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 Tony Attwood There seems to be a lot of people getting involved in discussing the issue of empty seats at the Ems, but seemingly not wanting to discuss one of the key components: the context. And when an element is missing from a debate I always start to wonder “why?” One issue that is …
Read More “How do our attendance numbers compare with those when George Graham won the league?”
by Tony Attwood This is hardly “Untold” news, as you may well have seen it, but just in case not, the story is that Santi Cazorla’s footballing career might not be over. Arsène Wenger has made a statement to the effect that following a continuation of his rehabilitation period through the summer Santi might be able …
Read More “Santi Cazorla might well come back to play again”
by Sir Hardly Anyone With a 97% failure rate across each of the last two summers the general feeling among pundits is that since they can hardly do any worse than before, and since apparently people still read what they are saying, they might as well keep going. So here’s this morning’s list, most or …
Read More “Seven players we’re buying and two managers to lead us: Today’s tips from the pundits”
By Tony Attwood A comment from Stefan Melzak really set me pondering, and although I replied to it I thought I would add a few further views. Stefan Melzak wrote “According to your logic, if you went into a reputable restaurant, ordered a steak and received a plate of burnt gristle, you would not complain, …
Read More “I support Arsenal. I am not about to treat them as a restaurant.”
by Tony Attwood Two news items appearing today of wider interest: the advent of a winter break in the Premier League, and the fact that after the longest running case in the history of the Court of Arbitration in Sport, Manchester City have been allowed to sign their 16 year old. (Or at least he …
Read More “Premier League heads for Winter Break and Man C win appeal in kangaroo court”
by Don McMahon I recently read a BBC report about a lower league referee who had been assaulted by an enraged player twice during his soon to be terminated career. Here is the URL for those interested in reading this story: www.bbc.com/sport/football/43736236. The motive for me to write about this unfortunate referee is to highlight, …
Read More “Just another day at the office. The referee’s view.”
by Tony Attwood It has taken a long time to get there, but Uefa has let it be known that Paris Saint-Germain is still under investigation for breaches of the financial fair play rules that some of us had assumed had been buried in a box marked “don’t open under any circumstances or the rich …
Read More “Maybe FFP isn’t dead after all: and maybe the Court of Arbitration is finally stirring”
By Tony Attwood The attacks continue. Here’s one recently published on a blog… “I have been watching Arsenal since I was nine years old and I am 61 now. I have been going since long before England won the World Cup and been a season ticket holder for over 40 years. I have witnessed the …
Read More “No excuses left; claiming this is the worst of times is just damaging our club.”
By Tony Attwood English football is once more going its own way. While most of the mainstream of football in Europe adopts VAR, we don’t. While most of the mainstream of football in Europe puts as much distance between itself and the model of refereeing that led to the Calciopoli scandal, English football adopts it as …
Read More “World Cup insanity, Fifa take our suggestion (only a bit late) and no VAR in England”
By Sir Hardly Anyone The season is still running, the transfer window is still securely shuttered and bolted, but the list of players joining Arsenal has already reached 56. One wonders if, just as the Stone Age came to an end because primitive man ran out of stones, so the Age of the Transfer Rumour …
By Bulldog Drummond The prime issue in selecting the team for today is going to be avoiding picking players who will not be able to give of their best because of the early morning return on Friday from Russia. You may recall that because of the demands of BT Sport, the match ended in the …
Read More “Newcastle v Arsenal. The conundrum, our worst away run and a team”
By Bulldog Drummond Not much news on the injury front Player What’s up When he retuns This weekend? G Xhaka Illness April 15, 2018 Slight Doubt H Mkhitaryan MCL Knee Ligament Injury April 29, 2018 No D Ospina Ankle Injury April 29, 2018 No A Maitland-Niles Muscular Injury April 15, 2018 Major Doubt S Cazorla …
Read More “Newcastle v Arsenal. Injury news, and the history between the clubs”
by Bulldog Drummond It is interesting to note that the only time Arsenal were actually ever behind CSKA Moscow was in the first leg when CSKA equalised and thus were technically ahead on the away goals rule. When Arsenal went 2-0 down in the second match, and thus were ahead 4-3, and so as the …
Read More “Newcastle v Arsenal. Arsenal are crumbling… or maybe they are not.”
