by Tony Attwood We have got used to thinking about the resourceless acquisition of football clubs by the City Football Group which includes Manchester City, New York City, Melbourne City, Yokohama F. Marinos, Montevideo City Torque, Girona, Sichuan Jiuniu (China), Mumbai City FC and Lommel SK (Belgium). But it is always worth looking beyond the …
By Sir Hardly Anyone I have a nasty feeling that some of our esteemed journalistic colleagues do little than work through the list of players in the world in alphabetical order, tipping them to come to Arsenal. For how else do we account for the fact five of the seven new names in this week’s …
By Tony Attwood It is interesting that, although it is not full steam ahead for football in Germany, France, Switzerland and multiple other countries, there is a clear pathway being set out in relation to the future of football. Even League Two in England has managed to see its way forward. But the Premier League? …
by Tony Attwood According to a report in the Telegraph, “Premier League clubs have been left stunned after being told that they could have to repay £350 million to the broadcasters – even if the season is completed behind closed doors.” Apparently this scenario was set out in a presentation given by the Premier League …
by Tony Attwood Professional football clubs in Switzerland have been offered loans to help see them through the current crisis. But there is an interesting caveat. The clubs which take the loan will not only have to repay it but lower their payroll by 20% within three years. It is an extraordinarily imaginative scheme, …
By Sir Hardly Anyone Does Untold have an impact? OK we seem to have persuaded a few journalists to lay off the use of “reportedly” since we told them the real meaning of the word. But really? “Reportedly” was, of course, a trivial matter, but an amusing one. But what about noticing the total lack …
by Christophe Jost and our on the spot secret agent, plus the Prime Minsiter. The Bundesliga (1st and 2nd divisions) resume their games next weekend. After a period of planning, political lobbying, medical research, and financial negotiations a plan has been laid out and approved by the German government. And it is interesting to see …
By Tony Attwood Some years ago we analysed the way the English newspapers reported Arsenal and found the most amazing bias in those reports. Our report with its analysis is still online here. There was also a long period in which English journalists ran the story every week that because of Mr Wenger’s training methods …
by Sir Hardly Anyone We have now got another seven players being linked with Arsenal plus a second group the details of whose transfers have been updated just of late. I really didn’t think we were going to get any fantasy stories at all during the corona-pause but they continue to roll in. The only …
by Tony Attwood Somehow, somewhere there has to be a hierarchy of priorities. Because just in the nature of things, certain aspects of life are more important than others. And so it is in football. But unfortunately the hierarchy is upside down. Consider this: what is the more important – the total abolition of human …
By Tony Attwood If it goes on like this there really won’t be any need for Leagues, broadcasters, the PGMO, and anyone else else, because everything will be done by the City Group. Except that there is a problem with the continual growth of Citygroup, which is called Eurojust. To give the background… City Football …
By Tony Attwood As I have said many times, football in England doesn’t do leadership. Nor, perhaps coincidentally, does football in Scotland. England’s Premier League clubs are about to have a day of discussion about what happens next and certainly, at this moment it is not clear where this is going to go. The reason, …
by Tony Attwood An opinion poll by Opinium shows that 60% of the UK population disapprove of the way the government has handled testing for Covid-19. The survey also shows that more people think the UK has done worse in handling the pandemic than France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Sweden, China, Australia, South Korea and Germany. …
By Sir Hardly Anyone There is no football, the clubs are arguing about how it can be brought back, many players are worried about the arrangement, TV stations are putting the pressure on, the ghost game concept has been questioned in terms of crowds gathering… Meanwhile away from football crowds have been gathering for picnics …
by Tony Attwood In the post earlier today (Restart is floundering as clubs, players, medics and league argue) I suggested that one factor that might cause a problem with the re-start of football is the incessant arguing that is combined by an element of bullying, as the various interested parties debate what to do about …
by Tony Attwood There could have been a swift and simple agreement early on through playing the remaining league games on neutral territory such as in Cyprus, but once that idea broke down, it has indeed been downhill all the way. After that the idea of playing on a set of neutral venues nominated around …
By Sir Hardly Anyone It has been many a long year since the broadcasters, blogs and newspapers had a big positive story about Arsenal, but today there is one. Which is why they have studiously ignored it. But I have to thank GoonerNews.com for pointing me to Football Talent Scout – on this occasion and …
By Tony Attwood Under UK law organisations that handle money have to have accounts, and those accounts have to be tied up once a year, and passed to Revenue and Customs, who, if they feel a bit uppity, can ask all sorts of questions. If everything is felt to be fine, then either tax is …
By Tony Attwood Last night an Arsenal event happened. Not one that you will read about from journalists with their endless tittle and tattle; it was far more important than that. Also not one with shouting about why Arsenal are not buying players, how they’ve got everything wrong financially, where the money has gone or …
by Sir Hardly Anyone. The German League is up and running again, and so is the Sprout which has the rights to show their games. The current deal says BT can show five games a week, but it seems likely that they will negotiate a change to that, as the ghost games come thick and …
It is not something that we read about very often but the issue of stress is one that is at the heart of playing football at a professional level. Just as actors, musicians, TV presenters and others may or may not feel nerves upon getting up on the stage or in front of the cameras, …
By Tony Attwood It was almost four years ago that I wrote on this blog that “we have just been told that Manchester City has launched an investigation into links between [the paedophile Barry] Bennell and the club. Meanwhile Crewe Alexandra’s most famous employee, ex-manager and director of football, Dario Gradi, denied any knowledge that …
v By Christophe Jost Football has a fundamental problem of leadership for one very simple reason: all of its “leaders” have vested interests, which are very clearly defined. And yet at the same time, each of the different entities that is trying to have a say in the future of football, knows that they are …
By Tony Attwood There are signs that football journalists, and indeed their employers, the newspapers, radio and TV stations, are getting edgy. In the last couple of days, for example, the Guardian has published an article headlined “Premier League critics should recognise football cannot wait forever” and then Gary Neville accused Premier League of “failing …
By Dr Billy “the Dog” McGraw, senior psychologist at the University Hospital of the North Circular Road. The notion that Arsenal need to be warned that there could be huge losses ahead is one of the more bizarre stories that has emerged from the British national press of late, but that is what the Daily …
