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 Tony Attwood There is something horribly invidious about a newspaper commentating on the punditry of TV stations. It seems to imply that a) punditry is necessary b) punditry is good c) a newspaper can judge a TV station d) TV and newspapers vie for giving the real view, the view that matters, about footballing …
By Sir Hardly Anyone and some mates. So just as one group of youngsters leave – with no one unexpected and no nasty surprises on the departure board – the word is out about new teenagers coming in, and one player signing a new contract. The new kiddie, the one Arsenal and Liverpool are said …
Read More “The strange tale of Dragomir and Fortune’s departure. What are we not being told?”
By Tony Attwood You will recall that we have tried a few times so far this world cup to predict the score of a specific game. There’s been some success but I think I would be exaggerating a little if I claimed that we were always getting it right. Nevertheless here’s another go… and I’ll …
Read More “England v Columbia: how to work out what the score is likely to be”
By Sir Hardly Anyone, knight in the shires (daytime in bed) It is a good rule for the football commentator never to apologise. The right of people do not want apologies and the wrong sort only take a mean advantage of your discomfort when you utter the words “I got it wrong”. Such is the …
By Sir Hardly Anyone But no, it turns out that all this time he hasn’t been an Arsenal man at all, and we’ve just been keeping on keeping on. And on. And… well you know what they journalist johnnies are like. But no, lo! and behold! yes, the Telegraph tells us “Unai Emery is close …
Read More “It’s been going on so long I expected to read a rumour that Torreira is leaving Arsenal”
By Tony Attwood This summer I have been keeping tabs on some of the bigger clubs in Europe and a few other clubs that are interesting in terms of their buying and selling. This page gives the updates as of today 28 June. Figures from different source always vary, so for consistency I’m using the …
Read More “Who has spent the most, who has gained the most, and which clubs are moribund?”
by Tony Attwood Last night a number of fans from the more positive of the Arsenal supporters groups were invited to the Emirates Stadium for our first meeting with Unai Emery. It turned out to be a really solid performance by the manager who, I think, impressed many of us by a willingness to speak …
Read More “Unai Emery meets Arsenal supporters. From winning 5-4 to players leaving this summer.”
by Tony Attwood There comes a moment in each transfer window when the fantasists and their make believe chums from the fairy woods give up on trying to invent ever more unlikely tales of transfers and instead start writing about the people who are not coming to the club. These are of course the players …
Read More “Who opens against Man City, and when the rumours run backwards”
By Sir Hardly Anyone As we expected things have slowed right down in the World Cup era as the writers keep going around in circles talking about players in Russia rather than making up rumours. What a bunch of slackers! If they wanted to do something really useful they could count our boys back home …
Read More “The 96 players Arsenal have been tipped to sign this summer: the complete list”
By Sir Hardly Anyone In the part of the independent kingdom of Rutlandia whereupon I have my castle, we tell children not to make things up. “Don’t tell fibs” is what mater and pater say, and jolly right they are to say it too. But when I said just that the other day after returning …
Read More “Latest Arsenal rumoids: ten stories that you really might not believe – but you might!”
By Tony Attwood The name “Untold Arsenal” was chosen over 10 years ago to represent two ideas: to cover Arsenal in a positive manner which supported the club, and to cover the Arsenal stories that the mainstream football media and the blogs that imitate them would not cover. One of those story lines has been …
by Andrew Crawshaw Pre-Season matches for Arsenal are :- July 14 – Borehamwood v Arsenal 15:00 Meadow Park Borehamwood July 26 – Arsenal v Atletico Madrid 19:30 local time (12:30 UK Time) National Stadium Singapore July 28 – Arsenal v Paris Saint-Germain 19:30 local time (12:30 UK Time) National Stadium Singapore August 4 – Arsenal …
Read More “Pre-Season thoughts on Arsenal’s squad and who can break through”
By Tony Attwood We’ve been emphasising of late the need to keep an eye on the total number of players that Arsenal can register – not just the “25” players aged over 21 who can fit into the squad but particularly the number of Non-Home-Grown players which is limited by PL rules to 17. With …
Read More “Arsenal’s transfer problem: Who leaves in order to fix the “17” issue?”
