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
Last time Birmingham “Evil Empire” were at the Ems we watched their manager direct players to go down, lie down, roll around… anything and everything to break up play. It is a testimony to the magnitude of the Wengerian revolution that we can now saunter past the “Team coach in the goal” clubs like Blackburn …
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”
By Walter Broeckx As it is the FIFA-hurt-your-players-week we could take a look at what a member said a few days ago. We all know the tactics used by some teams where some teams will even resort to sending signals from the bench to players to stay on the ground, ask for treatment and then …
By Walter Broeckx This is a little story of the football in my home country. You have to wait a bit to see the link with Arsenal but I promise you, it will come. Last year I was appointed as a ref for a game involving the youth team of a first division club in …
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?”
I think I might be getting too old for this football commentary lark, because it is only now that the magnitude of the Lord Wenger’s achievement is starting to hit me in the face. I should have had faith in what I saw at the Celtic game – but I got no further than, “I …
Starting next season all EPL clubs will have to name 25 players over 21 before the season begins as their registered players list. Eight of those players must have been developed for at least three years by an English or Welsh club before their 21st birthday. The clubs can also have a limitless list of …
Read More “Wenger’s genius revealed as clubs face new “home grown” rule”
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?”
Everton: a model for success teetering on the edge. by Phil Gregory Very easy to stick the knife in here, but I’m not going to jump on that bandwagon just yet. We all know Moyes has done a fantastic job with them over the years, but can we really see them breaking the top four …
Read More “Where are they now: Everton teetering on the edge of success”
Oh what to do in Cripplegate Week – the week when all our top stars go off and get injured while playing not for the Arsenal who pay their wages but for a bunch of morons called “international managers” who treat them with utter contempt. Well, the first thing is, if you fancy doing a …
By Phil Gregory It’s so obvious it hardly needs saying: Villa are clearly in a worse state than they were this time twelve months ago. Barry and Laursen are gone and have clearly not been adequately replaced. When Delph’s signing was announced, I (and I presume most) assumed he’d be a much needed squad depth …
Read More “Where are they now: Aston Villa as serious rivals to Arsenal???”
Here’s a stange story. Michel Platini says that he will pass legislation to ensure that from 2012/13 onwards every club in the Champs League have to have accounts in balance. That presumably means that the club has positive assets – take the money they owe away from the assets they have and if it is …
Read More “UEFA demand clubs cut debts. KGB Fulham agree – and other rubbish”
During the 1990/1991 season a group of Manchester IOU (then known as plain Manchester Thugs) players ran around some Arsenal players and there was a bit of pushing and shoving. In typical idiotic, insane, pathetic, stupid, disgraceful, bizarre and incomprehensible style the League decided to take two points away from Arsenal, and thus scupper their …
Read More “SFA could be banned for 2 matches; Arsenal United”
Arsene Wenger: the best manager England never had By Simon Bailey. No work today, the wife was out getting last minute school uniforms, books, bags, and whatever else they need, so I decided to put on The Damned United, the story of Brian Clough’s six week tenure at Leeds United. It’s not really a ‘Football’ …
Read More “Arsene Wenger: the best manager England never had.”
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 …
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”
These days watching a Royal Shakespeare production is a bit like watching Arsenal at Barnet. The players are there, the skills are there, but the auditorium isn’t. If you are not devoted to Shakespeare, or you don’t live in England, you’ll not know that about three years ago the Royal Shakespeare Theatre in Stratford was …
Read More “How Arsenal share an approach with the Royal Shakespeare Company”
Welcome to Season 91. In September 1919 Arsenal started to play in the First Division, having been awarded a place in the reshuffle that followed the end of the First World War. The top division was expanded by two clubs at that time, but the issue of promotion was made very murky because the last …
Read More “Welcome to Season 91. Plus Amazing growth of the soaraway Sun”
Going off on holiday for a couple of weeks always makes me feel that when I return there ought to be something BIG – some incredible news that has changed the world while I have been away. Of course it is rarely like that and I returned late last night to see that Newcastle are …
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”
Were the Last Four Years the Worst in Arsenal’s History? by “LRV” Arsenal joined the old Football League Division 1 (the top flight in English football) in the 1919/20 season. Since then, Arsenal Fans have witnessed the good, not-so-good, poor, not-so-poor, Very good, not-so-bad, bad seasons. In all of these, one thing remains a source …
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 …
Arsenal was once the capital of whining, whinging, moaning, and general complaining of an “its a total disaster” type. Supposed fans would moan about Wenger, his lack of signings, his tactics, the silence of the ground, the lack of passion on the pitch, not winning anything for 2,102,453 seconds, the slowness of Dixon, the misses …
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”
