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 Joe with additional material by Tony Attwood . Just on one year ago the Arsenal History Society published the article Davor Šuker: a passing whim, a giant among players, or something sinister? . In that article we reported that in July 2012 Davor Šuker had become president of Croatian Football Federation.We added that he also worked …
Read More “From Sepp Blatter to Davor Šuker. Strange goings on in European football”
By Tony Attwood In February 2015 Daniel Striani the man who helped run the Bosman challenge to football regulations in Europe, got together with Man City and PSG to promote his latest legal escapade heard in court. The case was run in Belgium and was centred on the notion that the requirement of FFP that …
Read More “FFP thrown out by the courts. (Oh no it wasn’t). (Oh yes it was). (Oh).”
By Tony Attwood This afternoon, what with there only being tennis on Radio 5, I turned onto the so-called TalkSport, while I was clearing up breakfast. (It’s a bit like that in my house, but let’s not get sidetracked into domestic issues). I haven’t listened to the Talking Sprout since, well, since we had wall …
Read More “Mindless gibberish on the subject of Arsenal centre forwards.”
~By Tony Attwood It is all very well saying that club A is planing to buy player X, but such things have to be put into context. Is the club looking to sell a club that needs to sell to balance the books? Is the club looking to buy, a club a) with the money …
Read More “Just how much did Arsenal spend on players last season and Schneiderlin pops up again.”
By Tony Attwood Last season after three matches Arsenal were unbeaten but were 7th in the league. After four matches the situation was the same – unbeaten but 7th – due to the fact that three of those games were draws. We’d beaten Palace 2-1 and then drawn with Everton, Leicester and Man City. It …
Read More “What caused the poor start to the season in 2014?”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Of course in the world of transfers not everything is as it seems, so before I let you in on the really big secret of just who it is we are signing, let’s clear the dead wood… Three-Year-Deal: Arsenal Have Agreed Transfer, CL Forward Delighted With Move That story is about Podolski …
Read More “With this second signing will anyone be able to stop Arsenal?”
by Tony Attwood Today we are going to sign Pedro from Barcelona and Turan from Atletico Madrid, although Turan is going to Chelsea. Or Man U. I know this as it is in the Telegraph. But who actually decides who Arsenal is buying? The Guardian has published its own guide to who it is in …
Read More “Who decides who Arsenal is going to buy? And what about other clubs?”
By Sir Hardly Anyone, knight of the realm. Let’s start with what must surely soon become a classic Van Persie is being sold by United ‘without his knowledge’ That’s from the Independent and rates as the best headline so far in this transfer window. Meanwhile facing such competition from the mainstream press the spoof sites have …
Read More “At last at last! Player spotted at airport; van Persie sold without being told.”
By Tony Attwood Several things happened towards the end of last season. Arsenal’s winning streak was the one most of us noticed, followed by the significant decline in the number of injuries. Plus, as Blacksheep pointed out to me when we were reviewing last season the other evening, the length of time those players who …
Read More “Premier League clubs concerned as reform will clearly favour Arsenal.”
