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
Emmanuel Egbuka Has anyone ever considered the idea that the whole story of Cesc requesting that his future be decided before the world cup was engineered by Arsenal FC, together with Arsene and Cesc? The aim would be to put an end to the media’s never ending stories of Cesc going to Barcelona before almost …
Read More “Was the Cesc saga engineered by Arsenal FC, together with Arsene and Cesc himself?”
Jack Wilshere joined Arsenal aged 9, JET joined Arsenal aged 9, Jay Simpson joined Arsenal aged 9 Henri Lansbury joined Arsenal aged 9, Emmanuel Frimpong, joined Arsenal aged 11 (we were a bit late there, but to be fair he had just come from Ghana) Craig Eastmond joined Arsenal aged 11 (ditto – must be …
Read More “The day the Youth Project was crowned in all its magnificent glory.”
Same format as last year – all change at half time, but this time the reserves and the first team were more mixed. No Almunia though, which maybe says something – we saw the second, third and fourth choice keepers but not Big Al. No Denilson – he’s injured. No world cup players – they …
Read More “It’s the Frimpong-Wilshere show: Barnet 4 Arsenal 21”
By Walter Broeckx Two months we have been waiting That long hot summer did not seem to pass Very slowly the hours and the days went along But finally here it is: we are back playing football again. The days were long The papers full off rumours Will he go or not, will he stay …
Forwards: Arshavin, van Persie, Bendtner, Chamakh, Eduardo, Walcott, Vela. By Tony Attwood By way of explanation I should add that Vela and Walcott have been listed by Arsenal as forwards and Arshavin as a midfielder. I’ve just made an arbitary decision and called them all forwards. And what do we find… Overall we have never …
Read More “Next season’s Arsenal team in detail: the front line”
Tottenham’s finances part two By Phil Gregory Obviously it is a good idea to have read part one first – if you didn’t here it is. Prospects for future growth: Attendances account for 99% of capacity at Tottenham, and their matchday revenue is dwarfed by the sides at the top of the table that they …
Read More “False profits – a look at the finances and spin of the Spurs”
False profits – a look at the finances and spin of the Spurs This is the first of a two part report on one of the most bent and disreputable forms of accounting ever seen in English football. by Phil Gregory Next up in the Premier League financial review is Tottenham Hotspur. Given they are …
Read More “False profits. Revealed: how Tottenham cooked the books and conned us all”
By Tony Attwood Until recently I had the feeling that the mass media was going to pretend forever that Barce-loan-us was a well run, well organised football club who have every right to take any players they want from any club they want. They are, after all, God’s team. Although the news that they could …
Read More “Barca on the edge of defaulting on their debts: new figures”
By Walter Broeckx Cesc has just had the “privilege” of spending some two months in the Spanish team during the world cup and its preparation. And in this period he has kept his mouth shut about his future and if he said something it was in fact saying nothing. But we must keep in mind …
Read More “Cesc: the reality and the truth. (Thanks Puyol and Picque)”
By Billy The Dog McGraw, landlord of the Toppled Bollard and Rampager of the Northern Hordes. Continuing the unique and specialised services offered to you by Untold, and having indulged in a bottle of apple and mango juice to celebrate the new season, I present my first column of the 2010/11: to wit and viz, …
By Tony Attwood The members of the North Korean branch of the Arsenal supporters club tend to consider Arsène Wenger a renegade running dog who can’t admit his mistakes, who clings to power when all the world that victory is inevitably theirs. Their world view is a simple world view. First, they set up a …
Read More “The philosophy of Arsène Wenger and how the North Koreans don’t get it”
By Walter Broeckx Finally the world cup is over. Time to start looking ahead and think about real football, club football and Arsenal. But just a final word from my point of view on the refs in the world cup. We all have seen the big mistakes some refs made and I am going to …
Read More “The world cup final: being bald does not make you into a good ref”
