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
In 1999 David Yallop wrote an inside account of how world football is run called “How They Stole the Game”. It revealed total corruption from top to bottom, and was largely ignored by the football reporting media in the UK. In 2006 William Gaillard, Uefa’s director of communications, said in an interview with the BBC …
It was a very subdued Billy the Dog McGraw at the Toppled Bollard public house today as we gathered just beyond our old spiritual home, deliberately drinking in the street, just to annoy the police. The news had come through about Rob VP, another martyr to the insane stupidity of the international friendly. I debated …
Read More “Blaming Holland is like blaming Pink Floyd for Syd Barrett’s death”
By Phil Gregory Chelsea come to the Emirates today in a much anticipated tie as far as Arsenal’s title challenge goes. With the pundits shifting from claiming we’re going to score over a hundred goals this season to stating we’re out of the title race in the space of one dodgy performance after the international …
Read More “The complete and all-inclusive preview: Arsenal against the KGB”
This article deals a little bit about Arsenal/Chelsea (well it gives the score), with the arrogance and re-writing of history by at least one man in Liverpool, with the latest on Notts C and Sven, and any other bits and pieces I think about on the way. In short, it is a saturday morning and …
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”
Last week I wrote a piece for an Arsenal web site in India, in return for the piece they wrote for Untold. It went up, and they said nice things about it. No problem. Yesterday, it reappeared on another site with a different headline. The author said it was the funniest article he had ever …
Just in case I have lost you a little with that headline let me explain… Yesterday in a world exclusive Walter and I interviewed the manager of Standard Liege and discussed with him the way in which he thought the game would go. He predicted that the key to the game would be the issue …
Read More “Untold’s prediction is utterly perfect: Arsenal 25 Standard 10 Balls 6”
Walter Broeckx and Tony Attwood meet László Bölöni Most visiting teams playing at the Ems tend to stay at the Toppled Bollard (also known as the Auld Triangle) in Islington, and so it was natural that this week Walter, our Belgium correspondent and I (UNTOLD’s resident loonie) went to meet Transylvanian László Bölöni, manager of Royal …
Read More “An exclusive interview with Bölöni – manager of Royal Standard de Liège”
By Simon Bailey. What a lot of fuss. ‘Henri the thief”, as the Irish commentator for RTE called him for the last 20 minutes of the game, has unwittingly catapulted himself into the biggest footballing controversy since …erm, …uh, oh yeah, last Saturday when Shay Given tripped Evra and, shock horror, no penalty was given. …
That’s how close it was – we had two shots on target, they had one. So it goes – we did an experiment with an experimental line up, and it didn’t deliver. If it had, Wenger would have been the greatest genius of all time, the wonder kid, the inspiration of a generation of managers …
By 11 Gunners When David Beckham curled one of his trademark free kicks at the ‘Theatre of Dreams’, little he would have known that a nation was awakening into a sporting renaissance of sorts. The day was 18th August and the year was 2001, when Premier League games were being aired Live for the first …
By Billy the Dog McGraw Landlord, The Toppled Bollard, Islington As usual for a Friday I trotted off to the allotments on Hackney Marshes where I bumped into Dennis Bergkamp who was bemoaning the state of his turnips. “But what about that Terry Enry?” I enquired, ingloriously. “But what about my turnips?” said Dennis, and …
Read More “Do we always need someone to boo – plus team from Billy the Dog”
It was a tedious morning of “Henry is a disgrace” and “Henry, Eduardo, we investigate the cheats in football.” Then BBC Radio Five Live decided to get Republic of Ireland assistant manager Liam Brady on. Liam sounded as if he had not slept for a week. But he spoke slowly and clearly, and utterly refused …
Read More “Liam’s attack on FIFA corruption scares the hell out of the BBC”
By Walter Broeckx What is it that drags you to London people ask me sometimes. Well I must confess that you can call me an Anglophile in a way or should it be a “Londonphile” or “Arsenalphile”. From the first moment I set foot in London, I felt at home. It’s just a feeling I …
So here we are – for the second time in a couple of days an Arsenal player has been injured playing in a pathetic pointless international. VP is out, and now Gibbs. Will it ever end? So it seems an appropriate time to consider one of the two organisations that seek to destroy our enjoyment: …
By Walter Broeckx Want a player ranking after a game? Don’t worry there are 84 trillion sites that do it, and that is just for Arsenal. But how many sites do reviews of referee performances match by match, and then use the “Hey-let’s-injure-your-players” break to summarise? There is of course only one place in the …
Read More “Other sites review the players: we review the refs”
By Cape Gooner, with some additional material by Tony I was watching the Wolves game on Arsenal TV and was thinking how good a game Diaby was having before he went off. Is he doing a Denilson? Taking his chance and playing really well, only for the “fans” to pick on every misplaced pass. His …
By Walter Broeckx Well at the end of the day… we can only trust the Lord Wenger. For those about who shout BUY, I would like to ask: how are you going to keep all of them happy on the bench as only 3 players can play in our current system. We still have 2 …
Read More “We should buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy, buy… or maybe not”
A pointless, pathetic, idiotic, unnecessary, stupid, lunatic, evil match. Holland 0 Italy 0, it meant nothing, told no one anything, and Robin Van Persie is now out for about 3 months – possibly longer. Tearing ligaments is a bastard of an injury – and I can tell you that from experience. My extremely minor and …
Read More “Who replaces Van Persie and Bendtner now both have long term injuries?”
By Walter Broeckx As Tony recently wrote an article about some terrible grounds in the UK I must say that one of my favourite things during the holidays is going to stadiums. I usually take a tour when I can and so I have seen some fine stadiums in the world. Most grounds in Holland …
The Sheffield Wednesday manager recently said that it is “inevitable” an EPL club is going to go bust. The man from the Wednesday’s prediction is that a club will go down to the Championship and will then go bust because they can’t afford to keep paying the players. I would not be surprised if someone …
It is meaningless drivel week (ie when people who were not born in specific countries and who don’t live there, and have never lived there, claim to “represent” said country. A bit like me representing Costa Rica – spent a nice week there, but that’s about it. On the other hand I can play a …
Read More “WHAT IS THE WORST STADIUM YOU HAVE EVER SEEN ARSENAL AT”
By Walter Broeckx After the month September I gave a first review and one of our readers said then that he was way too early with this and we had to wait after we would have played some 10 games. The international break is a good moment to see how we have developed until now. …
By Walter Broeckx What is the difference between The Arsenal this season and Arsenal last season? For this and last season Arsenal were written off by almost all the pundits and it was sure we were the one who would fall from the top 4. It is not happening. Why not? Last year around this …
Rates of 40-1 were being quoted before the match for Billy “The Dog” McGraw’s prediction to be true, and a fair number of the 108,000 UNTOLD ARSENAL readers decided it was worth a flutter. A fiver on Wolverhampton W. 1 Arsenal 4, with one of those £50 extra bids free if you’ve never had a …
Read More “Bookies in uproar as UNTOLD ARSENAL readers make a fortune”
