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
From The Brickfields Gunners Blog – Fantasdy Football Series . The Asian lunar year of 2016 began on February 8 and will end on January 27, 2017. Known as The Year of the Fire Monkey, it is supposed to be filled with mischief, clashes and success in the workplace and at home. “The monkey always …
Read More “EPL Predictions for ARSENAL 2016, in the year of the monkey”
By Proud Kev . So West Ham fan and Daily Mail sports journalist Martin Samuel has continued his love affair with Arsenal. His target this time is not Arsene Wenger but Matthieu Flamini. Apparently his two footed tackle against Bournemouth was one of the most heinous crimes in football. Martin Samuel seems oblivious to the …
If you are a regular reader of Untold you’ll know that over the weekend there was nothing published after the ref preview. Things went wrong, and it being the weekend I didn’t have the technical resources to sort matters out. Obviously we try hard not to have this happen, but if you value Untold …
Read More “Untold returns – here’s what you missed while we were under attack.”
By Tony Attwood On 28 December 2015, Crystal Palace were talked up on the radio and TV as being serious challengers for a Champions League place. Not Europa mark you, Champions League. On that evening they were fifth, above Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool etc. Today I have just read an article about them being dragged …
By Tony Attwood Yes, yer actual football revolution has started. I know this because the press are shouting it out. “Liverpool fans’ successful walkout protest over ticket prices is a “game-changer”, according to the Football Supporters’ Federation.” The Daily Mail. Wow. “Power to the people: Liverpool fans’ ticket price victory may be just the start”, …
Read More “How the removal of a price increase at Liverpool actually means nothing at all.”
by Tony Attwood There is not too much talk of it on TV, for the simple reason that when TV discusses football it is never neutral. TV buys in football, and anything that threatens its position as the dominant distributor of football is an absolute no-go area. Thus discussion of something being wrong with …
By Tony Attwood There’s an article by Ed Aarons, Guardian Sport’s deputy news editor, in which he says that “Even Lineker, who describes himself as “a proper boyhood fan” who went home and away to watch his hometown team from the age of seven, could not have dreamed what has happened to Leicester over the last few …
By Sir Hardly Anyone During the last transfer window approximately 450 different players were touted to be coming to Arsenal in January. Since only 25 could be registered in the team – and that only if the current 23 were all shunted out – it seemed a little unlikely. And interestingly, until the move …
Read More “Arsenal in shock as mass exodus of disgruntled players now predicted”
By Danny Karbassiyoon Danny Karbassiyoon is a former professional footballer with Arsenal who was forced to retire at 22 due to recurring knee injuries. Soon after hanging up his boots, he was hired as a scout for Arsenal and spent 7 years scouting the Americas full time before recently moving back to London. I’m venturing …
Read More “Finalising a transfer and transitioning to life at a new club. How does it work?”
By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader of Untold you’ll know that a little while ago I got rather excited when we announced that Bob Wilson had agreed to write the foreword to our book Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953-1970. That book, as you may know, has now been published, and we’re moving ahead …
Read More “Arsène Wenger to write the Foreword for the next Untold Arsenal book”
By Tai Emeka Obasi In Frederick Forsyth’s book, The Fourth Protocol, the lead character, John Preston was the operations head of MI5 in London. He was saddled with the huge task of closing in on a topnotch KGB illegal agent deep in Central London and prevent the Russian from setting off a nuke that would detonate …
. By Tim Charlesworth There was much gnashing of teeth at the Ems last Tuesday. Of course general disappointment and frustration were the cause of much of it. But some unhappiness emerged even before the kick-off. Some gooners were both surprised and disappointed to see Flamini start ahead of Coquelin and Elneny*. I wasn’t surprised. …
by Bulldog Drummond. . “What is for sure is that the effect is not neutral,” Arsène Wenger said. He was talking about the news that Man City will have a new manager next season. “It will either go very positive or very negative. And that is very difficult to predict. We have seen that at …
By Tony Attwood Premier League clubs have lots of money. Premier League clubs need good PR. Premier League clubs have consultancy groups representing mainstream fans and minority groups. And yet they get their PR wrong. Utterly, totally, hopelessly wrong. Arsenal, as has been well-reported, has applied its rules about Cup Credits for season ticket holders, …
By Tony Attwood On 26 October 2009, Daniel Levy stated that Tottenham intended to move into the partially built new stadium for the start of the 2012–13 season with the final 56,250-seat venue ready for 2013/14. On 23 May 2013, I raised a point about Tottenham’s new ground which had as we knew by then …
Zen and the art of football supporting – by Blacksheep Zen (for those unfamiliar with it) is an ancient Chinese form of Buddhism that has become established in Japan, Korea and Vietnam as well as influencing many in the West. It stresses the importance of meditation, observation and insight and in my reflection of the …
Read More “Zen and the art of football supporting: a response to Tuesday night.”
By Tony Attwood I was on the beach in Norfolk near Hunstanton today watching a sperm whale that was stuck on the sands – caught there by the outgoing tide. This pic is from the BBC – I was going to put mine up but this one is better. I hope the BBC don’t mind. …
THE ART OF MANAGEMENT: WENGER STYLE…….Don McMahon Any Gooners who are stupid enough to listen to the media, the pundits, the aaa, the pseudo X-box managers, the so-called experts and other assorted idiots, will have been hearing lamentations about how Wenger hasn’t brought in the ¨missing links¨ so desperately needed to ensure the Arsenal …
By Tony Attwood “Lies, damn lies and statistics,” is, I guess, the ultimate anti-analytic statement. The total way of saying, “I know what I think, and you can’t tell me no different.” The end of detailed examination as a way of understanding the world. So trying to analyse what happens over time to a …
By Tony Attwood For once I am not going to the game – having a few days in the wild windy weather of the Norfolk coast. And believe me it is windy. So good luck to whoever bought my ticket through the official ticket exchange. (It actually sold in 10 minutes flat, so clearly the …
Read More “Arsenal v Southampton: all the news you need and quite a bit you don’t.”
ARSENAL IN THE NEW ELITE LEAGUE? by Don McMahon I recently read an interesting post on the AA website about whether Arsenal could be considered eligible for the proposed (potential) Elite Champions League and what would happen to teams that didn’t get selected. The article hinted that this ECL would be an exclusive club based …
By Tony Attwood Some years ago I came across a company where the finance manager had been skimming off money for her own benefit for years. She was found out when the firm changed auditors and the new auditor started asking questions the old auditor should have asked, but didn’t. What happened next was …
Read More “In football, no one ever talks about the real problem. It’s the FA.”
By Tony Attwood And thus here I am in Norfolk, a diminutive and rather flat state separated from England by language, and its vision of life, the universe, and reality. Although never given formal independence from the UK, the fact that no member of the government has been here since the days of Edward and …
By Sir Hardly Anyone I’ve taken that headline not, as you might believe, from a little blogetta that makes things up, but from the Independent, a supposedly reputable newspaper in the UK. Now maybe they are right, but if so it is a bit interesting that there is no mention on Arsenal.com or in other papers …
Read More “Arsenal confirm Nigerian duo signing as Debuchy heads for the exit”
. By Bulldog Drummond Burnley were relegated from the Premier League and are now looking to come back up, so an FA Cup run is not the primary thing on their mind – promotion is much more important, as is not getting anyone injured at this stage of the season. The income from today’s game will …
Read More “Arsenal v Burnley: you don’t win things with kids, you don’t win without kids”
