By Tony Attwood Although the Premier League plays its games in England, there is little that is English about it.  The number of players per club who start a match and who are qualified to play for England is 33% – but not all of these are “English” in the normal sense of the word, …

Read More “How the “big six” got more brazen and more certain of their power”

by Bulldog Drummond You know times are weird when Liverpool start being criticised by the media.  As with the Mail that said, “All Liverpool had to do to remain revered champions was not be a self-serving club like Manchester United… they failed by trying to sell English football out for a sack of cash.” Mind …

Read More “Arsenal play Manchester City in the strangest of times”

By Sir Hardly Anyone The window is still open.  I know that because I feel the cool autumn breeze on my face.  But that’s not to say Arsenal are doing deals with anyone in the Championship or below.  Rather deals are being set up now to be completed in January. And the first one is, …

Read More “Apparently the January transfer window starts now”

by Tony Attwood One might have expected that after Liverpool’s win of the league last season they might have been able to bask in the glory of that campaign for a while.  After all they did have a very good run especially as by late February this year their league record showed played 27, won …

Read More “After the League reject the Liverpool/Man U plans, what happens now”

By Tony Attwood So this morning I wrote up my little piece on the Liverpool and Manchester United proposals for reforming the Premier League, checked that neither Northamptonshire nor any of its surrounding counties have suddenly been locked down, found they hadn’t, drove through a bit of Leicestershire, into Rutland, into Leicestershire again (the border …

Read More “What are they smoking in the board rooms of the Premier League?”

By Tony Attwood Some Arsenal supporters will, I hope, remember John W Henry, chair of Liverpool, for his infamous “What are they smoking at Arsenal” jibe.   Of course the jibe itself didn’t matter – some people do that sort of thing, it becomes a habit and they probably don’t even know they are saying such …

Read More “Bumbling or planning? What are they smoking at Liverpool?”

by Sir Hardly Anyone The argument about a new super-premier league and other arrangements being put forward by Manchester United and Liverpool! should not, in the opinion of the Untold Executive be allowed to go forward unchallenged. So we’ve come up with our own 15 point plan for the longterm good of football. There should …

Read More “How football can be saved from itself: a simple 15 point plan.”

By Tony Attwood You may have noticed that this season we have celebrated 100 years of Arsenal in the top division. This has been achieved by the club on merit.  Although many media outlets have alleged that Arsenal somehow were engaged in dubious activities in the past, the exhaustive research published both here and by …

Read More “There is a way out of the current football mess, but is not the super league”

by Tony Attwood The World Cup every two years and the Euros in between? This is what seems to be taking shape in Arsène Wenger’s mind.  At least according to the European newspapers which are somewhat more engaged with European matters than the English media, which are currently consumed with the Liverpool / Manchester United …

Read More “The World Cup every two years and the Euro in between?”

by Tony Attwood Around German law enforcement officers and government officials  have entered and searched the offices of the German Football Association (DFB), in around half a dozen locations, as part of their investigation into corruption in football.   The key reason, according to the media outside the UK (as ever media within the UK will …

Read More “Another football scandal looms as law officers raid the German FA’s offices”

By Tony Attwood This story broke in the Daily Telegraph and then was re-run by Football.London.  Both “outlets” claim the plan has been proposed by Manchester United and Liverpool FC.  In essence it says that 1: The Premier League should have fewer clubs The Premier League could be reduced to 18 teams from the current …

Read More “Man U & Liverpool come up with new plan to “rescue football””

by Tony Attwood What to do with football? The youngsters playing in under 14s leagues and the like are still struggling to find decent pitches to play on, largely due to FA mismanagement of Sport England funds. The championship clubs are either keeping their books balanced and struggling to keep up, or are spending far …

Read More “Football is teetering on the brink, but no one will admit it’s their fault”

By Tony Attwood There is a chance that you might have heard of IFAB (the international football association board) of late – having never heard of them before.  A highly secretive body that changes the laws of football when it wants to… As such they are the people who have changed the handball rule, in …

Read More “IFAB vs PGMO vs Fifa… who is the most secret (and damaging) of them all?”

By Tony Attwood It has been quite clear for some time that the Athletic has something against Arsenal.  But now it is reaching such heights it is getting a bit silly. For under the headline, “How do you feel about clubs laying off staff then spending big on players?” we find written… “Consider, for a moment, …

Read More “The endless bashing of Arsenal: Dial Square FC and farewell Gunnersaurus,”

By Tony Attwood It is a long time since Arsenal were fourth (or better) after four games.   In fact the last time we had nine points after four games was 2013/14, when we finished the season in 4th.  And although that season we were second after four games, we had an identical set of goals …

Read More “Our best start in seven years; our most confusing Europa League ever”

by Tony Attwood You may have noted that I have, several times, made the point that we have too many over-21 foreign players in our squad and we need to drop two of them. The Europa squad has now been announced and Arsenal have dropped Ozil, and Sokratis.  Rather amusingly Caughtoffside tells us that Saliba …

Read More “The players who will not play football: and why we are stuck with them”

By Tony Attwood Below is a table of money spent in the last three transfer windows.  In the table a figure such as £90m means Arsenal spent £90m in that window overall, taking into account both the money spent, and the money received for players who have been sold. Therefore, rather obviously, a minus number …

Read More “Arsenal have spent more than other top clubs in the last 3 transfer windows”

By Tony Attwood Journalists as we know, live on transfer rumours.  Reporting them takes no time or effort, no money needs to be spent (except for the cost of booze in the Toppled Bollard public house where the journalists gather to exchange inventions), and anyone can do it.  Make up a rumour and you are …

Read More “Arsenal’s new first choice line up, and what happens next”

By Sir Hardly Anyone Arsenal had a net spend in the window of £67.8m – considerably more than most pundits were saying at the start.  Indeed the standard theme (and there are always standard themes because these journo types love to copy each other) was, as the Mirror put it “Arsenal must sell before they …

Read More “Did anyone predict this transfer window right?”

by Sir Hardly Anyone Today Arsenal, along with all clubs playing in Europe, have to hand over their list of players for the Europa League and Champions League games this season. As ever the list is in two parts.  The A list of 25 players who are over 21, of whom a minimum of eight …

Read More “Arsenal about to show who is being dropped as we create the “25””

  By Tai Emeka Obasi Whoever is still an Arsenal fan needs commendation. In the modern craze of ‘get rich quick’, being an Arsenal fan has that subconscious assurance that one can be relied upon in areas of patience, diligence and conscientious living. Liverpool fans come close in this regard. From 1996, when I followed …

Read More “Partey: It Feels Great To Continue Being An Arsenal Fan…”

by Andrew Crawshaw The six matches for this last weekend were Aston Villa v Everton Manchester United v Brighton Manchester City v Spurs Arsenal v Bristol City Birmingham v Chelsea West Ham v Reading Aston Villa (0) v Everton (6) was played on Saturday.  Villa were promoted at the start of the season, Everton have …

Read More “Women’s Super League Matchweek 3 Review: Arsenal top of the league”

By Sir Hardly Anyone. Astonishing? well yes.  We need to get rid of two senior players in order just to get down to 25 before we start bringing anyone else in, otherwise we will be left with players we can’t get rid of and will have to pay. Guendouzi has gone, but he is not …

Read More “Arsenal’s astonishing transfer window. 2 players being paid not to play.”