Zen and the art of football supporting: a response to Tuesday night.

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 …

The annual refrain: this year Arsenal will drop out of the top four. And a beached whale.

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

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 …

If I point out Arsenal are 4th in the league someone would write in and say “you can prove anything with statistics”

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 …

Arsenal v Southampton: all the news you need and quite a bit you don’t.

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 …

ARSENAL IN THE NEW ELITE LEAGUE?

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 …

In football, no one ever talks about the real problem. It’s the FA.

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 …

Amazingly I’ve never been arrested at a football match, but I did get annoyed with the Daily Telegraph

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 …

Arsenal confirm Nigerian duo signing as Debuchy heads for the exit

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 …

Arsenal v Burnley: you don’t win things with kids, you don’t win without kids

. 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 …

The love that dare not speak its name, part the second

The love that dare not speak its name PART THE SECOND By Tim Charlesworth Many thanks to those of you who resisted the temptation to abuse me after part one of my homage to Tottenham Hotspur. For those who didn’t resist, I remind you of Arsene’s post-Stoke words: ‘Maybe when you go home and watch …

The love that dare not speak its name, part the first. A secret regard for Tottenham.

. By Tim Charlesworth . I recently saw a film about Charles Darwin, author of ‘Origin of Species’. This has a legitimate claim to being the most influential book of all time. One of the themes of the film, was Darwin’s moral struggle with his theory of evolution. He realised it would undermine the church, …

The date no Arsenal fan will ever forget. By Bob Wilson

—————   Bob Wilson has most kindly contributed this article for Untold, to coincide with the publication of  Arsenal: The Long Sleep 1953-1970 by John Sowman, for which Bob has written the introduction. ————- Tuesday 28th April 1970.   By Bob Wilson OBE Tuesday 28th April 1970 is a date to remember for all Arsenal fans. …

Arsenal legend Bob Wilson contributes an article on Untold

. I don’t think anyone who supports Arsenal – no matter how recent their conversion to the cause – can not know about our goal keeping legend Bob Wilson.  And today I’m knocked out beyond belief to say that Bob has written an article for Untold Arsenal. Bob started out by training as a teacher …

It appears to be Chelsea that Real Mad have been gunning for on illegal transfers

By Tony Attwood Just a week ago – on 21 January – I wrote a little piece about the rules surrounding the transfer of children to football clubs.    But what are the rules? Like most of the articles on Untold that look at the rules and regulations it didn’t get a huge readership, but …

It’s time to start arresting people in the big wide world of football.

What links Northampton Town, Napoli and Milan? Seems like they have today all been linked to rumours about naughty things going on with money. To start with Northampton, in 2005 David Cardoza had a wheeze that Sixfields Stadium could be doubled in size, although quite why was never clear.  It was rarely if ever full …

Seven Premier League Referees record accuracy ratings below the normal acceptance level

By the Untold Team Imagine a game of football between two fairly balanced, evenly matched teams.  Each team commits some fouls, but neither team is much worse than the other.  We’ll call the teams the Reds and the Blues And let’s imagine (since this is all quite imaginary) that this game between these two teams …

Six days to go and the Arsenal transfer machine is about to explode into life.

By Sir Hardly Anyone You have to be sorry for the bloggetta writers, day after day after whatnot pumping out the same dross telling us that player after player has already been signed, is on his way, has been seen in the estate agents with his mother etc etc. Only to find none of it …

When TV, radio and the newspapers invent a football story with no basis in fact, what’s happening?

By Tony Attwood Over the years I have become very interested in the way that the media do and don’t report certain issues in football.   Perhaps the most famous was the Rangers tax case in which one web site constantly hacked away at the story while the Scottish media ignored it totally and the …

Destroying the game: how the stand off between Sky and fans over fixture changes can be resolved

By Tony Attwood I am as appalled as anyone over the way Sky has had the power to change the timing of the Leicester game, not least because I know how much difficulty this has meant for Walter and the members of Arsenal Belgium.  And not just because I count these guys as my friends, …

Death by ankle tap: A most curious moment in the history of Arsenal

By Tony Attwood I recall during my student days when I was an active member of the students’ union, taking part in one of our regular political debates when one fellow student rose up and commented that what I had just said was in contradiction to something I had said at another meeting a couple …

Arsenal v Chelsea the teams. Arsenal are bottom of the league (for indiscipline)

Bulldog Drummond continues his review of the Arsenal v Chelsea game The most important thing of course is that we score against Chelsea.   Because if we don’t it will six league games without scoring against them – equalling our worst record ever in the PL, which is six games without a goal between 1997 …

Arsenal v Chelsea. Who are the specialists in failure?

by Bulldog Drummond The Specialist in Failure League A win for Arsenal would leave Arsenal top of the league A defeat for Arsenal could leave us as low as third… two points behind the leaders. A win for Chelsea would leave them 13th or 14th. A defeat for Chelsea would leave them 14th, 15th or …

The one Arsenal transfer story that refuses to go away

By Tony Attwood and Sir Hardly Anyone The Telegraph has just published a poll of readers on the issue of how many players Arsenal need to buy in the next 10 days.   The answers None (The squad is fine as it is)  6%  (that includes your two humble writers of this piece) 1-3 (Minor …