By Tony Attwood One of the amusing things about the bloggettas is that they are still running little articles about Arsenal having a desperate shortage of defenders (according to one piece today) or midfielders or centre forwards or whatever takes their fancy. Indeed the notion that everything can be reduced to simplicities has caught on …
Read More “Supposing we cull 10 players to meet the “25” limit, what sort of squad do we have?”
By Tony Attwood, based on “L’avenir s’annonce radieux” in the Swiss newspaper, Le Matin. As you may know, the UK media has a general agreement not to comment on Fifa corruption matters, at least until they explode, for two reasons. First because doing so might damage the image of the FA and the national teams, …
Read More “Serenity and coolness. The Gianni Infantino interview: “The future looks bright… I cannot tell you more.””
By Sir Hardly Anyone, and a friend. Read all about it, I say, Step Right Up, All you need to know, and other meaningless cries from the streets. Incoming 1: Yacine Brahimi Arsenal are preparing to sign Yacine Brahimi but don’t like the cost, according to Correio da Manha, but the paper say that Arsenal …
Read More “Mahrez delayed explained, problem with Greek player’s name, and Fabregas return.”
By Tony Attwood While most clubs have problems finding eight home grown players to fit into the list that makes up the 25 permitted players aged over 21, Arsenal’s problem this summer is in whittling down the number of over 21s to 25. My earlier post suggested only a modest bit of pruning has to …
Read More “Arsenal set to cull ten over 21 players from the first team rosta..”
By Tony Attwood If you have been reading Untold for more than a couple of days you’ll probably have got the idea that one of the things that fascinates and outrages me in equal measure is the way the media behaves towards Arsenal – and by extension from that – why they do it. The …
Read More “What happened in last four seasons and how football bloggers could learn from politics”
By Tony Attwood Ainsley Maitland-Niles joined Arsenal aged six and has come up through the Hale End Academy. He moved into the under 21s in 2013–14 season, just one year after playing in the under 18s for the first time, and signed a professional contract with Arsenal on 24 October 2014. He made his first …
Read More “Congratulations for Ainsley Maitland Niles: the first ever Arsenal player to win a World Cup for England”
By Tony Attwood Arsenal have 25 players already logged for their formal list of players for the new season, with one player from the list released (Sanogo) and one already signed. Which means that for each new player brought in, someone is going to have to go. But when it comes to the “25” there …
Read More “Arsenal need to shed players to stay within the “25” rule as youngsters grow up. Transfer Index No 10.”
by Tony Attwood There is no doubt that the Conservative Party in the UK has taken us into a new world of homophobia, denial, anti-women’s rights and links to past terrorism in its coalition plans with the Democratic Unionist Party. This has left the transfer rumour inventors in a quandary, wondering how on earth they …
Read More “Transfer rumour reporters refuse to be outdone by Conservative Party”
By Bulldog Drummond It’s the weekend, a time when through the season I knock up a few bits and pieces about the forthcoming match – but for a few weeks we ain’t got a match so I can’t. But there is nothing in the rule books that says we can’t have a little snigger …
Read More “Arsenal players in internationals, 3 players let go, next season’s line up, Lloris makes a mess.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Naturally as a member of the aristocracy I don’t normally work in the afternoons, but having been up all night helping our great and glorious Prime Minister win another landslide by keeping spirits up in the pub, I thought I’d better do a quick roundup before I go to the victory …
Read More “Arsenal: nine players arriving, five players staying, another five leaving, and two deals off.”
By Tony Attwood Liverpool betrayed small-club mentality in allowing Arsenal to sign Alexis Sanchez That headline came from the Daily Telegraph on 18 December 2014, and it was interesting at the time as it reflected a shift in position by the media. Before then, although Liverpool had not been immune to press criticism, they …
Read More “Liverpool and the notion of small-club mentality”
By Tony Attwood It is a shame that most electors in the UK don’t read party manifestos, for if they did it would stop them getting some nasty shocks in the months and years following an election. But they never learn and this year the Conservative Party pledge to introduce huge regulations on the way …
Read More “Conservative Party losses means government plan of taking over and running the internet likely to be shelved”
By Tony Attwood The Saudi Arabia national football team refused to observe a minute’s silence held before today’s match against Australia in Adelaide. The excuse given apparently was that a minute’s silence is not recognised in their culture as a way to recognise those who have been killed. As a result the Australian team …
Read More “Saudi Arabia national team refuse to observe minute’s silence for those killed in London, before match.”
