There are figures you can trust and figures you can’t. Some figures are numbers, some are people.

By Tony Attwood The other day we had a note from a reader saying that we shouldn’t trust the web site Who Scored.  Unfortunately in common with so many correspondents no supporting evidence was provided as to why this was the case. Which is a shame because I would have liked to know.  I haven’t …

Third signing to be announced, and why you shouldn’t get too excited by the “deal close” headlines

By Sir Hardly Anyone (with another robot cock up in item 15). Latest Arsenal Odds With the transfer fenêtre now 19 days old we are clearly moving into a new phase of transferationalisms, for with 80 players now tipped to be arriving at Arsenal and 19 leaving, we are by and large running out of …

When football clubs create problems of their own making… and then won’t ever back down.

By Tony Attwood Football clubs as a basic starting point should surely set out to behave in the same way as any good and well run business.   By which I mean that they should at one level treat those who attend the games as “customers” – worthy of the same level of service and …

Football is starting to kick off again: the pre-preview of the opening friendly in France.

By Walter Broeckx It looked as if it never would come to an end but the long wait without football is slowly coming to an end. This Friday Arsenal will step up the preparation for the new season and will play a real match. And if the post companies are willing to do their job …

We’re going to make Arsenal great again as now even the journalists are replaced

By Tony Attwood Substitute one word in the slogan and it is easy to see how Donald Trump land has come to football.  In the world of toxic rhetoric Trump promises to expel Muslims and build a wall between the US and Mexico (which Mexico will pay for).   How, why and with what consequence is …

Toxic rhetoric: at last we have a name for the assault on football from the media and their blogging allies

By Tony Attwood In the course of things, Untold’s ongoing battle with the Anti Arsenal Arsenal is of little significance.  But there is an issue that links us to the wider world, in the sense that the aaa uses the same sort of approach to debate as Donald Trump, Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. And …

The weakness of English football regulations against the corrupt owner is revealed in all its glory

By Tony Attwood Vangelis Marinakis, owner of Greek champions Olympiakos Piraeus, has been banned from football.  He has been reporting to police every 15 days on strict bail terms and banned from football after he was released on bail of 200,000 euros. That’s not news but this is: He is now looking to take charge of Nottingham …

Xhaka: where exactly is he going to play? And who will leave to reduce the excess of players?

By Tony Attwood There was a piece in the Guardian this summer which said, “for years, Arsène Wenger has been accused of buying too many playmakers. Now he’s discovered the joy of playbreakers: in addition to Francis Coquelin, Granit Xhaka and Mohamed Elneny, he wants to sign Duracell bunny N’Golo Kanté from Leicester.” We don’t …

Arsenal Reminiscences with ex-Arsenal player Peter Goy

. Peter Goy gives an inside view on life with Arsenal in the 1950s. Interview conducted at Thorpe Hall Golf Club, Thorpe Bay, Essex on July 11th 2016, by John Sowman   Peter John Goy was born on 8th June 1938 in Beverley, Yorkshire and became a member of Arsenal’s groundstaff in 1953 as a …

Arsenal v Liverpool? – we have no players left for the game,shock horror.

by Bulldog Drummond. Shock, horror, disaster, Arsenal unprepared as usual.  For the amazing news just discovered by the old Thunderer (as the Times used to be called) is that Arsenal could be without four of their main first team players for the starting day of the season!!! The four in question are Aaron Ramsey, Mesut Özil, …

Liverpool and Uefa contemplate suing anti-drugs agency

By Tony Attwood Proceedings against Mamadou Sakho of Liverpool by Uefa following his being found to have taken a banned subtsance were stopped and the case dismissed after Uefa stated that the drug should not have been on the banned list. A Uefa statement read: “The independent Uefa control, ethics and disciplinary Body met in …

We don’t need new players, we need new pundits. Only four new Arsenal transfers this week.

By Tony Attwood I remember being taught at school that the Stone Age ended when we ran out of stones, so I suppose the Transfer Window ends when we run out of sand, soda and lime. But although that merciful release might still be 47 days away, there are real signs of strain as this edition …

Social media warning: do not use your brains!