By Bulldog Drummond As you may recall I have been posting about predicting possible England results in the World Cup through looking for sequences, and following a few emails and comments decided to take the plunge and expand this approach further. You might also recall that the process is very simple: it focuses on the …
Read More “Uruguay v Russia in the world cup might be more interesting than you think.”
By Tony Attwood There was a lot of comment when the fixtures came out for the coming season over the fact that we start with Manchester City at home and then have Chelsea away. That seems a little curious but could of course just be the way the fixtures came out of the hat. However …
By Tony Attwood It is said that Article 54 of the Fifa disciplinary code outlaws the “provoking the general public”, an offence that carries a two-match ban. Clearly Fifa have not been following their own disciplinary code since I can think of a whole range of events and incidents of Fifa, not to mention the …
Read More “The size of Brazil, Bellerin’s diet, and provoking the general public.”
By Tony Attwood One of the problems with transfer rumours is that they tend to be confined, in the reporting thereof, to issues relating to an individual player, and not to the team as a whole. It is not always thus, but this is the tendency. If we take Lucas Torreira he is variously described …
Read More “Arsenal’s four big signings: how they fit in the squad and the HG rules”
by Sir Hardly Anyone There has been a major change of late in pundit reporting as we have moved from “linked to” to “serious talks in progress” within their endlessly inventive minds. In terms of players leaving, the pun-dits have now had a major issue removed from their discussion sheets as we all know Jack …
Read More “Transfers – more Arsenal activity on the way? The punditry certainly think so although..”
By Tony Attwood It was upon this day last year that Walter and Blacksheep combined to hi-jack this site and publish a birthday greeting to me, so it was with a fraction of hesitation this morning that I opened the trusty laptop to check the site. But as I suspected both gentlemen have more style …
Read More “Arsenal’s first team for 2018/19, and why have Arsenal sacked the travel manager?”
By Bulldog Drummond Having predicted the England score correctly for the nation’s first World Cup match in the finals, I am emboldened to try it again, using the very simple system we’ve used over the last couple of seasons of looking at runs of results. All runs come to an end of course, so the …
Read More “England v Panama. Can the Untold system predict the score”
By Chayasai Two of the top three targets that can be achieved at Arsenal this season are, if not winning the EPL, that they must finish in the top 3 and secondly, must win the Europa League and finally, the third target: the F A Cup. Let no one tell us that all these are …
by Andrew Crawshaw I believe that Arsenal currently have eleven goalkeepers at the club who will be looking to play for the U18 team or higher. Here is a quick breakdown of them in descending order of age :- DOB Team HG Contract Expiry Petr Cech 5/20/82 First N 6/30/19 David Ospina 8/31/88 First N …
Read More “The Arsenal Goalkeepers – how many do Arsenal need, and who will be first choice?”
By Sir Hardly Anyone The last day of buying for PL clubs is August 9 and the last day of selling is August 31 as usual. Which means that there are 50 days to go. So far the spending of the top six PL clubs from last season, according to figures published by the Guardian, are …
Read More ” Just 50 days to go: which clubs are spending, which are selling?”
By Tony Attwood, with data from Andrew Crawshaw I suspect most Arsenal fans have a particular affection for players who come up through the club from a young age and make it into the first team. Perhaps doubly so when they are so evidently Arsenal born and bred as Jack Wilshere. Which is what makes …
Read More “The Arsenal youngsters destined to become household names”
By Tony Attwood So Jack is on the way out, after a long wait before confirming. He leaves in 10 days time. He is said to have stated that he was leaving because, “playing time would be significantly reduced” under the club’s new manager, Unai Emery. Fit and at his best he was an utterly …
Read More “In out in out: Arsenal’s 25 starts to take shape; but sadly, Farewell Jack.”
