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 Little Victories – Don McMahon There is a book entitled ¨ Amazing things will happen¨ by C.C. Chapman which struck a chord with my Arsenal conundrum and my attempts to understand the negative mindset some of our supporters display on a consistent basis. Based on what I read, here are my new insights into …
Read More “The Little Victories that pave the way for the great leap forwards”
By Walter Broeckx In the past I have written a few articles about the rules and how they should be applied. That was in the days I didn’t go out for the complete Referee reviews. And in those days I had a bit more time. But now when we are in the off-season I have …
Read More “A short explanation of the rules: serious foul play”
By Walter Broeckx If we look back at the where we stand this pre season compared to last pre season it is a bit amazing how our team has changed if we look at the squad from the Asia tour. Last season we didn’t have on our tour and I might even miss …
Read More “For starters it’s about how much the ones we have want it”
By: Bootoomee The league starts in three weeks and all fans are feeling like kids on Christmas Eve. We all can’t wait to open our presents to see what Santa has brought us. That is, all fans except those who are pessimistic because their clubs’ managements haven’t bought the players that they (the fans) believe …
Read More “Is there any reason for Arsenal fans to be optimistic about 2013/14?”
BEHIND CLOSED DOORS – Don McMahon I am less interested in opinions and rumours in the transfer window than I am in reality and hard facts, so I decided to speak with a close friend who used to be a NASL and European scout for a professional soccer team where I live. He kindly agreed …
Read More “Behind Closed Doors – how the transfer market really works, and how Arsenal really does.”
Ref review 2012-2013: Home/away bias – part 2 . By Walter Broeckx This article is part of the series of the Referee Review 2013. You can find links to earlier articles on the bottom of this article. ————————————————– After looking at the home/away bias in the more important decisions we now will try to …
By Tony Attwood Today, Arsenal History Society publish an article on Kolo Touré and points out that Arsenal bought him February 2002 for £150,000 and on 28 July 2009 sold him to Manchester City for a profit of £13,850,000. On 28 May 2013 Manchester City sold him to Liverpool on a free transfer. Taking into account …
Read More “Sane clubs like Tottenham and Arsenal do sell when the opportunity is right.”
By Walter Broeckx With the visit of much of the (according to some non-existent) AAA on our site a few things could be noticed. Of course this analysis will not be valid for all members of the AAA – they are indeed not a homogeneous group – but if you read carefully what some say …
THE PRICE WE PAY – Don McMahon While I was surfing the net I came across an excellent article written by my favourite political columnist (Shannon Ridgway) about how people who support adversarial causes can twist their normally objective views into rather negative attitudes towards their opposite number. And indeed how counter-productive that can end …
By Walter Broeckx If you read the title and you think at least try to write the headline in correct English just stay with me for a moment before you go on about that. The first ‘R’ I refer to is the one where it should say they aRe back. And they of course are …
By Walter Broeckx And so we are entering the final day of our Asia tour already. Today another game and more about that in a few moments of course. But first let me see at what the tour has brought us so far. Looking at the pictures, the first two visits were more of the …
Read More “Urawa Red Diamonds – Arsenal the final game of the Asia tour”
By Walter Broeckx I am not just busy on Untold Arsenal but also in other fields of the big Gooner world as you might know. The Arsenal Benelux supporters and of course the social media such as facebook and twitter is where I spend some time. Not that I am on these media day …
By Walter Broeckx This article is part of the series of the Referee Review 2013. You can find links to earlier articles on the bottom of this article. ———————————————— Last year in our season review we pointed at the fact that we found a Home and Away bias. And this was based on calculating …
By Walter Broeckx And now for something completely different…. In the town I usually call my home town we have a big fair each year. The Pentecost fair it is called. Well we don’t call it like that because we use the Dutch name for it which is ‘Pinksteren’. And even then in the local …
by Tony Attwood Arsenal’s best teams in the last 15 years have come from the signing of players who are well known in footballing circles but who bring limited baggage with high hopes of exceeding previous prowess. I think of Henry, Vieira and Pires for example. When we have bought players with a dubious attitude …
Read More “Let Suárez be the biggest vapour transfer of all time”
By Walter Broeckx Someone had to stick out their neck and well it seems that my country will be the first. And I have nothing to do with it. Well I think not. Or did they read what I have been saying all that time and agreed with me? What is this all about you …
Read More “Is football as we know it about to change dramatically?”
By Tony Attwood There is a widely recognised thought that players who move from one country to another take a year to settle down. There is another widely recognised thought – that to have success clubs must buy and sell players like mad during the summer. Of course the transfer market is part of football, …
Read More “There is a good reason not to buy anyone this summer.”
By Walter Broeckx Our third game in pre-season brought us to known territory for one man: Arsène Wenger. As you all know by now it was his last team he managed before coming to Arsenal all those years ago. So it was a nice hello with some old people he worked with in those days. …
Read More “Nagoya Grampus – Arsenal, again, again and again”
By Tony Attwood Chanting is one of the football fans’ last areas of freedom. Or it was until the clubs got involved and started to outlaw certain chants. And yes I think the clubs should get involved when the chant is racist or homophobic. Indeed I think I’ve written a dozen pieces here about the …
Read More “The drive to stop chanting in the stadia (warning, contains a number of naughty phrases)”
By Walter Broeckx This article is part of the series. You can find links to earlier articles on the bottom of this article. ———————————————— In this article we will continue to let you know how competent the referees have been in the games we could review in the season 2012-2013. In an earlier article we …
Read More “Only 28% of last season’s red card decisions were correct.”
By Antonio en la Madera All the following statements have been carried by the press in the last 24 hours, and they all have something in common. Can you guess what it is? Arsenal will not sell Santi Cazorla to Atletico Madrid Barcelona will not sell Fabregas to Manchester United Chelsea will not sell Branislav …
Read More “16 transfers that won’t happen (but Frederico Grueso might be sold)”
SHAMING THE SHAMEFUL Don McMahon In keeping with the recent spate of articles surrounding values and principles of proper Football behaviour, and subsequent to an article I read about Birmingham, I offer a perspective on this approach to managing the Game. First you might want to read the article There is no doubt that for …
By Walter Broeckx Just imagine you want to buy a new car. You look at the different options you have and you pick a few models that would suit you. And after checking petrol consumption, reliability and the amount of boot space you reach the conclusion that the best car out there for you is …
By our man at the bar Ex-England football starlet Ray Willikins looks likely to lose his job at Sky Sports after it was revealed that he is suffering from catastrophic memory loss. This revelation came as he was found guilty of driving way way over the limit for the second time. With the second charge …
Read More “Raymond Willikins is suffering a serious memory problem it seems.”
A Doctor writes…. The other morning I had a letter from a concerned member of the public (I won’t name him, not naming one’s sources seems to be somewhat in vogue at the moment…). I’ll call him WB. Anyway he asked me: “I really cannot understand why some people need to be unhappy all the …
Read More “Purchasing newspapers is an inhumane act and should immediately be made illegal.”
