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
Arsenal’s Cathedral: we build for the future, not just this season By Walter Broeckx Sometimes when we have defeats people come out and ask for immediate success. I think that those people don’t see the whole picture but who am I to tell them otherwise? Well just going to try it anyway. You can look …
Read More “Arsenal’s Cathedral: we build for the future, not just this season”
Arsenal, the cult of personality and the collective By Brian Baker Another week, another defeat, another round of Chicken Licken posturing from the Arse-blogosphere. I’m not going to dwell on the painful realities of the loss to Chelsea, here, but offer another long-term perspective of Arsenal’s situation. I will start with the cult of personality …
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London police have seized half a tonne of footballing equipment in buildings that they say were being used as a base by the terrorist football separatist group “KGB Fulham” The discovery of the dump, which included shirts, boots, and grass cutting equipment, was made in the early hours of saturday morning. Fake driving licences, cars …
Read More “Police raid Chelsea terror centre, and Arsenal announce surprise team for match”
Why Arsène’s Arsenal are hated (even by its own fans): a long perspective By Brian Baker I was prompted to write this following the extraordinary convulsions in the Arsenal blogosphere after the defeat to Manchester United. Chicken Licken bloggers, one of whom claimed they could manage Arsenal better than Arsene, renewed their calls for Denilson’s …
Read More “Why Arsène’s Arsenal are hated (even by its own fans)”
By Walter Broeckx There is something strange going on in football land. We had a transfer market in which nothing much happened. All the big teams have kept their pockets closed. Chelsea didn’t buy anyone, MU bought Smalling from Fulham but he will stay at Fulham till the end of the season. We got Sol …
Read More “There is something strange going on in football land”
By Phil Gregory I read a great book over Christmas, Michael Lewis’s Moneyball. Despite my total lack of knowledge on the sport it is concerned with, I was fascinated because it’s actually a baseball book which follows a particular American team that consistently outperforms its rivals despite severe financial constraints (see where I’m going with …
By Walter Broeckx Martin O’Neill was angry at Arsène Wenger because (and I quote what Wenger has said) “They [Aston Villa] play a very efficient English game, with long balls and it is very physical. They are a good side at counter attacking. When we took the gamble to go forward and they won the …
Read More “Who is insulting whom? A deeper review of the O’Neill comments”
by Simon Bailey My mum hates football. She loves racing, athletics, tennis, snooker, rugby, just not football. But within her dislike of football is her loathing of anything Manchester United. Even as a dedicated non supporter of football, my mum, I am proud to say, is an ABU. Anyone but united. Whilst they were capturing …
There were a couple of comments yesterday that in the face of an exit from another competition to the effect that I should not be so positive in my comments on this site. A defeat, an exit from the Cup, is a time for sadness and reflection on what we should have done. So, in …
To recap and explain (or vice versa) Football 1.0 started when Preston North End were thrown out of the FA Cup in 1884 after a complaint from Upton Park FC that Preston had been paying their players. As a direct result of this Preston got together with other northern clubs and formed the Football League …
Read More “Welcome to Football 3.0 and bid farewell to the old regime.”
Billy the Dog was not quite in the best of moods or the finest of fettle when I met him on the allotment to discuss the game against the almighty Notlob in the Land of the Fabled Beast. I started by asking the question everyone asks, “Is there life in Bolton?” “It doesn’t really matter,” …
Read More “Life in Bolton, and other elements of chaos theory”
Clubs can have financial problems. Clubs can have people problems. Club can have squad problems. And clubs can have supporters who have fallen out of love with the board. We see it all the time. And I mean all the time, because at the moment on the Making the Arsenal blog (www.blog.woolwicharsenal.co.uk) I’m covering Arsenal’s …
By Walter Broeckx Great was my expectation when I saw the names of Fran Merida and Jack Wilshere on the team sheet. I have seen them play a few games in the Carling Cup, the Emirates Cup, in the reserves and even in the Champions League. When they play in the Emirates cup, which after …
Read More “This was the best thing that could have happened to Fran and Jack.”
WARNING THIS ARTICLE AND MOST OF THE COMMENTS WHICH FOLLOW IT CONTAIN IRONY. IF YOU DON’T LIKE A LAUGH PLEASE DO NOT READ ON. 1. He doesn’t buy enough players. Quite clearly we need a new centre forward. Eduardo is done for, Arshavin is too small, Nasri and Rosicky are midfielders not forwards, Vela can’t …
Read More “How Arsene Wenger has got it horribly wrong: the complete debate.”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal and Barcelona are two names in European football that are mentioned with great respect most of the time in the world of football. By the world of football I do not mean the press, the pundits and so on but in general by people that love the game and that love …
Read More “Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea: a contrast in style”
Yesterday I took a look at Liverpool. Now about Manchester City. They have joined Leeds United and Chelsea in imposing tough restrictions on who can get near the club – following the revelations about how they sacked Mark Hughes. (Leeds ban papers who report on the legal battles of K Bates, or report on the …
Read More “Manchester City and Mancini. A match made in hell.”
It has taken me a long time but finally I have found something to like about Rafael Benítez. When he answered the question about how he rated the ref and said, “the referee was perfect” I really did smile for the first time ever in a Benitez interview. It reminded me of Stephen Fry’s famous …
Read More “Are you Leeds United in disguise? The crisis at Liverpool and why Arsenal are different”
By Simon Bailey Ho, Ho, Ho, Merrrry Christmas. Lest we forget, tis the season to be jolly and all that, and now that the public holiday of enforced jollity and happiness is upon us, i feel compelled to write about why supporting Arsenal is like having christmas every day. Seeing as how I have no …
Way back before the dawn of the space time continuum I worked as a writer of (among other things) science fiction books of the Doctor Who and Blake’s 7 variety. So I know all about temporal distortions, reversing the polarity, and “Absolute zero sub-ether technology,” which Avon described as “clever stuff.” Which is why I …
By Walter Broeckx and Tony Attwood Knocking the Arsenal is an important part of the job of every reporter. To be fair some do back off when we are playing brilliant football and winning stuff (only the Guardian and Observer did snarling cynical pieces about the club in the days after we finished the unbeaten …
So everyone is “carrying knocks” or is downright injured. I have often wondered about “carrying a knock”. I mean, carrying where? In my pocket? And what, after all, does a knock look like when it is carried? Is it perhaps a bit like the dark matter that physicists keep talking about every time they try …
Read More “When you are carrying a knock, do you put it in your pocket or hold it in your hand?”
I wonder if it is something in the water in Liverpool, or some sort of genetic inability to get things right, or maybe they are just careless, but however you look at it, Everton is a downright and absolute mess. On 21 January 2009 I reported (as did some other people) that Liverpool Council had …
Read More “Everton: no plans, no profit, no future. Compare and contrast with Arsenal”
I’m rather chuffed that this site made the financial state of football a central talking point long before it became an everyday topic of chit chat. So it behoves me to give an update – not least because we now have a director on the edge of having to make a bid. In this piece …
Read More “Finance: Kroenke, banks, fraud, corrpution, football…”
Who Are Ya? By Simon Bailey The press have gleefully swooped on Arsene’s comments at the AGM and it is now gospel, we are bringing home silverware this season. Personally, I saw Arsene re-iterating the same position he has taken all season. Pundits are getting very fond of saying that we have more chance of …
Read More “Who are ya? A quick review of those who would challenge us”
By Luke Tao Resulting from the latest seething in the blogs after the unfortunate draw against West Ham, I am requesting a chance to express some views on Arsenal which I have for awhile. My view is that we did not fail against West Ham but rather that we have progressed as a club for …
