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 A few days ago we ran a little piece about players that are transferred to clubs but then don’t deliver in the way that the clubs and their supporters might have anticipated. This was based on the notion that although buying players is one way of developing a team, and the way …
By Tony Attwood A recent article in the Guardian had brief reports from the writing of various blogettas about how they felt regarding their club’s involved in the transfer window. I had hoped they might invite Sir Hardly Anyone to comment on Arsenal but no, they went where they knew they would get complaint. Actually …
by Tim Charlesworth And breathe….. So phase 1 of the season is over, and the reviled interlull is upon us. The first four premiership games are played and the transfer window is closed. This was perhaps the least important ‘phase 1’ for years. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, we had no major squad …
Read More “State of the Arsenal Nation – Phase one of the season is over”
By Sir Hardly Anyone. Well, my little ducklings, Well! Have you ever wondered what all the little blogettas do outside the so-called transfer “window”. (OK I know it is not really “so-called” and there is no need to put “window” in “inverted commas” but it is the sort of the thing the blogettas do because …
Read More “SHOCK NEWS: Arsenal player REMOVED from squad. (Warning, blogetta on the horizon).”
By Tony Attwood If there is one thing that has really influenced – indeed taken over – football in the past five years it is what New Scientist magazine recently called “Trial by Repetition”. The observable fact that if you say something often enough it becomes perceived to be true, irrespective of whether there is …
Read More “Understanding football through endless repetition: how to get things totally wrong”
. By Tony Attwood . This transfer window seems to have been chewed over more than any before, and even now we haven’t quite got through every detail of it – although I notice that the first “rumours” (ie made up tales) about the January transfer window have now started. . But more on that …
Read More “The loan system changes after this season, but how far should the changes go”
By Tony Attwood We’ve been through the rules about the Premier League’s “25” and the European equivalent so many times I am not going to recite the rules again. Instead here is the list of the 25s and the extras, and then just in case you have nothing better to do, a little commentary on …
Read More “Arsenal’s “25” in the Premier League and Champions League, and a few local difficulties.”
By Tony Attwood The BBC picked up the story early on with “Bayern Munich to set up refugees training camp” for refugees coming into Germany while donating 1m euros for refugee projects. They plan to provide food, German lessons and football equipment for children. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge is quoted as saying “Bayern sees it as its social …
Read More “Not much in the media about it but some fans show they are part of humanity”
What’s going on with English Refereeing? Tim Charlesworth I love all things ‘Untold’, with one exception. I find myself constantly disagreeing with the analysis of refereeing. Unlike many readers of this site, I don’t see any evidence of a systematic refereeing bias against Arsenal. I certainly see a lot of mistakes, and I have some …
THE MECHANICS OF ARSENAL TRANSFERS…..Don McMahon Like most of my Gooner compatriots, I have been following the transfer shenanigans and misadventures of EPL and European Clubs with what one can best describe as educated disinterest combined with bemused incredulity. That said, I also was negatively impressed with the barrage of whining and angst far too …
So all these players that we were going to buy according to the rumour mongers; we didn’t. And don’t you just love it when the journalists fly into desperation mode, talking about an Arsenal panic, just as in 2011 when we lost 8-2 to Man U, and last season when we panicked again and brought …
By Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader you may know that we have already run quite a long article about the way the new West Ham stadium is being financed with the club paying little towards the transformation of the ground into a football stadium, and the state financing the building costs, and …
Read More “Please help us fight again State Aid for WHU’s stadium”
By Sir Hardly Anyone I think to explain this situation in full, and before I give you the list of ten signings, I should do a bit of background in relation to my journalistic journey this morning. What set me off on the trail of this event was one particular headline… Wenger Confirms EXCEPTIONAL Signing …
Read More “The ten headlines that confirm the big signing is about to happen”
By Tony Attwood 1: Arsenal need a striker Arsenal had a terrific run in second half of last season with the squad we have now. In the entire season, Arsenal scored two goals fewer than the champions Chelsea. So, we don’t NEED a new striker, unless are saying that Chelsea need a new striker too. …
Read More “The 10 stupidest things that the media have told us this summer.”
By Tony Attwood (fresh back from the wilds of Norfolk where there is no mobile connection, but Jools Holland played a rather fine outdoor concert). Now, we have learned a lot this week. We learned for example that after three games, Arsenal were out of the race for the title, because only 10% of …
Read More “Only four teams left in the race for the Premier League title”
By Bulldog Drummond Please note that Untold will suffer a bit of an interruption later. There is a note at the foot of the article. ———————- It is not surprising that Arsene Wenger turned on the Neville character this week. If you want to read the latest Neville rant, it is “Arsenal are a soft touch – …
Read More “Arsenal play Newcastle on the anniversary of Herbert Chapman’s first match”
Newcastle v Arsenal 29 August 2015 – The Match Officials by Andrew Crawshaw Towards the end of last season Tony and a few others here at Untold were saying that they had detected a change in the way our games were being officiated, with fewer rotten decisions being given against Arsenal. At the time I countered that …
By Tony Attwood Changing managers. Does that help a club? The media as usual are perfidious on the subject, the blogettes are as usual blinkered. But it is worth having a look to see what we can find. The questions are, does history show that changing managers helps, is it financially viable, and does it …
Read More “The media and the blogettes want Mr Wenger sacked. So what would happen next?”
Why Aren’t All Clubs Run for Trophies? By Sir Hardly Anyone. Well, bless my soul. The Bleacher Report has sent me an item on Facebook which appears at its heart to turn the whole world of economics upside. Now I know as well as the next knight of the realm that economic predictions only exist …
Read More “The mindless gibberish of a man with an idea but without logic or reason.”
By Tony Attwood A couple of years back I took up an opportunity to add a bit of variety to my working life by joining with a friend in setting up a small house restoration business. Since my previous employment has involved the theatre, lecturing, and running an advertising agency, a training organisation, a publishing …
Read More “Yesterday hasn’t happened yet, but when it does we’ll bend reality. Or ignore it.”
OFFICIALS & INTIMIDATION…………………………Don McMahon As you may know I was an official in the NASL and we had our share of attempted intimidation and confrontation with some pretty nasty specimens (manager, players, owners etc.) whose unique approach to Football was to bitch at the referee or assistants in order to try and hair dry …
By Tony Attwood It is a funny ol’ game. Or maybe something a little more sinister than that. We’ve been doing referee reviews for five years now, including that one season where we had a whole group of referees who supported different teams, analysing matches across the league, and as a result we have been …
Read More “Liverpool set fair to win the league on phantom goals”
By Bulldog Drummond For today’s game the Guardian had a lovely vision of this match… “Enter Brendan Rodgers, accompanied by some notably discordant music.” I love that as a starter. But I wish they wouldn’t then drift into stuff like, “It had been only a few months previously that Arsène Wenger had been heckled by …
Read More “Enter Brendan Rodgers, accompanied by some notably discordant music”