by Andrew Crawshaw Before I start thinking about our Men’s match on Saturday a quick reminder that our Ladies have their FA Cup semi-final against Everton with a 12:30 kickoff on Sunday. That match is being covered by the BBC and is available via their Red Button. I’m sorry about the clash in the …
By Tony Attwood It is something that is peculiar to football. Loan out a player who isn’t getting much game time with you, in order to relaunch his career. And why not? Arsenal do it, both with youngsters that they nurture and with players that are unable to get a work permit. And that latter …
Read More “Fifa are considering banning loans as they target Chelsea and Juventus”
by Tony Attwood As I was bemoaning the fact that we will play Atlético Madrid in the semi-finals of the Europa League Blacksheep (whose birthday it is today, and since he splashed my last birthday all over Untold, I shall say happy birthday here although without mentioning his age – a privilege he singularly faileed …
Read More “Atlético ain’t that good, treating the Tots like Arsenal, and the Europa ain’t that bad”
By Tony Attwood According to a number of reports on last night’s game Arsenal were out and just sneaked back in. It is quite hard to collate that with winning 6-3 overall, but that is the way it was presented on Radio 5. It was a curious point: somehow Arsenal were out, and only by …
Read More “It’s Marseille, Leipzig or Red Bull Salzburg, and Mo Elneny is nowhere near good enough”
By Bulldog Drummond As so the final episode in our little series about Arsenal v CSKA Moscow. Here is the injury top ten, and yes shock horror we have gone up the table to 7th according to Physioroom. Pos Club Total men gone Last man down What he done 1 West Ham United 8 A …
Read More “Teams and injuries: how Arsenal will line up tonight and when the injured will return”
by Bulldog Drummond The Sun has reported that the small number of valiant Arsenal away fans will each be given a fur hat at the stadium tonight with the words “Russian Warm Welcome” on them. Since the game kicks off ludicrously at 2305 local time I think they might be needed. And why have a game …
By Bulldog Drummond The frigid way in which the English newspapers and websites consider English referees and their controlling organisation PGMO, contrasts remarkably with the way in which the media elsewhere look at the issue of refereeing. We’ll have a look at this on Untold once today’s Arsenal game has been and gone, but for …
By Bulldog Drummond It has been announced that Arsenal are to take part again in the International Champions Cup again this coming summer. It is a somewhat curious competition, which last season took place in three countries with different teams playing different numbers of games. Arsenal’s one game – if I remember it aright – …
Read More “Arsenal this summer, and who is on the plane to Moscow”
By Tony Attwood Yesterday, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook was asked by Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican Utah) about the financial model behind Facebook. On all the reports I have seen and heard including on the financial news section of the BBC’s highly rated morning news programme on Radio 4, what was broadcast was the clip of the Senator …
By Dr Billy “the Dog” McGraw As you will have heard I am sure Mohamed Elneny’s ludicrous and insane red card given at the end of the Southampton match has been rapidly overturned after the FA review, meaning Mo is free to continue playing league games. It would have been nice to suggest that the …
by Tony Attwood It appears from our old and often misleading friend “reports” that Reiss Nelson is close to signing an extended contract at Arsenal after making his Premier League debut in Sunday’s 3-2 win against Southampton. For any of us who have seen him develop in recent years anything less would have been unthinkable. Reiss …
By Sir Hardly Anyone It is wet and windy here in the Independent People’s Republic of Greater Rutland, and that wetness is not caused by most of our beloved county being a lake. Arsenal don’t want any forwards, so we are in bidding for lots of forwards. We don’t need any more youngsters, so we …
Read More “Arsenal transfers that may just be wild flights of fancy”
