Where winning isn’t enough; where winning isn’t necessary.

Dominic Sanchez-Cabello Those expecting Mourinho to return with grandeur were disappointed. Identically, papers expecting sales to spike or columns to write themselves were nervous when confronted with such maturity. No mention of past victories or specialness, instead the air of a man who is recovering from the madness in Madrid. Or so it seemed. The …

The false world. How ESPN is involved in its own match fixing

By Arun Mor Untold readers will be aware of how TV stations may delete certain incidents from a game to influence its viewers’ perception about the game especially in recorded highlights of games. These incidents may include deleting certain controversial decisions by the referee, like a penalty that should have been given but wasn’t or …

Referee Review 2012/13: how did the refs do when Swansea City played?

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. ———————————————- In this part of the series we have a look at each team and see how the bias panned out for each team. This is based …

Dare I mention Luiz Gustavo? Perhaps not.

by Tony Attwood Having failed somewhat to get any transfer news right this summer I approach this prospective purchase with trepidation, and besides everyone else is talking about the player as a transfer, and this is Untold, so maybe we should leave it to the rest. But since not everyone quite gets it all right, …

Life beyond the horizon: where the crowds are small and the beer is cheap

By Tony Attwood Towards the end of last season Drew and I came up with the idea that, when the occasion permits and we are not occupying our seats at the Ems (or in Drew’s case, standing up in front of his seat) we would try and get to a few lower league games, just …

Were refs biased in Tottenham’s favour last season? The Ref Review continues

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. ———————————————- In this part of the series we have a look at each team and see how the bias panned out for each team. This is based …

Arsenal v Manchester City. The team, the preview, the loans, the spelling mistakes

Arsenal v Manchester City 3pm, Helsinki – not on live TV By Tony Attwood There’s not really that much news around about the game, and those sites that like to hype themselves up as being close to the action are just re-hashing what’s on Arsenal.com We do know that Miquel has gone on loan to …

West Bromwich Albion and the referees. Do the errors even out in the end?

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. ———————————————- In this part of the series we have a look at each team and see how the bias panned out for each team. This is based …

Liverpool’s naughty Suárez secret revealed in a slip by Gordon Taylor of the PFA.

By Billy “the dog” McGraw.  Director of Class and Style, The Toppled Bollard, Wapping. ——————- Class, attitude, whatever, apparently Arsenal have none.  But there is a little something extra in the current story, a little something that most of the newspapers and all the TV stations with their Liverpool pundits who claim that Liverpool are …

Why choose Arsenal instead of Liverpool? That’s Why.

Why Choose Arsenal? That’s Why. By Ian Jenkinson. Much has been said and written of the Suarez saga. And things went into hyper drive on Tuesday after Suarez broke his silence by giving an insightful interview to two newspapers indicating his clear desire to no longer wear the Liverpool Jersey.  Liverpool fans understandably went nuts. …

Arsenal to play the Court of Arbitration in Sport in Champs League knock out stage.

By Tony Attwood Off we go again.  Except this time it is different due to the legal process. In the final knock out round we have two groups: champions of smaller footballing nations who have got through the draw, and non-champions of larger footballing countries. Five teams from each section will qualify for the group …

Life with a positive bias. Ref Review 2012/13: West Ham United

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. ———————————————- In this part of the series we have a look at each team and see how the bias panned out for each team. This is based …

How Arsenal can win the Premier League this Season

How Arsenal Can Win the Premier League This Season By Bootoomee The only competition of the four that Arsenal will be competing in this season that is least dependent on luck is the Premier league. Luck, especially with the Cup competition draws play a very big role in how far a team, any team can …

Why Tottenham won’t get most of the cash if they sell Bale to Real Mad

By Tony Attwood In July, after months of prevarication Government in Spain finally revealed that it is owed €663,876,441 in overdue tax by football clubs in the top two divisions. This is of course just another issue in a country whose economy is in a state somewhat worse that Bongo-Bongo (a country revived by the …

“It all evens out in the end.” Are referees really that unbiased? Ref Review 2012/13: Wigan

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. ———————————————- In our last article we showed that there is the home bias as we showed in the season before in our reviews and this still was …

Poor Santi Cazorla, its not his fault. £52.5m is nowhere near enough.

By Tony Attwood Today is the first anniversary of the signing of Santi Cazorla.  In fact 7 August is quite a day for anniversaries. But more on that in a moment.  What I want to say first is, “Santi Cazorla – I’m sorry.  It’s not your fault.” No one quite knows what Santi Cazorla cost …

A Family Day Out at the Emirates (negativity? not where I was)

A Family Day Out at the Emirates By Bootoomee The day that we’ve all been waiting for finally arrived. ‘We all’ will just be me and maybe Mrs. Bootoomee. I don’t think the twins really care. I have set myself a target: to make Gooners out of them by the time they reach age of …

Philosophy for football fans – a doctor writes (part one in a series..possibly)

Philosophy for football fans – a doctor writes (part one in a series..possibly) By Blacksheep The life of a committed football fan (which, it’s worth remembering, is shorthand for ‘fanatic’) is a troubled one and, as we lurch towards the opening of new campaign, it might be useful to see what philosophy can offer to …

I know what I want, and therefore I know what the club needs

NEEDS vs WANTS Don McMahon Well the Emirates Cup is over and with it, the pseudo-honeymoon that Arsenal and Mr Wenger seemed to temporarily enjoy.  The critics and demonizers are back at full throttle. I knew it was simply a temporary hiatus, like the calm before the storm, that invariably rears its ugly head once …

BT Sport: easily the worst TV sports station of all time

By Tony Attwood What should a TV station do in relation to a football match that it has the rights to? I can think of five things: they should show the action, make matters interesting, add a good informative commentary, develop informed commentary of the wider issues which have not been aired elsewhere, and innovate. …

When it Higuains it pours (Roll up, part two)

Roll up (part two): When it Higuains it pours Warning: this post might contain superfluous grammatical devices So the Ems Cup day two and not a very happy ending to a bright and promising afternoon. The twins and started well, burgers and drinks in the Coronet. I had to explain that it used to be …

You’ve only come to see Eboue! (Now for Day 2)

Roll up roll up for the Emirates Cup! Day one: you’ve only come to see Eboue! @blacksheep63 After all the transfer speculation, endless tweet wars, moans and dashed hopes it was nice to get back to the Emirates and see some football. I am taking the twins both days this time (a reward for all …

Arsène Wenger and the moral dilemma over Suárez – A Rebuttal

Arsène Wenger and the moral dilemma over Suárez – A Rebuttal By Bootoomee —————- Dear Dominic Sanchez-Cabello, The beauty of Untold is the variety of thoughts and divergence of beliefs even if it is a primarily positive and pro-Arsenal site. Now having said this, I disagree with most of the premise of your article. But …

The two Arsenal teams for the Emirates Cup (BT makes EPSN looks good)

By Tony, Our Man with a BT Sport subscription So, on 60 minutes Suarez came on for Liverpool in the friendly, and ran about a bit.  Within seconds Liverpool scored.  Were the facts connected?  Probably not. Meanwhile, working on my new book on Bob Dylan I have just paid “Caribbean Wind” about 50 times and …