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
The dramatic news that Manchester U’s sponsors, insurance giant AIG has gone to the Federal Reserve in America, asking for a loan of around $40 billion to avoid being downgraded by ratings agencies, has shocked everyone involved in football finance. We all know that the financial markets are in a mess – but it is …
Read More “Man U sponsor collapse shows strength of Arsenal’s financial approach”
‘I bring them out slowly, these English players,’ said the great Lord and Saviour Arsene Wenger. ‘He’s another one who will soon play for you.’ He spoke of course of the youngest EVER player to play for Arsenal in the League. “Jack Wilshere – 16 years 256 days, Blackburn (a) 13 Sept 2008” Goodness knows …
This is exactly the sort of result we feared after the zero activity in the transfer window last summer. With Wenger failing to buy a new central midfielder, Arsenal were run ragged by an ordinary Blackburn, who were unlucky not to get all 3 points. Where was Gilberto? Where was Hleb? Where was Flamini? …
Read More “Disjointed Arsenal scrape lucky win at Blackburn”
West Ham: to lose a manager may be a misfortune, but to lose your sponsor at the same time looks like carelessness. Liverpool Insolvency: On the brink financially, with no chance of getting their new stadium, and the fans holding anti-owner marches… that’s bad enough. But when you’ve just spent another load of dosh, and …
When Real Mad bought David Beckham a significant part of the reason for the purchase was the money they’d get from marketing. Lots of little girls bought Beckham stuff, and Real Mad took their cut. They did the same with Zidane, (although I suspect this involved sales to men rather than girls) ensuring that they …
Read More “Marketing Theo: how much will he make for Arsenal?”
Sir Hardly Anyone, chairman of the FA, wants to press for “tougher rules” on the takeover of football clubs. Speaking exclusively to Untold Arsenal, he said, “You should never underestimate the stupidity of the average football fan. “It is of course quite true that we could have done this when Abramovich came into the game, …
Read More ““Only the FA can discriminate on the basis of nationality””
Silvestre is apparently still not ready to play, but should be ok for midweek. Carlos Vela is still asleep having driven all the way back from Mexico in a Ford Mondeo which broke down in Iceland. Could be redirected straight to the first Champs match. Nasri is uncertain, but then that’s what we are told …
You’ll know how fanatical and over-the-top the English media has been today about England’s performance. And of course we are all delighted beyond belief at the way Theo has come on since suddenly waking up in the game against Liverpool Insolvency in the Euro£££ Cup. But just pause for a moment, in order to get …
Read More “If it had been Arsenal v Croatia this is what they would have said”
Today comes the news that Chelsea are being charged by the FA with failing to control their groundsman…. You remember those odd days in the summer when everyone at Arsenal was leaving to go to Barca or Real Mad or WC Milan or something. No one wanted to play for us, and anyway we …
Welcome to the future. Golden Generation II (TM) is here and it is led by Theo Walcott. According to the Daily Mail England are now so good that the World cup doesn’t even have to be played and FIFA will hand it over next week. England will also win the Olympics – and indeed Theo …
The astonishing success Arsenal have had in building and financing the Emirates Stadium has been thrown into sharp relief with the news that Liverpool’s finances are only secure until July next year – and that is before they even start to do something remotely serious about building a new stadium. While the players find their …
Read More “Arsenal show Liverpool how finance should be done”
Getting your house done over by a load of scoucer thieves can’t be a nice experience for anyone, but it is hard to have too much sympathy for Liverpool Insolvency’s Robbie (call me Roberto, it sounds more manly) Keane. Keane knew that he was going to Liverpool which is in, err, Liverpool, home of the …
According to the BBC Adebayor has taken an extraordinary step to help reduce the chance of getting injured while on international “duty”. He’s refused to play. This is an approach to be applauded, and before anyone accuses me of racism again, I would refer you to my marginally amusing pieces on internationals in general. I …
Read More “Strange stories of Adebayor, the FA and international week.”
So, continuing from the last blog, maybe Wenger has all his hopes placed on Bischoff. Or maybe he actually does have four players lined up for central midfield, and even the mighty Lord W doesn’t actually know who the next genius to play next to Cesc will be. I say that because just over a …
I am firmly of the opinion that Lord Wenger has not lost it, and knows what he is doing. Thus I am unworried about the centre of midfield. The Great Manager has something up his sleeve. The only problem is: what? Trying to solve the problem is made all the harder because I have no …
Last time I wrote about internationals harming the players whose wages we pay, I got accused of racism (because I was talking about a tourney in Africa). This time I’m talking about England, and such an accusation is going to be harder to level at me, so maybe I’m on safer ground. Watching Theo run …
It seems not everyone in the Emirates (the states not the stadium) is happy about the way the Manchester Arab purchase has gone – according to the Guardian one leading figure in the Ems (as the Emirates now has to be known, to help project its more friendly less “chop your arm off” image) has …
(If you don’t understand the headline read yesterday’s blog) . Thus, the question is asked, in this world of chaos football, in which Manchester Bankrupt are quite clearly, and obviously, bankrupt, how come they carry on? How come the banks allow them to go on? And why do they keep suggesting it is Arsenal that …
Football, at least the EPL version, is (as you don’t need me to tell you) in chaos. We have entered the unknown world of two multi-billionaire run teams, Newcastle Zebras and West Ham Untidy seem to be involved in attempts at total self-destruction, Arsenal (according to many fans) are about to slip into mid-table obscurity, …
In case you’ve not come across it before, the Curse of Arsenal is placed on certain clubs when they behave in a way that is considered outside acceptable behaviour. It is used sparingly, and each Curse only lasts for one season. Last year two clubs were cursed: Birmingham City and AC Milan. Birmingham got the …
Either you believe that Wenger has lost it and should be put out to the funny farm, or you think that he has got something up his sleeve. Just like this time last year when everyone except Charlie Nicholas said, “Arsenal will drop out the top 4” and Wenger got us within four points of …
Diaby (central midfield – can play wide) Denílson (central midfield) Song (central midfield) Theo (wide) Fàbregas (central midfield) Ramsey (central midfield) Eboué (normally wide, but can play central if needs be) Rosický (plays central midfield for his country) Nasri (can play anywhere across the back) Bischoff (central midfield) Wilshere (wide – total absolute genius) Is …
It is hard to know where to begin – but certainly 1 September 2008 will go down as a brilliant day for Arsenal. The arrival on the scene of Manchester Arab means that CSKA Fulham no longer have it all their own way in terms of buying anything they want. If there’s a top player …
Mike Ashley is the top man at Newcastle United – a northern football team. This weekend he was filmed committing a criminal offence under the Sporting Events (Control of Alcohol etc.) Act 1985 which prohibits the consumption of alcohol within sight of the pitch. The normal punishment for such a crime would be to arrest, …
Read More “Will Newcastle owner be arrested and banned from Arsenal?”
I wrote at the weekend about the large number of central midfielders Arsenal now have – but the notes were buried away in my rant against the awful way Setanta ran their coverage of Arsenal against Newcastle. In retrospect I wish I’d made the midfielder bit the main article, given that this is the topic …
