by Adam Up
“Freddie Ljungberg warned Arsenal fans could turn on him like Solskjaer at Man Utd”
That headline from the bonkers Daily Star is about as pot calling the kettle black as it is possible to get. Not least because one of the great fermenters of ferment within Arsenal is the appalling Daily Star.
But it captures the mood of the moment among the media and the blogs. They have stirred up the most appalling load of protests (ably supported by Arsenal Supporters Trust and their coat tail hangers on who signed the disgraceful “We care do you” open letter sent to the club) and they are not going to stop now. Following the motto of kick a man when he’s down they run the story under the second headline…
“Dimitar Berbatov has issued a stark warning to interim Arsenal boss Freddie Ljungberg over Ole Gunnar Solskjaer comparisons”
As you will know if you are a regular reader of Untold, around 3% of the predictions made by bloggettas (ie blogs with very short articles) blogs (blogs that run a few mindless opening paragraphs before giving us more than two new sentences) and newspaper journalists (biased drinkers with no knowledge of analysis, statistics, or come to that, most of the English language) is that around three in every hundred predictions they make about transfers come true.
So on that basis we need at least 33 predictions as to who the next manager will be, to be fairly sure that his name will actually appear on the list of possibilities.
We currently have 11 names in the frame (just 22 to go) but interestingly there are also two entries in the list which say “it doesn’t matter who Arsenal get” on the grounds that the club is unmanageable because of the state of the fans.
So in order to help us all see exactly what is going on we’ve created a list of the people being talked about today, 30 November.
You may notice that the first three men on the list have all been “shortlisted” according to Sky Sports which rather makes me think that they just took the first three names off the list in alphabetical order, and then got rather bored by the whole affair, saying, “We make a total balls up of the whole thing with player transfers each year, so there’s no point trying to be clever. Just lift the first three names. The fans are far too stupid to notice.”
Here we go
| # | Manager | Source | They cite as their source | Notes |
| 1 | Massimilliano Allegri | Star, Mirror | La Gazetto dello Sport. Sky Sports have him shortlisted | Out of work. Was Juventus manager. Mirror says AFC board thought he was arrogant. |
| 2 | Carlo Ancelotti | Football Fancast | Telegraph. Sky Sports have him shortlisted | Won CL with Milan and Real Mad, currently struggling at Napoli. Just Arsenal News says “he’s not youth orientated enough” |
| 3 | Phil Antwi | Birmingham Live | He’s Wolverhampton’s youth scout. Not really wanted as manager – more a, well, youth scout. | |
| 4 | Mikel Arteta | Football London; Le Grove | Sky Sports says he is shortlisted. | They also say he doesn’t look particularly bothered about it |
| 5 | Freddie Ljungberg | Football Insider | No one. They “understand” this is the case. | “Just like Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer” |
| 6 | Marcelino García Toral | Sun | Football365 | Valencia manager 2017-19 |
| 7 | Vitor Pereira | Telegraph | Gooner News | Shanghai SIPG |
| Mauricio Pochettino | TBR Football | Eurosport | “He’s available” | |
| 8 | Brendan Rodgers | Daily Record | Charlie Nicholas also tips him | He’s probably too expensive for Arsenal (£14m compensation) |
| 9 | Nuno Espirito Santo | Sports Mole | Wolverhampton W | WW will “fight” to keep him |
| 10 | Patrick Vieira | Evening Standard | David Seaman | He’s a born leader |
| 11 | Chris Wilder | Yorkshire Post | Peter Crouch | Currently at Sheffield United |
| 12 | It doesn’t matter | FourFourTwo | Phil Neville | Arsenal are unmanageable because of, well, everything. |
| 12 | It doesn’t matter | The Guardian | Jonathan Wilson | “And so the grumbling of the Emirates has claimed another victim” |
So there we are. Rather a lot of men with a surname starting with A however. Not sure how trust worthy such people are.
An update when some more names become propagated.
Latest news:
We are developing our own video channel. It’s still at the experimental stage but you can get a feel here…
I’m not quite sure why a group of concerned fans who don’t think the owners are proving good stewards of the club should be vilified on here. Arsenal fans show their support in different ways and the AST is a big more vocal than this blog. In fact every other Arsenal blog is because you never call out the club on anything. I’m not big into the AST but I know people who are and they are very conscientious Arsenal fans . We should be a broad church but Arsenal has become a factionalised series of groups abusing each other. That’s why visiting Arsenal has become so toxic
Well Baby Kronke has decided to get his group of Raul, Vinai & Edu to process the team using Arsenal DNA – Freddie (We are the Champions my friend). Hoping to bring smiles on the faces of the players while looking for a new coach.
This group should have helped Unai by moving him aside for a few weeks rather than allow him to get deeper in controversy (the mire). They should also have got him an interpreter to ensure the team understood his ‘way’.
However, they have now taken over behind the scenes. Raul ( no idea who or where he came from) Vinal ( number cruncher who can cost a ball but not pass it) and Edu ( our midfielder who was half decent). Freddie is a reasonably competent coach who has done well with the youth team.
Lets hope their systems are put in place and their goals detailed so that the players get to grips with where they are going and how they are expected to get there.
Despite the make up of this group I will support them as they are what we have running our club.
COYG with a smile.
The reason the AST are called out is because they have made detailed factual allegations against the club, and brought alongside them a group of fellow travellers. But their allegations were nonsense and if they had been made in a business environment would have resulted in them being sued.
To claim that the directors were salting away money for their own private use was outrageous and without any evidence. To claim that the club had a transfer budget of £40m last summer and make that a central plank of their criticism only to find we sent over £100m was just plain daft.