By Tony Attwood It seems like forever since we had any real football, but there’s only five days to go before we start again – as usual at Barnet. Last season the game was curious: we had two different teams out for the two halves (that’s fairly normal) but with some of them playing out …
Read More “Let the football begin: Arsenal back in action on saturday”
By Tony Attwood If you ever care to meander out of the present day to the dim and distant past you might have noticed that on the Woolwich Arsenal site we are running a series on the players who started the first match of the 1910/11 season for Arsenal. Which made we want to think …
Read More “Arsenal’s First Team 2010-11; the complete run down”
Having pulled out of the reserve league structure Arsenal have agreed to return, having won a number of concessions from the league. The key change is that during the winter months when the pitch at Barnet can get rather rough and bumpy, Arsenal has the right to play its reserve matches behind closed doors at …
Read More “Arsenal back in the reserve league, after major concessions”
As you’ll know, Laurent Koscielny is our latest new signing. If we want to be honest before his name was linked with Arsenal not many of us had heard his name. And I have to confess that I never had heard of him before either. I must say that I did on occasion look at …
By Nick Tolhurst The truth about the success of the German national team and what it means for Arsenal. Despite losing to Spain in the semi-final, the story of this year’s world cup has without doubt been the rise of a new, exciting and multi-cultural young German team that has put much heralded and more …
By Phil Gregory Before you start reading, check out What’s really going on (if you haven’t already). It explains all of the terms and whatnot, which makes all that follows easier to, well, follow. Liverpool FC hasn’t been out the news for much of last season for both financial and on-field reasons. It’s probably best …
Read More “Imagine a top EPL club being owned and run by its bank. Stop imagining – it’s true.”
By Walter Broeckx When Robin Van Persie got his very bad injury last season when he played with Holland against Italy it was clear that he would miss the biggest part of the season for Arsenal. I then wrote that probably Robin would be fit for the world cup and have a big impact. Well …
Read More “A Gunner in the world cup final: Robin van Persie – the inside story.”
Introduction by Billy McGraw… I met Maximillian Alexandra Magenta Cappuccino at Askadors, the infamous nightclub in northern Wembley just off the North Circular Road, where FA officialdom meet their secretaries for debate on attacking manoeuvres, defensive structures, and the thrust of everyday footballing matters. There was something bleak about his looks, rather as if he …
Read More “Billy the Dog McGraw interviews the England manager. Exclusive!”
By Tony Attwood, king of the predictive arts, emperor of the future, master of the middle-distance, irony champion 2010, and knower of all sorts of stuff. No one likes a smart-arse. So I am preparing to be disliked. FC Barcelona, who have just signed David Villa, is attempting to negotiate a 150 million- euro bank …
Read More “Barcelona teeters on the edge of financial collapse. How? Why? What? Err?”
The players are doing a bit of pre-season limbering up, our new man from the Orient is already here, there’s Chamakh too, Henri Lansbury looked last season like someone we ought to sign (and hey! we have him anyway), Jack Wilshire is back, Theo hasn’t been injured in the world cup, Djourou is fit, and …
Read More “Supposing we didn’t have Wenger, but had someone far more frightening”
By Walter Broeckx Another lovely page seems to be written in the lovely way of perfect live as it is according to Fifa. A few days ago claims have been made about Australia’s team bidding to host the 2018 or 2022 World Cup. They seem to have been given some gifts to try and influence votes. …
Newcastle United financial review By Phil Gregory This continues our series of articles about the finances of EPL clubs. There’s a full index of the articles in this series so far, by clicking here. Matchday income Credit to Newcastle for having a transparent set of accounts, but the finances themselves totally baffle me. Matchday revenues …
Read More “Welcome to the strange financial world of Newcastle United”
By Walter Broeckx Every now and then you have such a game where in a few minutes so many things happen in a game that you can write a whole article on it. Paraguay – Spain was such a match. Before we go to the penalties let’s look at the disallowed goal from Paraguay. A …
