75% of the season done: Carnage and Hope

. By Fishpie Ok, gotta admit the third quarter of the 2015/16 season did not, in any way whatsoever, turn out  like the script. Much anger, abuse and “told you so’s” have been hurled at our team, and mainly by us. And really Untolders, who can blame us? I know that every single one of …

It’s time for positive supporters to take on the clowns

By Tony Attwood One of the key points about Untold Arsenal is that we try and look at football by considering the evidence. Unfortunately we are rather on our own in doing that, and as a result when a dozen or so supporters make one of their banners and hold it up at the end …

Hull vs Arsenal; the teams etc

By Bulldog Drummond In an interesting snub against Arsenal, the Guardian refused today to publish a match preview of the FA Cup game tonight, on its web site.  At least there was nothing there at 1630GMT.  Following their lead the Independent has done the same.   The Telegraph however is running Is Arsene Wenger guilty …

The real reason why some clubs do better than others – and its not transfers or managerial changes

By Tony Attwood You might remember the old tales that Arsenal were never serious contenders for winning the league because they didn’t beat enough of the other teams in the top four. In this argument beating other top four clubs was defined as a clear indicator of the club’s power and progress.   This year’s …

How football could be part of the solution of a nation’s ills.

By Tony Attwood Investors are being urged to put money into building networks of football coaching academies across the country. That opening sentence may have taken you by surprise.   Unfortunately this is not in England, where investment in grassroots football is now in total terminal decline due to FA bankruptcy and government starvation of …

Why are Arsenal such a dirty team, and Has the curtain on refereeing been pulled back a little?

By Tony Attwood At 1653 GMT yesterday Jason Burt, the Deputy Football Correspondent of the Daily Telegraph (an English newspaper) published a story on the paper’s web site with the headline How did Arsenal escape with a draw at Tottenham and does Arsene Wenger have a discipline problem? It was a totally pro-Tottenham piece of …

The Tiny Totts v Arsenal. As it happened, and indeed as it didn’t. And stuff like that.

By Tony Attwood As you will know if you are a regular Untolder, Walter normally does a post match report, generally within about 15 seconds of the match ending. But Walter is today becoming a TV star, being called upon to work for Belgium TV, so what with me not being at the game in …

Arsenal and Tottenham supporters share a rare moment of unity

The following is a press release from Arsenal Independent Supporters’ Association, of which I am a member, and which I am happy to pass on.   Tony. ———— Ahead of the coming weekend’s North London Derby, organisations representing supporters of both Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal are making an unprecedented move to speak with one voice …

Is it the Super League, the International Champions pre-season tourney, or the CL on tour. Or not.

By Tony Attwood The Sun ran it first.  The Big Clubs around Europe are planning to break away.  A new Euro League.   Shock horror. Evil money grabbing swine.  Etc etc, you know how it goes. Or maybe they were just talking about the International Champions Cup series, the pre-season competition in which clubs fly to …

So here we are at Article 6000 on Untold Arsenal. What have we learned so far?

By Tony Attwood Earlier today Untold received a comment which began, “This site is pathetic, the moment someone dares to have an opinion that is different from yours you jump on them like spoilt little children!” There was nothing special about this comment – we get a few of them a day, with a range …

Why the next Arsenal manager has to be the best the club has ever had.

By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader of Untold you’ll know about my interest in the way that football is portrayed in the media.   While of course like every other supporter of Arsenal I wanted a stunning victory on Sunday and was disappointed, there is one tiny crumb of comfort from the …

Jilted John, the lightbulb moment & the football risk assessment (Part1)

Jilted John, the lightbulb moment, & the football risk assessment (Part1) By Proud Kev I recently replaced a lightbulb in my office. The one I fitted was round old fashioned bayonet fitting type which gave off a lovely, bright 100 watt glow. I found it in an unopened box in my garage at home.  It was …

If we had lost the last 134 games at Old Traff would that make us more or less likely to lose this one?

. By Bulldog Drummond It’s been a few days of the media falling over themselves in an attempt to examine Arsenal’s accounts.   Typical was the statement in the Telegraph that “Despite the large reserves [£159m], the club did make a relatively small loss of £3.4 million for the six month financial period until Nov …

Fifa survives, Infantino wins. Arsenal make a loss.

By Tony Attwood Gianni Infantino has moved from being the General Secretary of Uefa, a position he has held since October 2009, to being President of the most corrupt sports organisation that the world has ever seen: Fifa. He was associated with Financial Fair Play, and has seen the expansion of Euro 2016 to 24 teams …

Transfans who say, “If Flamini plays another game for Arsenal, I’m supporting Leicester”.

By Tony Attwood As people interested in football, we have a choice.  We can Support our club no matter what Support the club but grumble about the way things are currently going Get angry and say I’m not supporting this club if they don’t change their ways Get angry and go and support another club …

We could look back in the future and see that today was the day Fifa was destroyed.

By Tony Attwood Go back a couple of years and, while everyone who wanted to understand, fully understood the corruption that existed in Fifa, Uefa and world football, virtually no one wanted to do much about it.  The height of such rebellion as there was, came with the English FA gallantly saying that they would …

The strange cases of Lord Copper, Dr Carneiro, Mr Abranomvich, and the high court judge.

By Tony Attwood One of the things about the very, very, very, very (repeat 200 times) rich is that they get surrounded by employees who benefit from their largesse. As a result, people tend to say yes a lot, and as the excruciatingly rich person starts doing bonkers things, the yes men say yes.  And …

More evidence that transfers and large squads are not the route to success

By Tony Attwood The news that Alex Oxlade Chamberlain is possibly facing a long lay off after his injury against Barcelona, raises once again the issue of injuries, and it was both frustrating and amusing (in different ways) to see a correspondent this morning rant about everything including our multiple injuries.   As we’ve shown …

Warping reality: How the media reworking of the real world evolved after the game

. By Tony Attwood If you’ve been following us today, you may recall that this morning I wrote about the fact that yesterday’s match vs Barcelona was dominated in the stadium by the rampant booing and jeering of the referee (who is Turkish), who to those of us inside the stadium, was wandering down his …

Why do they need the referee? How Thomas Bowdler’s heritage lives on in football journalism

By Tony Attwood A short while ago the press were full of praise for the Liverpool crowd – or at least the members of the crowd who got up and left the ground on the 77th minute, in protest against the proposed rise in the price of entrance to games. Much was made of the …

Barcelona – things to look out for.

Barcelona – things to look out for. By Tim Charlesworth We’re all rather wracked with anxiety about tonight’s game.   I find a nice way to deal with football tension is to think about some aspects of the game to look out for (other than the ‘who scores the most goals’ question).  Matches like this define …

The tactics we can use against Barcelona, and what to wish for if it don’t work.

By Bulldog Drummond We’ve said it before, but it is worth saying again.   Look at the Spanish league table.   The top four go into the Champs League, 5th and 6th go into Europa. And what do you know – Sevilla in fifth are closer to relegation than they are to catching Barcelona. Which …