by Christophe Jost and our on the spot secret agent, plus the Prime Minsiter. The Bundesliga (1st and 2nd divisions) resume their games next weekend. After a period of planning, political lobbying, medical research, and financial negotiations a plan has been laid out and approved by the German government. And it is interesting to see …
Read More “Germany restarts, or perhaps not. Is the PGMO involved in the “Go to work” message?”
By Tony Attwood Some years ago we analysed the way the English newspapers reported Arsenal and found the most amazing bias in those reports. Our report with its analysis is still online here. There was also a long period in which English journalists ran the story every week that because of Mr Wenger’s training methods …
Read More “What foreign journalists think of the missing ethics of their English counterparts”
by Sir Hardly Anyone We have now got another seven players being linked with Arsenal plus a second group the details of whose transfers have been updated just of late. I really didn’t think we were going to get any fantasy stories at all during the corona-pause but they continue to roll in. The only …
Read More “The 77 players tipped to be joining Arsenal this summer – the full list”
by Tony Attwood Somehow, somewhere there has to be a hierarchy of priorities. Because just in the nature of things, certain aspects of life are more important than others. And so it is in football. But unfortunately the hierarchy is upside down. Consider this: what is the more important – the total abolition of human …
Read More “Saudi Arabian questions as we have been celebrating liberation”
By Tony Attwood If it goes on like this there really won’t be any need for Leagues, broadcasters, the PGMO, and anyone else else, because everything will be done by the City Group. Except that there is a problem with the continual growth of Citygroup, which is called Eurojust. To give the background… City Football …
Read More “City Group’s expansion is starting to run into legal complexities”
By Tony Attwood As I have said many times, football in England doesn’t do leadership. Nor, perhaps coincidentally, does football in Scotland. England’s Premier League clubs are about to have a day of discussion about what happens next and certainly, at this moment it is not clear where this is going to go. The reason, …
Read More “Football in England and Scotland reveals exactly how an organisation should not be run.”
by Tony Attwood An opinion poll by Opinium shows that 60% of the UK population disapprove of the way the government has handled testing for Covid-19. The survey also shows that more people think the UK has done worse in handling the pandemic than France, Spain, Italy, Japan, Sweden, China, Australia, South Korea and Germany. …
Read More “Premier League football approaches the cliff edge, but no one seems to mind”
By Sir Hardly Anyone There is no football, the clubs are arguing about how it can be brought back, many players are worried about the arrangement, TV stations are putting the pressure on, the ghost game concept has been questioned in terms of crowds gathering… Meanwhile away from football crowds have been gathering for picnics …
Read More “Seven players newly tipped for transfer to Arsenal, in the past four days”
by Tony Attwood In the post earlier today (Restart is floundering as clubs, players, medics and league argue) I suggested that one factor that might cause a problem with the re-start of football is the incessant arguing that is combined by an element of bullying, as the various interested parties debate what to do about …
Read More “The outside forces that could turn football upside down”
by Tony Attwood There could have been a swift and simple agreement early on through playing the remaining league games on neutral territory such as in Cyprus, but once that idea broke down, it has indeed been downhill all the way. After that the idea of playing on a set of neutral venues nominated around …
Read More “Restart is floundering as clubs, players, medics and league argue”
By Sir Hardly Anyone It has been many a long year since the broadcasters, blogs and newspapers had a big positive story about Arsenal, but today there is one. Which is why they have studiously ignored it. But I have to thank GoonerNews.com for pointing me to Football Talent Scout – on this occasion and …
Read More “Arsenal dominate world list for top teenagers”
By Tony Attwood Under UK law organisations that handle money have to have accounts, and those accounts have to be tied up once a year, and passed to Revenue and Customs, who, if they feel a bit uppity, can ask all sorts of questions. If everything is felt to be fine, then either tax is …
Read More “There is something very odd and obscure in Scottish football’s accounts”
By Tony Attwood Last night an Arsenal event happened. Not one that you will read about from journalists with their endless tittle and tattle; it was far more important than that. Also not one with shouting about why Arsenal are not buying players, how they’ve got everything wrong financially, where the money has gone or …
Read More “When the Arsenal background is far more revealing than the shouting up front”
by Sir Hardly Anyone. The German League is up and running again, and so is the Sprout which has the rights to show their games. The current deal says BT can show five games a week, but it seems likely that they will negotiate a change to that, as the ghost games come thick and …
Read More “So it’s German football on TV – and its 1-0 to BT Sprout”
It is not something that we read about very often but the issue of stress is one that is at the heart of playing football at a professional level. Just as actors, musicians, TV presenters and others may or may not feel nerves upon getting up on the stage or in front of the cameras, …
Read More “How does stress affect sports performance?”