WHY CECH & WHAT ARE WE GETTING?…………Don McMahon ‘The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity.’ –Amelia Earhart In recent days Wenger and the Arsenal made, what in my humble opinion, will be a momentous decision for the future of the club and its members. The arrival of one …
By Tony Attwood In one sense it is fairly obvious why the media in all its forms run the endless transfer rumours during the summer: there is not too much else to write about. We’re in a situation during the season where the fact that games are either being played or have just been played or are …
Read More “Revealed! Why the media publish so many misleading transfer stories”
By Tony Attwood Listen to a football phone in, or a debate among football “experts” (I use the word lightly) on radio or TV and you will get a variety of opinions. Indeed you may well then hear the moderator of the discussion say, “That’s what we love about football – everyone’s got an opinion.” I …
Read More “It’s time to stop venerating the notion that everyone has an opinion”
ARSENAL 13. So Vidal is going to sign for us I hear. Just after Copa America they’ll announce the signing. Any time. Oh! therz a setback there. Hah. Now therz not. Also Higuain they say. And that guy from Southampton, Schnai (err…) Morgan. And our Suarez fetish never seems to end. Apparently Cech …
Read More “Cech checked for anomalies, viruses, nuclear radiation and hidden microphones”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Football has been thrown into absolute turmoil by the news that the Daily Telegraph has been leading the readers of its web site a merry dance over Juventus midfielder Arturo Vidal. While the lead story on Goonernews.com is that Arsenal have signed a five-year contract with Arturo Vidal, the Telegraph has abandoned …
By Tony Attwood Yesterday we ran the news of reports from Italy to the effect that Arturo Vidal had agreed to toddle off from Juventus and instead sign for a team that had never once been found guilty of ref fixing, namely Arsenal. Now commentators in Spain are saying that the deal is “90% done”. …
Read More “Vidal to Arsenal and Spain emboldened to stand up to Fifa insanity”
On a blustery afternoon among the green pastures of the Holloway Road, a duel was fought between the publisher of Untold Arsenal, Tony Attwood, and the website’s special spoof correspondent, Sir Hardly Anyone. The origins of the dispute are thought to be the slowness of the publisher in putting up a report submitted by …
Read More “Arsenal beat Man U to Vidal; public duel on Holloway Road a draw”
By Sir Hardly Anyone, listening to football’s chatter, rumour, and mindless gibberish. [First, apologies for the late publication of this article this morning. Tony went dancing last night, didn’t get back to the early hours, and failed to press the button for the 8am piece. The issue will be resolved with swords drawn at noon.] …
Read More “Top midfielder finally confirmed to sign for Arsenal in next few days. Not spoof!”
By Tony Attwood I started sketching this notion of what I would like to see next season, about a week ago, and the more I thought about it, the more entangled it got. So I decided to start with the new bits I will see. First, I will see the game from a different angle. …
Read More “What I will see, and what I’d really like to see next season”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Oh. So apparently Schneiderlin Day was set up just I could make a fool of myself in predicting the said fella would turn up at Arsenal. Well! Of course you know the way the bloggettas get around this – they predict everyone is on offer to Arsenal and the say we …
By Tony Attwood, in gloating mood. Let me start by taking you back, and for once, not right the way back to 25 July 2008 when I first pointed out that Coquelin had the potential to play for Arsenal. Not that one again. I’ve done that. I mean, I know I said it and it …
Read More “This could be a player we’ll love and love again.”
By Sir Hardley Anyone DONE DEAL: Arsenal COMPLETE Transfer of 6ft POWERHOUSE Striker Actually no, that isn’t the done deal of the day. That is just a contradiction of yesterday’s story that said that Podolski was determined to stay at Arsenal and fight for his place. Arsenal, going into the summer transfer window are keen …
Read More “If all the spoofs say it’s a DONE DEAL that must mean it’s a DONE DEAL”
By Sir Hardley Anyone, Dept of the Weird, University of Certain Things at Enfield. What a strange day – all the weird and wonderful piling up at once. Of course some of these stories broke yesterday and some the day before but it feels like they are all swimming around in a sea of football …
Read More “All the weird and wonderful stories are piling up at once.”
By Tony Attwood. I have been waiting for the “Cech spotted at airport” story to emerge, but it seems no, no one is going to oblige. So instead we have Adrian Durham in the Mail. Now Adrian Durham is a special sort of man. He knows. In fact he knows everything. He is, in short …
By Tony Attwood Starting with Petr Čech of course the big question is which musical instrument does he play? And the answer is percussion. which should indeed give us confidence. The potential arrival of a new goalkeeper (which may well have been confirmed by the time you read this or alternatively been proven to be complete …
Read More “What do we really know about Čech? And about Arsenal keepers.”
By Tony Attwood This is a story of stories. Several stories in fact. Stories covering tax fraud, the lavish giving away of public money and the misleading of the public. All in the name of money, or fraud, or maybe just carelessness. Sometimes it is impossible to say. Indeed I suspect, if you were to …
