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By Bulldog Drummond The news that arose at the start of the weekend was that Mesut Özil and Sead Kolasinac had been withdrawn from the squad over fears for their security. With Hector Bellerin not back for a while yet many commentators are suggesting Ainsley Maitland-Niles will be at right-back. David Luiz is thought …
By Tony Attwood We spent £138m according to the Guardian’s calculator of such things, while receiving £44.6m excluding the undisclosed amounts for Daley Campbell, Amaechi and Jenkinson. The Iwobi figure they give is £28m – others are quoting quite a lot more, but I’ll stay with this so that I have taken all the …
Read More “Arsenal the biggest nett spenders of the top six, second highest in the league”
by Bulldog Drummond Looking forward to the game against Newcastle we can see that they finished 13th in the league last season, after seeming to be one of the key relegation prospects at the start of November. Indeed they went through their first nine league games last season without getting a victory, having started with …
Read More “Newcastle v Arsenal: Newcastle’s form and transfers, manager’s hits, Arsenal yoof”
By Tony Attwood So as we get ready to have another bash at winning a silver pot, I thought I’d cast my mind back to recent openers, just to get ready for the big day. Last season 2018 This was of course Mr Emery’s opener, and what a tough one to have, with Manchester City …
Read More “Arsenal’s opening five games: the results predicted.”
by Bulldog Drummond First off, as ever, the injuries and here is the chart from Physioroom… Player Injury Return? Chance v Newcastle Hector Bellerin Anterior Cruciate Ligament Injury – ACL Injury 30/09/2019 None Alexandre Lacazette Ankle Injury 11/08/2019 50% (see below) Dani Ceballos Knock 11/08/2019 75% Nicolas Pepe Lacking Match Fitness 11/08/2019 50% Rob Holding …
by Tony Attwood Most of the time it is the sloppy writing that annoys me. And most particularly when a journalist writes a piece about Arsenal which is fair enough and a reasonably decent piece but then throws in some gratuitous rubbish along the way. Just to remind us that this is Arsenal we are …
Read More “The sloppiness of journalists in these excitable times. 3rd is easily within reach.”
By Tony Attwood The change in the attitude of the newspapers, TV stations and the blogs was nothing short of sensational. From the “We care do you” moan moan moan approach publicised so widely by Arsenal Supporters’ Trust, Arseblog, Black Scarf, The Gooner, Le Grove, Redaction, 7am Kickoff and the rest, which was in essence …
Read More “Round and Round they fight each other. Arsenal’s negative fan base in action”
By Bulldog Drummond When looking to improve a team that is losing too many games, it is generally thought that the best approach is to tighten up the defence. Get the defence working as a solid unit, and then at least play for a 0-0 draw. The old George Graham approach. The alternative is …
Read More “How Arsenal are planning to rise to third this coming season: and it’s a surprise!”
By Tony Attwood I liked Laurent Koscielny as an Arsenal player and whatever it is that has happened in the last few weeks that has ended with his move back to France, I still like him and will always remember him positively. And indeed I have sympathy for him, for he missed out on a …
Read More “Laurent Koscielny, a personal farewell. It has been such a great pleasure to watch you”
by Sir Hardly Anyone So far 84 players have been tipped to be coming to Arsenal this summer, and with the window nearly over it looks like being a very disappointing fantasy festival from the media, who in past years have managed to get the number past the 100 mark. Probably it was the fixation …
Read More “All the players tipped to be coming to Arsenal as the window creaks to its closure”
By Sir Hardly Anyone. There is a very fanciful story in the Telegraph from Robin van Persie who is about to become a BT Sport pundit. In the piece he talks about how he preferred being in Manchester with Utd to being in London. He says how nice the people were in Manchester, how …
Read More “Robin van Persie fantasy; another reason to avoid BT Sport; Rugani yes/no etc.”