By Walter Broeckx I am busy on social media like Facebook and Twitter. Well as for Facebook I have to be busy as I am the chairman of the official supporters club in Belgium and we do a lot of our communication with our members using it. Twitter is something special. It sometimes is (was) fun …

Suddenly everyone seems to agree. We’ve done the deal for Gonzalo Higuain. Well, nearly everyone.

By Sir Hardly Anyone. Now before we get going, let me offer you this. On this day, in 1789, Louis XVI, king of France wrote in his diary as he went to bed “Rien” as his record of the day’s events.  The Bastille had just fallen.   So don’t judge things too quickly is my …

Aaron Ramsey: our undervalued midfield maestro

By Jacko Jones “Aaron Ramsey Thanks the Cardiff Fans” (CC BY-SA 2.0) by  joncandy  At times, Aaron Ramsey doesn’t receive the credit that he deserves. The former Cardiff City man lives in the shadow of team-mate and Germany international Mesut Ozil at club level and Gareth Bale is widely regarded as Wales’ shining knight. Ultimately, Ramsey is often …

Why do some football supporters of a certain football club get so very angry?

By Tony Attwood As I have reminded regular readers on occasion, I set up Untold in January 2008, just so I could put forward a few thoughts I had on stories that were never run in the newspapers or on TV relating to football.  I hoped I might get a few people (apart from my …

Football is being murdered in front of our own eyes.

By Walter Broeckx If we look at the last finals from international tournaments from Uefa or Fifa (or similar organisations) we get this as the final scores of the matches after 90 minutes: WC 2010: Spain – Holland 0-0 EC 2012: Spain – Italy 4-0 WC 2014: Germany – Argentina 0-0 EC 2016: France – …

Arsenal Ladies v Notts County Sun 10 July – The Match Report

by Andrew Crawshaw   Arsenal Back Row – Sari Van Veenendaal GK, Josephine Henning (CB), Farah Williams (MF), Dominique Janssen (MF), Jemma Rose (CB) (bending forward) , Kelly Smith (Forward) 83, Casey Stoney (LB) Front Row – Danielle Van de Donk (Attacker), Alex Scott (C) (RB) 78, Jordan Nobbs (MF) 72, Vicky Losada (MF) Subs …

Arsenal looking to buy six previously unmentioned players

By Tony Attwood This has been the week of the full back – any past full backs who have been mentioned before as possible transfers have had their stories picked up again while the nation’s “journalists” have been scouring the countryside (or the pubs) for new ones. Which is odd because a) we already have …

How Man City has weaved its around the anti-child-trafficking laws, and what Fifa are doing about it.

By Tony Attwood As you may recall if you are a regular reader of Untold, we’ve taken a particular interest in the FC Barcelona case concerning child trafficking and we were one of very few places that kept on with the story.   As we ran it the abuse poured in day by day (most …

The transfer debate: just a few of the transfers that were utter disasters

By Tony Attwood While day by day Sir Hardly Anyone brings us the ever growing list of all the players who are about to join Arsenal (but never will), and all those who are about to leave (but likewise never will), so I’ve been gathering to great list of all these tales together in the …

One “Deal close” arriving, one “deal close” to leave, one midfielder to sign this week

By Sir Hardly Anyone Thus we have the big headlines of the week.  According to those in the know, or if you prefer those with nothing better to do but sit around and make it all up, we will have, in the next couple of days two in, one out. It is, you must admit, …

Arsenal have increased their player salaries more than any other PL club in last 3 years.

By Tony Attwood It has hardly been reported anywhere much, but the salary cap (technically known as Short Term Cost Controls – STCC) will be running in the Premier League from the forthcoming season, and will in fact run for the duration of the new TV financial arrangements. It will run alongside the Premier League Profit …

Proving that neither transfers nor buying a top goalscorer are the way to win the league

By Tony Attwood Since Untold started in January 2008 I’ve never thought that Untold would make any reader change his/her mind.  Rather I just hoped that I might find a few people who like me, felt that football was not being reported in a reasonable way.  And that seems to have happened.  At least I …

Arsenal Squad 2016-17. We urgently need to loan or sell eight players

by Andrew Crawshaw Before we get carried away with the thought of buying a stack of new players, I thought it would be a good time to have a look at the players we currently have on our books. As we all know the Premier league has a squad limit of 25 players over the …