In any other organisation the people making such wild allegations would have moved aside if they had had any decency or been kicked out by the membership, but I don’t believe that happened in either case.
I had a long meeting with a director at the 100 Years event at Islington Town Hall and found him very courteous and willing to listen, and that I believe is the way to get things done. Not making a public protest.
Surprised they haven’t linked David Pleat with us.
But in reality, would love to see Freddie do a great job and force himself into the reckoning, OGS comparisons or not
Getting a bit tired of you blaming everything on fans. Wenger had to go as did Emery as both were not taking the club forward. Clubs very seldom get the first or even second managerial change righ tbut that is no reason for sticking with something that is so obviously not working.You keep saying that a change has a high chance that the new manager will have the club in no better posistion than when he took over but this is ignoring the decline that the club was in when he took over. If we are 6th but looking to slide down to 10th then I would rather a change that will keeep us at 6th and not slide any further down.
It’s not as if the Arsenal players at the club especially the young ones there like Saka, Willock and others don’t understand how Emery was speaking to them in the none standard English speaking language but in the Spanish accent English speaking language that he spoke explaining to the team what he wants them to know, understand and do when he was at Arsenal as head coach.
All the players at Arsenal who understand a little English language and can speak it should be able to understand Emery’s English when he speaks it in his Spanish accent English speaking language. This is because how come that I who is not a Gunner at Arsenal but a fan of the club do understand Emery’s Spanish accent English speaking language whenever I watch and listen to him in his Arsenal press conferences that he has had? I believe the Arsenal players who claimed that they don’t understand Emery’s speaking English are not saying the truth. But could be hiding under this cover as a pretext to hid their failings in games when playing for Arsenal under Emery regime at the club. Or could it be it was a kind of mutinious action against him by the highest paid player at the club to frustrate him by making results in Arsenal matches bad as possible for him orchestrated by the this highest paid player at the club who he wanted to get rid from the club for his below par performances in games for the club. But this highest earning player at the club could for his own protection to continue staying at the club till his contract at the club has expired might in his selfish interest turned around by coniving with some players at the club against Emery to mutiny against him so as to see him out of the club if results continue to bad. While this highest earning player and the parasite players like him at the club will remain at Arsenal but milking the club of it’s nutrients in plenty of the cash that are at Arsenal unjustifiably to consequently turn the club to a cash cow for milking on the free.
Nevertheless, I wouldn’t mind if I am proved wrong in my assertion that I’ve asserted. Should this be the case, I’ll accept it with profound apology to apologise. Hmmm.
What about Arry Redknapp?
He seems to know all there is to know about football.
With arsenal football club we have seen it
all before. From Chapman to mee, to Graham and to wenger. We have always had the media waiting for us to fail.
Almost all of the stuff in the media is pure speciation. It’s up to the club and the fans to stick together. And whoever manages are club in the future needs the support of the fans.
We are the arsenal
I have to agree with Henry Root. Tony, you claim the fans make the atmosphere toxic but the only thing you have done for years is to insult and label other fans of the club. I’d say you’re among the chief toxics. You’ve claimed that a small group of vocal fans have done a lot of damage, I ask what have the majority done about it? You have claimed this small minority is less than 3%, so how does 3% out support 97%? I think it just smacks of jealousy. While AISA is practically unknown, AST is the flagship arsenal supporters club, your smear campaign has not changed that. AFTv is doing quite well too. If you feel they’re not doing well show us what you’re doing more successfully, after all you’re with the 97% majority.
Lima: I know I pointed out that 0.3% of the crowd supported the Black Scarf march, and that still seems to me correct, and I have often pointed out that only 3% of the transfer rumours each summer turn into reality.
And 3% was probably a reasonable estimate made of course from where I sit in the upper tier looking down across to the north bank, western corner, where the flag is displayed prior to the game. But was any of that an insult?
What did the rest of us do? Looking around me at each home game, I’d say they remained quiet or cheered on the team, they were not booing.
As for AST v AISA – I don’t know about AST’s paid up membership now the fanshare scheme is over, but I suspect it is much the same as AISA (which was formed before AST). But the key difference between the two is the way each chooses to behave. AISA acts behind the scenes and in a quiet, moderated way, discussing matters in a civilised manner with those running the club. Since the end of Fanshare I’m not associated at all with AST, but my impression, reading their releases is that they tend to make public demands and allegations, which AISA does not do.
Certainly it was AST that came up with the “We Care Do You” document, which many other blogs and organisations signed up to, but AISA did not.
We’re very different organisations, one seeking publicity through noisy statements one being quiet. In my view the two serious attacks by AST on Arsenal were a major mistake. Fortunately AISA has still got all its lines of communication open – hence the willingness of a director to give me time at the 100 Years celebration allowing me to put forward thoughts on issuing relating to the club on behalf of part AISA’s work
With due respect Tony I don’t understand how 3% who are booing can overshadow 97% who are cheering. Honestly I doubt you guys are cheering. Don’t you think instead of coming online to blame the 3% everyday, you can do more to mobilize that 97% to outdo the 3%.
On AISA vs AST, frankly the only thing I know about AISA is that you come here almost everyday to attack AST on behalf of AISA. I’ll also suggest, if AISA needs publicity, let its work speak for it. The only impression I get from your continuous sniping at AST is that you’re jealous.
OK Lima you don’t understand, I’ll accept that. In terms of your knowing what I am doing in the ground, I doubt that very much. In terms of “almost every day” you are certainly wrong. In terms of AISA needing publicity, no we don’t, we just go for a different type of publicity. In terms of your being able to read my emotions, I wouldn’t try to get a job as a telepath.