By Tony Attwood Of course you’ll know the major tales of comings and goings, and you’ll know that our transfer budget was supposed to be so small we could hardly afford anyone at all. But strangely that appears to have been an invention by an over eager accountant. So just in a case you …
Read More “Who we’ve got and who we’ve lost – the 19 Arsenal players coming and going thus far”
By Tony Attwood. At least we know what will happen this season if the super whizzo super duper computer knows what’s what. For here is their prediction for the table at the end of the season that will shortly be under way. I have added at the end of each row the position the club …
Read More “There is no need to watch next season, we already know what will happen”
By Tony Attwood I have been looking at the document put out by a couple of supporters’ groups and supported by various web sites, under the heading “We care do you”. I’m going to wrap this little sequence of articles up now with one final issue. The statement in the We Care paper that reads, …
Read More “We care, but we don’t always make it to the match”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Chief econonononmics correspondent at the Toppled Bollard. The peace of the day was shattered by what appears to have been sixteen members of the anti-Arsenal Arsenal brigade falling over each other as they attempted to enter the Toppled Bollard simultaneously at opening time (or 5am as it is called in civilised …
Read More “Arsenal fans gloriously happy as doom mongers seek solace (satire)”
By Tony Attwood Continuing my little saunter around the WeCareDoYou docment which was put out by a couple of Arsenal fan groups and some blogs… I was interested in the phrase “…make Arsenal a place where fans have a real sense of belonging”. No indication was given in the document as to when Arsenal had …
Read More “We care do you part 3: A club that gives as sense of belonging?”
By Tony Attwood, This summer we have had some positive moments – beating Bayern, and a draw with Real Madrid (before the penalties) were both welcome results. There was a nice win over Fiorentina too. But we lost to Lyon in the Emirates Cup at home which wasn’t too clever. So can we draw …
Read More “How does pre-season 2019 compare with pre-seasons in the past?”
By Tony Attwood Continuing my little saunter around the We Care Do You document put out by Arsenal Supporters’ Trust and other groups and individuals, the second paragraph of the piece says that “Off the pitch, fans have never felt more marginalised, less listened to or valued.” Now the authors of the piece don’t actually …
Read More “We Care Do You Part 2: A certain latitude with historic reality”
“Nicolas Pepe adds welcome risk and directness to Arsenal’s shot-shy attack” So says an article in the Daily Telegraph. To find out how they justified this odd statement, if at all, one would have to pay the Telegraph a subscription fee, and at the moment I am trying not to give money to organisations that …
By Tony Attwood “The time for excuses is over”. So runs the opening of the Guardian’s preview of Arsenal’s season to come, in which they boldly predict that this season Arsenal will finish … sixth. There is fun had in the article at the expense of Ivan Gazidis for thinking that the days of the …
Read More “Arsenal to finish 2019/20 in sixth – the media’s demolition of AFC is in full swing”
By Tony Attwood In recent weeks I’ve written a lot about Arsenal’s situation when it comes to next season, and we’ve touched on a whole range of issues that will affect just how well the club will do in 2019/20. Issues such as the reality of there being a limit of £45m on transfer expenditure …
Read More “Predictions can be made emotionally. But adding in a few facts can help as well.”
By Tony Attwood This series began with the article “This season Arsenal celebrate 100 years in the top division” and here we reach the conclusion of the series. And here, as the final point, we move on to the issue of why so many clubs voted for Arsenal rather than Tottenham as the additional club …
Read More “Arsenal’s 100 years in the top division: the final chapter”
By Tony Attwood Way back on 21 October 2014, the Evening Standard ran the story that “Arsenal have £42m to spend in January, claim ‘frustrated’ Supporters’ Trust “ That may look a rather familiar tale given that through this summer we have been hearing that Arsenal only have a £40m (or sometimes £45m) transfer kitty. …
Read More “How AST promoted the notion that Arsenal had a budget of £40m for transfers”
By Sir Hardly Anyone When I was invited to write a piece on the silliest transfer rumours so far this summer I didn’t actually think I would be taking them all from one source, for I searched low, high, and then even lower to find the most ludicrous tales. But two things happened. I found …
Read More “The most bonkers transfer rumours this summer & all from the same source!”
By Tony Attwood Until the Arsenal supporters club meeting with Arsenal directors at the stadium on 25 July the story was everywhere: Arsenal had a budget of £40m or £45m. Anything else had to come from player sales. Indeed so hard up is the club (so the story went) Ozil was going to be transferred …
Read More “One day it’s £45m total budget, now Arsenal are spending £75m on one player”
