make the first Emery signing, and it is certain to be one of these…

By Sir Hardly Anyone Yes the race is on for one player to be the first man to be signed by the new Arsenal management team.  Gone are the days in which the media bemoaned how Arsenal were not going to sign anyone, and how Arsenal was too slow and Wenger too mean to pay …

There is something strange going on with football defences and it might be worth noting what it is.

I am aware that some correspondents are finding their comments put into moderation, even though they have been commenting unhindered on Untold for a long time.  I think it might be something to do with the new arrangements put in place as a result of the advent of GDPR in Europe, and I am trying …

Why are Arsenal suddenly getting interested in the older generation of players?

By Sir Hardly Anyone. So now we know.    Or at least we think we know.  Or at least some people are saying, the first transfer of the New Era will be Sokratis Papastathopoulos and he will cost £16m from Borussia Dortmund.   He’s 29.  Quite why Sven Mislintat, the head of recruitment, likes old men we’re …

To What Extent Should Malicious Tackles Be Accepted As Part Of The Game.

By Rich Ade-Alao    If I may answer the question in the headline, they are not acceptable. A malicious tackle is crude, classless, and an untrue reflection of the game the fans or neutral fans would wish to watch. If real football with true talents and full passion is going to be salvaged from the imminent …

How far are we behind our rival clubs?

by Andrew Crawshaw I have come across a couple of interesting pieces of analysis recently from the Swiss CIES Observatory.  This is an organisation which publishes weekly articles covering one or another aspect of the European (predominantly) football scene. Their report 227 has their take on the top 100 players in the top 5 European …

That question of negative runs: Klopp, Tottenham and who has won what

By Tony Attwood I was fascinated by a newspaper comment today that read “Klopp who has over-achieved. But he has also now lost six successive finals,” as it took me back to an issue we recently debated. Wenger in his 22 years at Arsenal lost three League Cup, one FA Cup and Champions League final.  …

Can Arsenal Regain Their Momentum Under Emery?

GUEST ARTICLE Accident Claims for Untold Arsenal Can Arsenal Regain Their Momentum Under Emery? Arsenal have just had one of their worst seasons for many years ending up in sixth place. Although they made it to the final of the League Cup they missed out on all the domestic trophies apart from the Community Shield …

Arsenal’s squad for next season, including home grown and under 21 status.

Figures by Andrew Crawshaw.  Interpretation and vague meanderings by Tony Attwood Below is the list of the 28 players currently logged as being in Arsenal’s first team who will count as over 21 for next season. Because it always brings a bit of debate each summer, the detail of the “over 21” malarkey is that …

Can Unai Emery Reinvigorate Arsenal?

GUEST ARTICLE Legal Expert for Untold Arsenal Can Unai Emery Reinvigorate Arsenal? There is no denying that Arsenal have had a pretty dismal season with the Community Shield the only silverware they have managed to claim. It’s been a long time since the glory days under Arsene Wenger. Although European triumph has eluded him, under …

How far do repeated negative appraisals of a team by the media affect players and fans?

By Sir Hardly Anyone My little job on Untold, as you may have noticed over the past few years, is to write about what the media say about Arsenal.   Some people then write to the site saying we have far too much coverage of the media here, and others suggest I am an idiot, but …

Arsenal women: the players and what can we expect next season?

A review of the women’s league season, by Andrew Crawshaw This is part four of our major review of Arsenal Women’s season; the final part of the series.  Previously we have published Part one: the review of the league season Part two: Two cup finals in one season Part three: Arsenal women in the FA Cup …

Is Arsenal really going to bring Lucas Perez back into the first team?

By Tony Attwood The first time I heard the story that Lucas Perez could be brought back from his series of loans to be part of the first team squad for 2018/9 I really couldn’t believe it.   But that tale has started popping up all over the place – which either means an awful lot …

Arsenal women in the FA Cup 2018, from Yeovil to Wembley

This is part three of our major review of Arsenal Women’s season. Previously we have published Part one: the review of the league season Part two: Two cup finals in one season So onto our review of the Women’s FA Cup This was played as a straight knockout competition open to all Women’s clubs in …

Ramsey, Wilshere and Lacazette to leave in huge Arsenal shake up?

An Untold History in the Making   Historians on occasion report all-art war on the battlefield or through the missiles being dropped as being preceded by a phoney war in which each side launches its vast array of propaganda and bluster, but no one gets killed.  The name became a particularly common expression for the …

Arsenal women: two cup finals in one season

Part two of our review of the women’s league season, by Andrew Crawshaw Part one can be found here. So as we saw in the earlier part of this summary we had three managers during the season – here is a summary of their league results:- Played Won Drawn Lost For Against Pedro Losa 3 1 …

The 70 players now tipped join Arsenal and the transfer window isn’t even open

By Sir Hardly Anyone This is the third summer in which we have kept a record of many of the players who are tipped to join Arsenal when the transfer window opens. Several interesting pointers of late.  First, although there was a little bit of a slow down once while we waited to find out …

How Arsenal will line up under Emery and the ten players he is going to sign

By Sir Hardly Anyone New names new tactics, that is always the promise of the new manager, but of course it never makes sense to undertake a total revolution all at once.   So the suggestion in the Express that Mr Emery is going to build his Arsenal team around Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Aaron Ramsey is interesting …

Arsenal Women – Part one of our season end appraisal: the League

A review of the women’s league season, by Andrew Crawshaw A season with some success but more a season of ‘might have beens’. The final week of the season saw two games with wins over Sunderland 2 – 0 and Bristol by 6 – 1.  Unfortunately Manchester City also won their final two games and we …

Why people who argue for a new defence at Arsenal are missing the point

By Tony Attwood There has been some commentary recently about why Arsenal had their worst season in 20+ years in the League and FA Cup last season.   A few people argue it was down to an individual player or two, some cite the entire defence and some cite the management. I personally find all such …