Arsenal scout and ex-player Danny Karbassiyoon joins Untold’s writing team

By Tony Attwood

I am really pleased to confirm the announcement that I made at the Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association AGM, that Danny Karbassiyoon is joining the team of writers on Untold Arsenal and we shall be publishing Danny’s first book.

Untold hopes to be publishing Danny’s autobiography before Christmas, and Danny will also be writing a regular column for Untold on his work as a football scout.

Danny played for Arsenal, Ipswich and Burnley, starting his Arsenal career against Man City in the League Cup on 27 October 2004, and scoring in the 90th minute as Arsenal won 2-1.

This got him a starting position in the next round for the match against Everton which we won 3-1.  Danny played as a sub in the next round also as we went out to Man U away, after which he went on loan to Ipswich.

He later transferred to Burnley in 2005 but suffered a series of knee injuries and he left the club retiring from football at the age of 22.  Danny’s autobiography tells his story, including the poignant details of what it is like to find the dream of being a footballer ending at such an early age.

After this Danny moved into scouting and was employed by Arsenal as their scout for North America.  He was centrally involved in discovering both Joel Campbell and Gedion Zelalem.

I must say I am absolutely delighted that a man of Danny’s stature in the football world has agreed to write for Untold and has agreed for ourselves to publish his autobiography.  As you might imagine, there’s a fair degree of pleasure in Untold’s offices, that this has come to pass.

This will be the fourth book that Untold has been involved in publishing, and continues the theme of variety in our developing list of Arsenal titles which will shortly include not just two books on the early days of Arsenal (“The Crowd at Woolwich Arsenal”, and “Woolwich Arsenal the club that changed football”) and a novel,  but now also an autobiography.

In addition we shall be publishing Arsenal: The Chronology, a work based on the ever growing Anniversary Files, an extract of which we publish on the home page of this site each day.  We were hoping to publish the first volume of The Chronology  before Christmas, but the sheer bulk of the work involved means that early next year is now looking more likely.

Thank you for reading – without you such a development would not have been possible.

The Untold Books

From the anniversary files

  • 11 September 1998: Fredrik Ljungberg  joined Arsenal  from Halmstads BK. It was said that Arsène Wenger had never seen him play when he signed him.  It seems unlikely but Ljungberg repaid the faith by scoring within seconds of coming on against Manchester United in his debt on 20 September 1998.
  • 11 September 2003: 16 year old Cesc Fabregas joined Arsenal from FC Barcelona (for whom he had signed aged 10).    It is said that His first coach, Señor Blai, reportedly did not select Fàbregas for matches against Barcelona in an attempt to hide him from their scouts.  The same story is told word for word about Bellerin.

25 Replies to “Arsenal scout and ex-player Danny Karbassiyoon joins Untold’s writing team”

  1. What a super signing!!!

    Well done Untold and Danny.

    I look forward to his articles – especially since on the day he scored his first goal for us I turned 31 and watched the match whilst in NZ 🙂

  2. Can’t say I recall Danny’s career with Arsenal but it’s a sad reflection of the physical demands of the professional game when a guy has to retire through injury at the age of 22.
    And I can’t refrain from expressing my lasting relief that bona fide surnames are not permitted in Scrabble. 😉

  3. And I should have said what a pleasure it was to meet a number of Untold regulars. If I may group you together, can I thank you all for your generous comments about Untold.

  4. @finsbury

    Did you read the article before getting excited with headline?? hahahahaha

    You know we see eye to eye and agree on almost everything but I couldn’t resist…

    Love your excitement buddy!! 🙂 🙂

    from the article 🙂 : “After this Danny moved into scouting and was employed by Arsenal as their scout for North America. He was centrally involved in discovering both Joel Campbell and Gedion Zelalem.”

    🙂 🙂 🙂

  5. Cinally! A world class addition to the squad! Danny has always struck me as an intelligent and knowledgeable Gooner. He will stick out like a sore thumb here!! 🙂

  6. I have not been reading the 2 articles heading on top the UA Portal on Woolwich Arsenal and those of the anniversaries ones. I always skip them and then go straight to the topic articles and post my comments after reading them. However, now that you’ve talked about their importance, I will endeavour to start reading those important topic heading articles to know more about our beloved Arsenal as soon as I can. I am tired now, otherwise I would have started. My best of wishes to Mr. Danny Kabarssiyoon, as he writes articles for the UA. I/We will be reading them and make our comments. Happy outing for the Gunners tomorrow.

  7. Excellent news and finally someone other than Walter who has had direct professional experience in a number of roles on and off the field. Let the aaa try and BS him….he’ll eat them alive|

  8. Great new and classy signing , Tony ! Well done . A very warm welcome to Danny , too .

  9. And as a not so gentle reminder to those posting on these sacred site , please try to follow these very simple guidelines . Very simple to us , the AKBs ( as it is in our DNA !) , but probably not included ( like batteries !) in most of ‘them’ !

    The 10 Commandments of Logic

    1) Thou shall not attack the person’s character, but the argument.
    (Ad hominem)

    2) Thou shall not misrepresent or exaggerate a person’s argument in
    order to make them easier to attack. (Straw man fallacy)

    3) Thou shall not use small numbers to represent the whole. (Hasty
    generalization)

    4) Thou shall not argue thy position by assuming one of its premises is
    true. (Begging the question)

    5) Thou shall not claim that because something occured before, it must
    be the cause. (Post Hoc/False cause)

    6) Thou shall not reduce the argument down to two possibilties. (False
    dichotomy)

    7) Thou shall not argue that because of our ignorance, claim must be
    true or false. (Ad ignorantum)

    8) Thou shall not lay the burden of proof onto him that is questioning
    the claim. (Burden of proof reversal)

    9) Thou shall not assume “this” follows “that” when it has no logical
    connection. (Non sequitur)

    10) Thou shall not claim that because a premise is popular, therefore
    it must be true. (Bandwagon fallacy)

  10. Great minds discuss ideas . Average minds discuss events . Small minds discuss people.
    Eleanor Roosevelt

  11. It will be interesting to get some insights into scouting, especially as judging by results, Arsenal has a very good scouting system.

  12. Wow, that’s a name from the past. I was at the City v Arsenal league cup game that he scored in. Even with Arsenal fielding a virtual reserve side we (City) were taught a footballing lesson that night, the only bright spot being a cracking injury time consolation goal scored by Robbie Fowler. If I remember rightly, Danny was one of the players that was predicted to have a bright future and I never realised his career was sadly cut short so young.

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