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
This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches. Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have …
Read More “Untold Ref Review: Newcastle United 2 – 2 Tottenham Hotspur. Ref: V. Good.”
By Walter Broeckx After my rant at Uefa about the fine they gave to Bendtner for exposing the wrong underpants I now want to take a look at his future at Arsenal. Or maybe better said: his lack of future at Arsenal. The player himself said last season he wanted to leave and after a …
Read More “Farewell Nic Bendtner. It wasn’t as bad as some make out”
by Richard Bedwell When they are seeking to raise large sums of money on the financial markets businesses tend to take on experts to advise them on how to present themselves to those markets. What to say, how to say it and, of course, to whom that message needs to be relayed are all part …
By Tony Attwood Playing in four competitions puts a strain on players. Further, there is a suggestion that some of our players get targeted in terms of injuries so that all our injuries tend to fall in one section of the squad. So it is just possible that as a way of coping with year …
Uefa announce new official sponsorship deal with Paddy Power Pants By Walter Broeckx Somehow Nicklas Bendtner has something with his underpants. A few years ago we had the incident when after a game he was being caught with his trousers at knee height when leaving a club and showing his underpants. If I remember it …
This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches. Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have …
Read More “Untold Ref Review: Manchester City 3 – 2 Queens Park Rangers”
By Walter Broeckx and Tony Attwood Le voilà. The new fixture list has arrived. And do we see anything strange at first sight? Well, according to some of the British press, Sir Alex is already unhappy because he says Man Uwill have to play away from home after five of their six midweek Champions League …
Read More “Man U unhappy, Man C thrilled, Arsenal ok. The new fixture list is out.”
THE MEN IN BLACK by Don McMahon, ex-NASL and international referee Following the recent posts about officials in football, I thought it might be interesting to consider refereeing in North America, compared with elsewhere. I do this, having been a certified referee since 1970, and now retired from the Game after officiating at the national …
Read More ““Soccer” and refereeing in North America. And you thought PGMOL was dodgy…”
By Walter Broeckx I wrote yesterday about my meeting with an up and coming Fifa ref. Now the story continues… Before and during my game with the Fifa ref I had the chance to keep my ears and eyes wide open and listen to the things he told me. He gave me a nice insight …
By Tony Attwood Each year every club wants more. “The very least we can demand is an improvement,” is a theme tune of the Moderate Wing of the AAA. The problem is everyone is going for improvement. Yes, Arsenal may improve 10%, but that’s not much good if the two teams who came above us …
Read More “Next season’s tactics: Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs, Man U, Man C”
This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches. Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have …
Read More “Untold Ref Review: Liverpool 4 – 1 Chelsea – the ref done good”
What do Wilshere, Arshavin, and Podolski all have in common, apart from being Arsenal players? By Tony The answer is that they are all turn up in a VIP virtual party experience in which you can meet, interact and (as they say) “hang out” with the guys. Of course there are some other people there …
By Walter Broeckx Before we get down to the Untold Ref Review of the Year series (which is, I promise, coming very soon) I just want to write a little article about the world of referees as it exists in my part of the world and will give you some inside information about how things …
Read More “What is it like being a Fifa ref? The real inside story.”
By Tony Attwood Yesterday we had a nice little debate about Arsenal’s forward line and midfield. Leaving aside my decision to include a player no longer with Arsenal (bloody typical that they should transfer someone just when I wanted to write about him), I thought the issues raised were interesting. So what about the defence? …
Read More “Arsenal’s defenders. Who moves up, who moves out, who we buy.”
By Phil Gregory Robin Van Persie‘s Holland took a beating from Germany last night to leave their Euro2012 hopes sorely weakened after two defeats in the group stages. Holland look to me like a team who are struggling with finding a role for certain players, and the lack of balance that brings. His performances for …
By Tony Attwood So it is to be Giroud – at least with the BBC and most of the press running the story, and with Untold having run it twice (and let’s not be reluctant to say that the first story was quite a while ago, so even if we were not first, we were …
Read More “It looks like we’ve bought Olivier Giroud. But where will he play, and with whom?”
By Tony Attwood For a long time after it happened Harry Redknapp claimed he did not know why he was sacked by West Ham. In 1999 WHU had had their second best ever season coming fifth in the Premier League and qualifying for the Intertoto. In 2000 West Ham won the Intertoto and qualified for …
Read More “WHU, Portsmouth, Southampton, Tottenham. Why Redknapp resigned and where it went wrong”
Today’s referee is Howard Webb – This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches. Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through …
Read More “Untold Ref Review: Sunderland 0 – 1 Manchester United”
By Tony Attwood Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has finally pulled the plug on Rangers, the club that previously owned shares in Woolwich Arsenal and Arsenal (until recently selling them to Mr Usmanov). The team that invited Arsenal to play at their centenary celebrations – a match at which incidentally, the club charged supporters 10p …
This article is part of a series stretching over several seasons in which a team of referees analyse the work of refs in Premier League matches. Our figures show that when we analyse the errors made by refs there are consistent trends which do not “even out” through the season, as some commentators would have …
Read More “Untold Ref Review: Chelsea 0 – 2 Newcastle United”
So who can this refer to? by ‘Insideright’ Amongst the many interesting things that Ivan Gazidis said to the gathering of supporter tribes last week there was the issue of the ownership situation at some other (unnamed) clubs. In a general discourse about the dire financial situation that many clubs find themselves in he said …
Read More “The clubs whose owners want to bail out, but simply can’t find buyers”
By Phil Gregory To keep us in Arsenal-related fare over the next couple of weeks I’m going to be keeping an eye on the tournament and anything of interest for Gooners. Without further ado… This evening saw France play England, with Arsenal’s very own Chamberlain starting on the left of England’s midfield in a somewhat …
By Billy “le chien” McGraw, our man on Le Continent. Arsenal are reported by prime sources, people who know and indeed the Daily Mirror, to have agreed a fee of £13 million with Montpellier for France international striker Olivier Giroud. Montpellier won the League (“in France” as the Mirror says, helpfully). Oh yes and some …
By Tony Attwood If you have taken a glance at the Arsenal History site of late you will know that we have been considering the issue of the man who managed the club after the first world war: Leslie Knighton. His role at Arsenal is interesting because 20 years after he was manager he published …
Read More “Man U, Chelsea, Tottenham, Liverpool, Barca… who should Arsenal emulate?”
Game over. So say the governments. By Adam Brogden A lot of people are concentrating on corporations involving themselves in modern football and have missed governments moving in. Why is this? I do not have the answers for this (I will take a guess, later) but would like to look at the main players. In …
