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
By my thinking, Arsenal did quite well this year. OK I have a load of criticisms about the running of the stadium, and I have dealt with these elsewhere, but to win the FA Cup and come 4th in the league, when faced with such an outbreak of injuries seems pretty good going to me. …
By Walter Broeckx The first 6 positions I talked about were rather simple in terms of personnel. Keeper, right back, 2 central defenders, left back; even a defensive orientated midfielder. The only other position that is easy to talk about apart from that is that of the central striker. So we have a few other …
Read More “The season’s impression: Midfielders everywhere, the little one”
By Sir Hardly Anyone Our Man On The Spot. If you ask me this Fufa sponsorship lark is a bit of a pesky business, not least when you simply start asking the question: who the fifa sponsors the fufa WC? Read the press, and you will be told that “Sony, Adidas, Coca-Cola, Visa and Hyundai/Kia” …
Read More “Sepp Blatter accuses Fifa critics of “discrimination and racism””
By Walter Broeckx I think it was in the days of Song that I wrote an article about that illustrious position: the defensive midfielder. I then wrote that well Arsenal don’t really play with a defensive midfielder. Certainly not Song. Song was more a box to box midfielder. He might have been destined to become …
Read More “The season’s impressions: the non-existent defensive midfielder”
By Tony Attwood By wild men I mean, of course, the journalists. Not Mr Balotelli. Anyway, the story continues. In Thierry Henry’s second season Arsenal scored 63 goals in the league. Last season Arsenal scored 68 goals in the league. So on this basis that we now must have a new striker, then on the …
By Tony Attwood Arsenal can be proud of the Emirates Stadium. I’ve not been to every single Premier League ground, but I’ve been to most, and most of the Championship, plus many lower league grounds, and even with the Arsenal-tint to my eyes reduced to the lowest possible level I can say it is the …
Read More “The Emirates Stadium management is a shambles and needs sorting now”
By Walter Broeckx In this review series of the season where we have talked first about the goalkeeper, then we moved to right back and after a perfect change of wing we went to the left back. Who passed it on to the usually right placed central defender and now we go to the one …
by Tony Attwood . How strong are you? I mean really, how strong? When I wrote an article on the Arsenal History Society site about Paul Vaessen’s life earlier this year I received an email back from a regular reader asking that if I was going to publish something as moving and ultimately tragic as …
Read More “We are the vampires. Football from the heights of elation to the depths of despair”
By Tony Attwood Sky sports runs a rolling news list of transfers at this time of year on its internet site. On the morning of 7 June you had to go down to around position 100 on the list of transfers before you find Arsenal mention. And then what you get is the Sagna …
By Tony Attwood The under 21 league and under 18 league puzzle me and I’d like some help seeing where Arsenal are going with them. I was going to write about this before the FA came along and adapted an old Untold idea of using Premier League reserve teams in the lower reaches of the …
Read More “What has happened to Arsenal’s under 21s and under 18s?”
By Walter Broeckx When I started this series I didn’t know the result of the player of the season poll amongst Arsenal supporters. As I came to the part of the central defenders I just found out that you (that is if you are a Gooner and voted on arsenal.com) have seen what I have …
By Tony Attwood Sometimes emails to Untold ask why we spend so much time on FFP when the real issue is who Wenger is about to buy. One reason is that this is Untold – Untold deals with the stuff others ignore – and if ever there was something that is largely being ignored by …
Read More “Could Leicester and QPR be relegated to League one?”
Let’s (not) talk about Cesc Ivan: Arsenal supporters end of season event Last night, as a member of Arsenal Independent Supporters Assn I went along to the Emirates for the annual end of season Q&A with Ivan Gazidis and a trio of Arsenal legends. Having enjoyed a glass of wine courtesy of the club and …
Read More “Let’s (not) talk about Cesc; the end of season supporters’ meeting”
By Walter Broeckx Continuing our series where we give our impression on the different positions and the players linked to this position we move over to the left. And there we find one player who played most of the matches and that was Kieran Gibbs and his back up was Nacho Monreal. Let us start …
By Tony Attwood Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain sustained suspected ligament damage to his right knee in the England draw with Ecuador. After a season hampered so seriously by injuries that Arsenal, the club that pays his wages, hardly got to see him, Alex has now been injured in what is laughingly called “a friendly.” Alex will have …
Read More “The world cup prelims and the horror show starts”
Please please please no injuries to Arsenal players in foreign parts… Launching the Untold World Kup review analysis and full details, prepared for your delectation by our very own man with a spot, Sir Hardly Anyone. Over to you Sir Hardly… Hello and welcome to the #RioChallenge Live Blog, brought to you by Strongbow. We’re …
Read More “England are playing. Fingers crossed – no injuries but quite a few laughs”
By Walter Broeckx After having looked at Szczesny in goal we now move on to the right back position. A position that seems vacant for the moment. But this article is about the past but I will probably come back to the future later. If you are still with me in the present. I think …
Read More “The seasons impression: right back but probably not bac(k)”
By Tony Attwood On 30 May 2014 the Sky Sports website ran this headline English football is free from match-fixing, says FIFPro survey and continued, “English football has sent a clear and positive message that it is free from match-fixing, according to Professor Andrew Harvey, the head of a comprehensive survey by FIFPro.” It is …
Read More “England is the centre of match fixing – Sky focussing on total denial”
By Tony Attwood Michel Platini and Uefa general secretary Gianni Infantino are engaged in discussions with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, chair of the European Club Association over what to do with the fines that the clubs guilty of not meeting FFP sanctions are going to be paying. The issue of these fines is one of significance in …
Read More “Clubs to benefit from Man C folly; Premier FFP is next”
By Tony Attwood, all the newspapers, and a pin stuck in them at random. After all the excitement about all these players we are going to sign, we find that no, they are all going somewhere else. Cesc in particular is going to Chelsea, so we are told, and lots of bloggers are ready with …
Read More “Who Arsenal are buying this summer (the “vapour transfer” phase)”
By Walter Broeckx During the silly transfer period rumours that are spouted at a tempo that even would make Usain Bolt look like a turtle we can always try to look a bit further and look at the prospect that awaits us next season. Talking about silly transfer rumours. I went on twitter and within …
Read More “CL qualifying rounds talk or transfer talk, the choice is simple”
By Tony Attwood In England there is a big fuss going on – but some of the facts are of course hidden. The key fact that is mentioned is that Qatar is accused of spending a few million pounds in bribes in order to secure the world cup in a few years time. The other …
Read More “Why the British nations should have left Fifa long ago.”
By Tony Attwood Consider this opening from an article in the Daily Telegraph, the right wing newspaper that is justly known for its brilliant obituaries, its revelations about the way our MPs often act in criminal ways by fiddling their expenses claims, and is now increasingly taking over the mantle of being the house magazine …
Read More “Daily Telegraph still playing the AAA card at least twice a week”
Arsenal 2 Everton 0, by Tony Attwood FA Women’s Cup Final It had been 14 long days since Arsenal had won a cup final and the murmurs were turning into grumbles and calls for resignation. But Arsenal did it again, which will keep the AAA happy until… oh, today, because the Telegraph has just …
By Tony Attwood The last time I went to two Cup Finals in one season was 1993: the League Cup final on 18 April 1993 and the FA Cup final on 15 May. We played Sheffield Wednesday both times, and won both. One of the George Graham triumphs. Totally ignored by the press, of course, …
Read More “We’re of to the Cup Final for the second time this year”