By Tony Attwood Of course it is not just Arsenal that get a lot of negative publicity, although I maintain my view that the club tends to get far more than it is due and more than most other clubs. The five year “Arsenal get the most injuries” campaign is one such saga (such …
Read More “Liverpool humiliated, Chelsea dump player, player leave Man City due to weather, Wenger spotted on beach.”
By Sir Hardly Anyone As we saw yesterday in Transfer Index No 9, 46 players are said to be joining and 14 leaving the club this summer. So far it is one truth revealed in each group – we’ve brought in one on a free, and let a youngster go to Southampton. But now it …
Read More “Players queuing up to leave Arsenal. Alexis, Bellerin and Giroud out as Holding and Monreal stay.”
by Sir Hardly Anyone We’ve made our first signing and the Guardian says “Given Arsenal’s tendency to wilt at the first glimpse of pressure, that grittiness will be a useful addition. Again, that suggests that Wenger, at last, has acknowledged that not all the world’s problems can be solved by neat, slight midfielders with …
Read More “Arsenal Transfer Index update No 9. One player in, one player out; 58 rumours outstanding”
By Tony Attwood You may have noticed that following my commentary about recent events in Qatar a number of Manchester City supporters came to the site and offered their opinions, some of which we published. It is interesting that just as when Untold did its expose of what was about to happen over FFP, …
Read More “What they are saying on l’Equipe21 of the effect of the Qatar situation on football”
By Sir Hardly Anyone, our transfer correspondent Way, way back before the dawn of time, when woolly mammoths roamed the earth refereeing Premier League matches and “strong and stable” didn’t mean allowing terrorists into the country even though they were on European wide watch lists because those lists were created by foreigners and were therefore …
Read More “Sead Kolašinac deal confirmed; Media on the look out for potential parallels.”
by Andrew Crawshaw The 2017 WSL Spring Series was a one-off tournament designed to bridge the time gap between the end of the 2016 WSL Summer League and the start of the 2017-18 WSL Winter League. Why the FA decided to change from operating the WSL as a summer league and move it back to …
Read More “Arsenal Ladies – Spring Series 2017 review”
By Tony Attwood . As we know Etihad Airways, one of the three Middle East carriers which set out to revolutionise global aviation business by buying their way into airports around the world, started laying off staff, last December. Manchester City FC whom Etihad bankroll didn’t blink. It raised a couple of question marks at …
Read More “Ethiad Airlines in trouble, Middle East in turmoil. The benefits on not being reliant on one benefactor emerge”
By Tony Attwood I was in Cambridge last night – a small city on the border of East Anglia and the East Midlands, packed with amazing buildings from the 13th century onwards. Multiple students, ten thousand bikes, endless restaurants – one of which I was in with a business colleague. We had a nice meal …
Read More “It’s a terror alert, but please pay your bill first; four Arsenal lads going overseas; Qatar in chaos”
By Tony Attwood I was pleased to publish Fishpie’s piece Arsenal season ticket holder issues his own press statement – as I have said many times, if I am offered a coherent article which argues against my own views, of course I’ll publish it. The reason that there are few such pieces is because I am …
Read More “What demands can we reasonably make on the club for the coming season?”
By Walter Broeckx I was sitting in front of my computer when someone from our Arsenal Belgium supporters club posted a link to an article on the internet about Per Mertesacker. In this article it said that Per Mertesacker would stop his football career and would join the staff in another function for his last …
Read More “Oh no Per…. don’t go breaking my heart”
ARSENAL SEASON-TICKET HOLDER ISSUES HIS OWN PRESS STATEMENT By Fishpie Following the news that Arsene Wenger has signed for two more seasons and in response to the statements issued by Mr. Keonke, Mr Gazidis and by Mr Wenger, an Arsenal fan has issued his own statement to the press: “I view the Club statements …
Read More “Arsenal season ticket holder issues his own press statement.”
By Dr Billy “the Dog” McGraw, senior psychologist, University Hospital of the North Circular Road. When I have occasionally read a Gabriele Marcotti article or heard him broadcast I’ve generally thought he brings a new perspective to whatever is being discussed perhaps because of his international heritage. He can be funny and is knowledgeable in …
Read More “We live in a world that has more news outlets than ever before, and yet we live in a world of make believe.”
