How could Manchester City have got it so wrong?

by Tony Attwood Untold Videos Our videos explore some of these issues in depth – do take a look   The first rule in business, for many people who run companies, is “treat complaints seriously”.  The second rule is “deal with them fully and in a thorough manner”. The reason for this is simple: the …

Arsenal v Newcastle: the team, and “an unwavering sense of worth”

Storm News These days we always have storms.  Well in the last couple of weeks we have had two sweeping across where I live in the country and Storm Dennis is doing its stuff on Saturday, with leftover issues on the Sunday, meaning that trains, always dodgy in terms of timekeeping and the like could …

Arsenal v Newcastle: Injuries and the problem with scoring 3 (or more)

By Bulldog Drummond Untold Videos Our videos explore some of these issues in depth – do take a look   There is a lot of chit chat about Arsenal having huge numbers of players back from injury and ready for the Newcastle game, but whenever such stories appear the reality always seems to be somewhat …

Arsenal v Newcastle: home and away form suggests we could be ok.

By Bulldog Drummond Untold Videos Our videos explore some of these issues in depth – do take a look   Sadly no one has worked any magic on the league table during the winter break, and we find ourselves in 10th, four points and five goals behind the club above us, and six points and …

Few journalists ever criticise the state of football… so why is it starting now?

By Tony Attwood I am shocked, amazed, stunned, bemused. For 12 years we have been plodding away, writing up the notion that the reporting of football is warped by the media to suit their own needs and ends, and those of their powerful allies. Among the many examples found are those suggesting that key stories …

One of the rules of legal cases: don’t criticise the court. Or the legal system

By Tony Attwood The case between Manchester City and Uefa is one that is likely to be studied in legal circles for many years to come, not necessarily because of who wins (which of course we are still seemingly a little way from finding out) but rather because of the unusual way in which Manchester …

Football clubs are selling their future TV income to pay off transfers and debts

By Tony Attwood Untold Videos Our videos explore some of these issues in depth – do take a look   There is really only one way of securing the future for companies that can’t really tell what the future holds other than the fact that they will need a lot of money, and that is …

The media is preparing to fight back against the notion they’re to blame for football’s ills

by Tony Attwood If you are a regular reader you might have noted a few little pieces I have been publishing of late which put forward the thesis that the media has created and now propagates an image of football which is in its own interest rather than having much to do with the reality …

Deluded Arsenal fans shamelessly exploited by misleading publisher

By Tony Attwood Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   There seems to be no end of ways in which websites, newspapers and broadcasters can mislead – but seizing hold of comments by two or three supporters which are simply untrue, and then republishing them as if they …

Daily Telegraph presents completely false data to try and bolster FA’s case

By Tony Attwood Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   Of course no one has a monopoly on stories in football, but it always nice to be a little ahead of the game.   It is even better to find that in order to argue against my point, one …

We predicted Fifa scandal in 2015, no one believed us. Now it starts again.

By Tony Attwood If you have been reading this site over the years you will recall my little piece on 22 January 2015: Switzerland take a greater interest in Fifa – at last You’ll remember because ever since I have kept on going on and on about it.  It reported a change in the law …

Arguing with Zombies: how football fans allow the media to control the debate

by Tony Attwood “Arguing with Zombies” is a book by Paul Krugman in which he points out that many aspects of contemporary debates within the worlds of politics and economics are just based on fallacies. I thought of this because two events in my world coincided.  I heard Mr Krugman being interviewed on the radio …

What will Sky / BT / clubs do when the PL sells itself direct to fans?

By Tony Attwood Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   There is no doubt that the technology is available.   The Premier League could easily set up its own streaming service along the lines of Netflix and make all its matches available to view to anyone who wants to …

How supporters are being weaponised by the media; we’ve become their playthings

Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   By Tony Attwood “I hate how they ‘weaponise’ us against each other with lies… Stadiums are now more hateful for it.” Paul Ogden, a Manchester City fan, took a moment to write to Untold yesterday, and he made a point that …

10 Things we Noticed about the media’s coverage of Arsenal this weekend

By Dr Billy “the dog” McGraw, chief psychologist to the journalist community, at the University College Hospital of the North Circular Road. 1,  Disgruntled fans is still a story “‘Are you serious?’ Some fans cannot believe what Arsenal are reportedly planning” That was HITC reporting the alleged return of Arsene Wenger.  Of course what one …

WeCareDoYou: how has the carers campaign been doing?

Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   By Tony Attwood I am not sure when WeCareDoYou launched its most recent missive attacking the Arsenal owners and board, but I have a date noted of 15 July 2019, which suggests to me it was then. So taking that as …

In football journalism there is no race to the bottom, we’ve always been there

by Tony Attwood There is an article in The Atlantic in which a reporter tells how she created a new identity on Facebook, clicked “like” on the official Donald Trump page, and waited to see what happen. Now before you rush away because I’ve posted an article on Untold which should be on some fanatical …

Clubs impose nationwide ban on supporters wearing t-shirts denouncing the board

Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   By Tony Attwood The Premier League and the FA are busy making rules – including one that bans spectators from each other’s grounds for wearing t-shirts demanding the removal of directors.  But as we have mentioned, there’s no progress on resolving …

How a club can commit the most fouls, but get the fewest yellow cards

By Tony Attwood   How do farcical transfer rumours start? – the video First a health warning.  If you believe that one can prove anything with statistics, and that the money spent by clubs buying in data from Opta is a pathetic waste of cash which could be spent on buying more players, then this is …

The openness of German referees raises the question, what have PGMO got to hide?

by Tony Attwood In Germany, the public service broadcaster, ARD has just brought out a documentary and it is causing a spot of interest, because it is a piece all about the referee Deniz Aytekin, looking at this job in detail. Now I know you are going to find this hard to believe, because in …

Is Arsenal’s openness better than West Ham’s dictatorial whitewashing?

How do farcical transfer rumours start? – the video   By Tony Attwood Arsenal by and large have done little (at least little that I have seen) concerning the protests of fans in the last three years or so.   Before 2015/16 there were some fans who expressed dismay about the progress of the club, as the …

The 8 key questions that football journalists simply won’t ever ask

Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   For advertising enquiries contact Snack Media at 0207 272 7582 or email Tom@Snack-media.com For all other issues please contact Untold Arsenal at Tony@schools.co.uk =============== By Tony Attwood One of the many odd consequences of the way in which football journalism works in England …

Stats show something very odd going on in the PL that the media won’t discuss.

Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look by Tony Attwood I’m following up the recent debate about fouls, tackles and yellows with the table below which shows data across the PL after 24 games. The aim here is to look for statistics that look slightly odd or outside the …

Why football journalists should learn from their political colleagues and start asking questions

by Tony Attwood Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   It is rare for journalists to be banned by football clubs. It has happened in a few cases in the old days when local newspapers held sway in provincial towns, and could often have sports sections that were …

Just 6 wins after 25 games. Has Arsenal ever been worse?

By Tony Attwood A few days ago I spotted a comment from “Sammy the snake” (who was, some years back a much valued writer for Untold) noting with sadness that while Untold used to be utterly supportive of the club and the team, this was no longer the case. Which is true from one perspective, …