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
It is a story that keeps coming around and around – at any minute Arsenal are going to fall into a Liverpool Beachball or Manchester IOU situation, with millions of pounds-worth of debt created by the purchaser. Comments fly everywhere and I have to say that even though I have spent many years in business …
By Walter Broeckx On a number of occasions Tony has written about the financial situation of clubs in the EPL and lower leagues. And Tony’s point has been consistent throughout: that the way Arsenal is working is the best way to develop a club and to keep it in a good shape. It is an …
I can’t tell you how brilliant the correspondents of this site are. The other night “LRV” summed up the forthcoming Arsenal/Evil Empire game from this saturday with a perfect quote from Yeats: “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world.” How good is that? And would you know it, while we were discussing the appalling nature …
Read More “Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world: Arsenal vs Birmingham Evil”
When the junk press run almost identical stories twice you know there is something odd going on. We saw it last season when the story went around that Arshavin was so unhappy with his Arsenal contract that he was going to re-neogiate straight away – and that this would bankrupt the club. It was pathetic …
There is an article in the generally appalling Daily Mail on who owns football. They give a list of each EPL club and then look at the money that person has. There are some rather amusing bits and pieces in there – as with what they say when they get to West Iceland United where …
Read More “Who controls football? It’s not who we might think!”
We all know that Mr Hill-Wood is a sweet old duffer. I don’t mean it nastily, but you wouldn’t really want him handling your financial affairs – or come to that driving the Bentley with your kids in the back. He wouldn’t break the speed limit – its just I can imagine him turning round …
Read More “What do you do when both your owner and your manager are bonkers?”
Last night, instead of doing a commentary on Uzbekistan Generals vs Dynamo Fulham in the Euro League Group Z, Radio 5 did a piece on betting in football. There was some horror in it – beatings and death, Chinese triads etc, and I don’t wish to minimise this – but mixed up within the report …
Read More “Who stole football? More from the insanity files.”
Let me explain that headline. Arsenal, being an open club, all above board, honest and thoroughly middle class, there’s nothing to hide. Unlike some north western clubs we aren’t late with our reporting of our figures, and unlike most clubs we make a profit and don’t hide behind multiple company structures. But that is not …
PS: Yes I know you don’t normally have a PS at the start, but this is a long article and I doubt anyone will get to the end, so here’s the PS. By chance I have a spare ticket for tuesday night’s game, upper tier, north end above Red Action. If you would like to …
Read More “Campbell, Vela, Cesc, lies: its “Ask a stupid question day””
Yesterday the stories about Liverpool flowed around like a dark murky flowing thing you would not want to put your hand in. We knew that the owners were trying in utter desperation to do something, anything, that would allow them to refinance the £350.5m of debts six months ago. We now know from leaked papers …
Read More “Liverpool: the financial collapse and what the papers did not say”
There are sounds and signs around that things are improving – but, beware the false dawn. Since I started wandering around the by-ways of football in this blog I’ve been moaning about rotational fouling (Wigan are the latest to adopt it), and it is cheery to note that the Great Lord Wenger is now “set” …
Read More “When the FA hand a corruption file over to FIFA you know football is out of control”
Two financial stories turned up last week – both affecting the EPL but neither making it onto the football pages. The new story concerns our old chums, West Iceland United (4 stops from Barking), and it furthered rumours that have been circulating for months and months. First the background. When Icelandic banks went bust the …
Knowing what a football club is doing financially is tough. When Mr Usmanov put forward his refinancing plan recently he got one set of top bankers to draw up an analysis of the club’s situation and needs. Those against the plan got another set of top bankers to show why we didn’t need the money. …
Read More “Liverpool, WHU, Man U, Arsenal. Who will survive the debt repayments?”
It seems that West Iceland United might not get a fine over what happened in the match against Millwall, because the footballing authorities fear it will send the club into total collapse. Instead, the club will just get a telling off. As one footballing official might have said, “If UEFA can get away with banning …
Read More “West Ham & Arsenal. Compare. Contrast. Stop laughing.”
The general view among the more thoughtful fans of Arsenal (well, my mate Ian and the two guys I met down the pub) is that the Lord Wenger really has had a masterplan and has not deviated from it. And it is now being revealed in all its glory. And in common with earlier Wengerian …
Equifax does reports on the financial health of EPL clubs – you may have seen they did a new one this month. What they do is take a look at the accounts, what the auditor says about dodgy dealings and dubious debts, contemplate their ability to repay debts, look at working capital, and also sees …
Read More “Most of the Premier League are now insolvent or just one step from disaster”
According to Sam Wallace writing in the Independent, “Celtic were the victims of a wealthier club, one that can afford better, slicker players as well as a manager any team in Europe would covet.” Although the second part was true, the first part isn’t – and several regular contributors to this site (Matt and Jonny …
Read More “Arsenal beating Celtic was not a case of wealth beating poverty”
Welcome to the new world – the world in which Arsenal have recreated a team, devised a new free-flowing 4-3-3 system, and produced players of the highest quality who just a year ago were derided. Welcome also to the new world in which Untold Arsenal is able to influence complete matches and give you the …
Read More “Celtic 1 Arsenal 5: senational team, sensational prediction, sensational history”
In the Old World there were four models for football teams: a) The KGB Fulham approach in which rich owners spent anything they wanted to buy success b) Manchester IOU and Liverpool I spend more on new players than they receive each year in the hope that one day someone will buy them out c) …
In an unexpected (by me at least) development the bank RBS (which owns Nat West) sneaked out a statement while I was on holiday, explaining why it keeps on lending money to Liverpool – and why it wants to do it more and more. These wonderful and exciting people said, “In our view and that …
Read More “Why the banks support Liverpool & don’t like Arsenal”
I am about to leave for a holiday for a couple of weeks – out of the rain of Northamptonshire to the sun of Italy. During this time I am leaving the site open so that comments can be posted by those who have posted before. However anyone new posting, or anyone posting with a …
Read More “What did Wenger say about defenders, and the issue of bent football clubs”
At the moment I’m writing this Ade is an Arsenal player. But the time you read it he might not be. Let’s assume for a mo that he goes. In another summer all the anti-Wenger people would be out shouting “Arsenal are a selling club”. Except that Villa lost Barry, Manchester lost Ronaldo and KGB …
Just occasionally I take my eye off Arsenal, the EPL, internationals, and all that stuff and glance at matters elsewhere – partly because of my background (my parents moved from north London to Dorset when I was 11, and Dorset has always been a little lacking in division 1 clubs), and partly because I seem …
Yesterday this was the only blog that linked phone tapping to football. Today the news confirms what I could only hint at yesterday: football is very much involved in the phone tapping story. Sir Alex F-Word and Alan Zebra have now both been named as people whose phones were tapped by the News of the …
Read More “Arsene Wenger discussed in phone tap conversation”
Dear Mr Usmanov, You will appreciate that there are many Arsenal supporters who are nervous at what they see as your desire to increase your shareholding in Arsenal. There are also, as you will know, a number who are concerned about the stories that relate to your past. And there are others who are concerned …
Read More “What Mr Usmanov can do with his money – an open letter to the Arsenal shareholder”
