By Phil Gregory Before you start reading, check out What’s really going on (if you haven’t already). It explains all of the terms and whatnot, which makes all that follows easier to, well, follow. Liverpool FC hasn’t been out the news for much of last season for both financial and on-field reasons. It’s probably best …
Read More “Imagine a top EPL club being owned and run by its bank. Stop imagining – it’s true.”
By Walter Broeckx When Robin Van Persie got his very bad injury last season when he played with Holland against Italy it was clear that he would miss the biggest part of the season for Arsenal. I then wrote that probably Robin would be fit for the world cup and have a big impact. Well …
Read More “A Gunner in the world cup final: Robin van Persie – the inside story.”
Introduction by Billy McGraw… I met Maximillian Alexandra Magenta Cappuccino at Askadors, the infamous nightclub in northern Wembley just off the North Circular Road, where FA officialdom meet their secretaries for debate on attacking manoeuvres, defensive structures, and the thrust of everyday footballing matters. There was something bleak about his looks, rather as if he …
Read More “Billy the Dog McGraw interviews the England manager. Exclusive!”
By Tony Attwood, king of the predictive arts, emperor of the future, master of the middle-distance, irony champion 2010, and knower of all sorts of stuff. No one likes a smart-arse. So I am preparing to be disliked. FC Barcelona, who have just signed David Villa, is attempting to negotiate a 150 million- euro bank …
Read More “Barcelona teeters on the edge of financial collapse. How? Why? What? Err?”
The players are doing a bit of pre-season limbering up, our new man from the Orient is already here, there’s Chamakh too, Henri Lansbury looked last season like someone we ought to sign (and hey! we have him anyway), Jack Wilshire is back, Theo hasn’t been injured in the world cup, Djourou is fit, and …
Read More “Supposing we didn’t have Wenger, but had someone far more frightening”
By Walter Broeckx Another lovely page seems to be written in the lovely way of perfect live as it is according to Fifa. A few days ago claims have been made about Australia’s team bidding to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. They seem to have been given some gifts to try and influence votes. …
Read More “All is perfect in fifa’s world”
Newcastle United financial review By Phil Gregory This continues our series of articles about the finances of EPL clubs. There’s a full index of the articles in this series so far, by clicking here. Matchday income Credit to Newcastle for having a transparent set of accounts, but the finances themselves totally baffle me. Matchday revenues …
Read More “Welcome to the strange financial world of Newcastle United”
By Walter Broeckx Every now and then you have such a game where in a few minutes so many things happen in a game that you can write a whole article on it. Paraguay – Spain was such a match. Before we go to the penalties let’s look at the disallowed goal from Paraguay. A …
Read More “From good to bad in just a few seconds”
Untold: It is a great honour to be talking to you Mr Cappuccino. Cappuccino: Yes it is Untold: And may I say how improved your English is Cappuccino: Yes you can. Untold: So what message of hope do you bring to the fans of England’s football team now the world cup is over? Cappuccino: We …
Read More “Exclusive Untold Arsenal interview with the England manager”
by Tony Attwood With Wellington Silva joining us full time in January, Arsenal are stepping up the South and Central American connection. Samuel Galindo is Arsenal’s latest transfer costing €500,000. He is Bolivian, captain of the under 20s, he is 6′ 3″ tall, left footed, an attacking midfielder who can play either in the centre, …
Read More “Arsenal sign Samuel Galindo. Is Celta Vigo our new reserves club?”
by Tony Attwood There is a school of thought that says that no matter what, a club as big as Liverpool will always be able to carry on. The banks would never foreclose on those irritable little scoucers and besides, they are just too important to go bust. Someone will buy them. Quite possibly this …
Read More “Liverpool chairman admits, the owners no longer have any control of the club”
Egg on face, custard all over face, total red face… how do I express my utter embarrassment? After weeks if not months laughing at the Tiny Totts and others not managing to put together a reserve team, Young Guns (exquisite, up to date and far more accurate than Untold on such matters) has revealed that …
Read More “You can’t believe a single word I say (but you probably knew that). The reserves are no more.”
by Walter Broeckx One of our readers, Adam, wrote a comment a few days ago and it goes like this: “If you truly wish to ascertain blame then you should look in the direction of “Neuer” and “Tevez” true sportsmen who should both receive awards for honesty. All other arguments are a waste of time. …
Read More “Honesty in football, a long lost memory”
By Thiru I have been in this country since 2001 and in common with anyone coming from India as I did during that time, I arrived having had limited exposure to football. I was more or less used to names like Man Utd, Madrid so on and so forth but not many outside that group. …
Read More “When you move to a new country, how do you pick a football team?”
Welcome to the Untold Intrepretation By Tony Attwood As the transfer guessing game starts (according to my diary tomorrow’s July 1), here’s where we are starting from – the squad for the new season. This season for the first time the “25” year rule applies. We’ve been through this in detail a number of times …
Read More “Arsenal’s 2010/11 squad – the new rules, the transfers, the list”
English Premier League financial review – a look at a few of the issues in the League as a whole By Phil Gregory First up, a couple of general notes. As most of the teams in the Premier League are privately owned, they are much slower at publishing their accounts than you might expect. But …
Read More “The English Premier League: where is it all going wrong?”
“They are evil, dreadful, disgusting, moronic, the lowest of the low.” By Tony Attwood England’s “golden generation” have now had their final, finest hour. As the great guru, Sir Trevor Brooking, the FA’s director of Brooking, said recently, “There is an immediate void in the standard of the team. World Cup 2014 will be difficult …
Read More “Theo and Jack: when they come knocking, just say “No!””
By Walter Broeckx In the last decades we have seen that the more technical ability and skill you have in your team the more chance you have of winning something. You also need other things but without these first two key points you are hardly going to win anything these days. If we take the …
Read More “For England and the FA, it is time to choose which way to go”
One of the crazier sidelines of the failure of England to do very much in a world cup final has been the parade of has-beens (as opposed of course to people like me who have never been in the first place) saying that England needs to “clear the decks” and “wipe the slate clean” and …
Read More “Arsenal’s power in reserve football forces more teams out”
by Walter Broeckx I think most of the English media will be starting a crusade against Mauricio Espinosa. Off course he is the one that had to make the decision but let me come to possible other responsibles later on. Just to clear things it was not a disallowed goal as it was called, it was …
Read More “England – Germany, who is to blame for the not given goal?”
. By Tony Attwood The rules of football are established by the International Football Association Board (IFAB). It calls itself the “guardian of the Laws of the Game”. What it says goes. There is only one IFAB, (just like there is only one monopolies’ commission) and everyone buys into it. The first set of …
Read More “Who exactly makes the rules in football? And why won’t they allow goal line tech.”