By Tony Attwood It was almost four years ago that I wrote on this blog that “we have just been told that Manchester City has launched an investigation into links between [the paedophile Barry] Bennell and the club. Meanwhile Crewe Alexandra’s most famous employee, ex-manager and director of football, Dario Gradi, denied any knowledge that …
Read More “Paedophile case comes back to haunt Man City and Crewe Alex but papers won’t report it”
v By Christophe Jost Football has a fundamental problem of leadership for one very simple reason: all of its “leaders” have vested interests, which are very clearly defined. And yet at the same time, each of the different entities that is trying to have a say in the future of football, knows that they are …
Read More “In a year, football could be unrecognisable”
By Tony Attwood There are signs that football journalists, and indeed their employers, the newspapers, radio and TV stations, are getting edgy. In the last couple of days, for example, the Guardian has published an article headlined “Premier League critics should recognise football cannot wait forever” and then Gary Neville accused Premier League of “failing …
Read More “The huge mistake that football made even before the current crisis.”
By Dr Billy “the Dog” McGraw, senior psychologist at the University Hospital of the North Circular Road. The notion that Arsenal need to be warned that there could be huge losses ahead is one of the more bizarre stories that has emerged from the British national press of late, but that is what the Daily …
Read More “Arsenal warned over huge financial losses … presumably because they don’t realise!”
By Tony Attwood There is an article in the Guardian which says “Whether football returns in June or September, or later even than that, it will be a long time before it is played in stadiums packed with crowds of tens of thousands, without players having to undertake complex social distancing measures. Normal isn’t coming …
Read More “Football is not coming back any time soon: so what happens to the clubs then?”
By Christophe Jost So the Bundesliga and the DFL have presented a broad concept to restart, addressing health issues, security, training concepts, finances, etc. all set out in a 41 page document. My opinion, based on what I am reading, is that they have done a very thorough job looking at most aspects if not …
Read More “German football considers ending its lockdown. We wait to see…”
By Tony Attwood Now either you can think that this is another story that is being hidden from British football fans and others interested in corruption by the British media, or you may think that the British media take the view that British supporters are just not interested in fraud issues relating to Fifa. You …
Read More “Yet another Fifa scandal breaks, but again the British media won’t report it.”
by Sir Hardly Anyone Yes this is looking like becoming the all time record transfer window for Arsenal – in fact it is getting so back the media are going to rename it the transfer garage door. It can still slam shut after it is all over but without the danger of breaking glass. We …
Read More “Forget the lockdown: Arsenal now linked to 70 different players!!!”
By Tony Attwood One of the fundamental parts of the Premier League’s plan, rather oddly named ‘Project Restart’, (why does it need a name, and if it does, why not just “Resuming the fixture list”?) is that the matches would be played (or as the journalists now say in a desperate attempt to get their …
Read More “Six clubs reject behind closed doors scheme, is that enough to scupper it?”
By Sir Hardly Anyone When the phrase such as “The mistakes made by Arsenal in the transfer market over the past decade-and-a-half are well documented” pops up on the internet we all know what will happen. Soon site after site after site will copy it and use it. And we know that because that is …
Read More “Why do Arsenal always get it so wrong in the transfer market?”
