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 …

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, …

Burnley’s tackling is three times as dirty as Leicester’s! Really???

by Tony Attwood Untold Updates videos We’re back with our videos – do take a look   Over the weekend I used some of the findings we had on the relationship between fouls and yellow cards; you may recall the data that shows some clubs have to commit many, many more fouls than others to …

Burnley v Arsenal: what can Arsenal do to overcome the stats?

by Bulldog Drummond To avoid the dangers of match fixing, Arsenal need to get into an early lead and show Burnley that they are wise to their multiple fouling tactics.  Then if our analysis is right and the referee will be giving more yellows against Arsenal as opposed to against Burnley, it won’t matter so …

Burnley v Arsenal. We need early goals and then shut up shop, but no fouls

By Bulldog Drummond. As our recent analyses of games from the perspective of fouls and cards has suggested there are reasons to believe that some games in the PL are edged in favour of certain clubs.  Not all of course, and not every game for certain clubs, but the various articles published here do push …

Is Burnley v Arsenal fixed even before kick off? Here’s the evidence.

by Bulldog Drummond If you want a game that highlights everything that is wrong with English refereeing in the Premier League, and indeed everything that is wrong with the PL and its referees,  here you have it. Burnley have committed 270 fouls this season, Arsenal 259.  Not that much in it.  Burnley the slightly dirtier …

All the 44 players Arsenal were tipped to sign in January, and the two we finally got.

And for your three minute insight, there’s The Untold Arsenal video   By Sir Hardly Anyone 42 players tipped to be coming to Arsenal who did not.  Two players tipped to be coming, who did actually arrive. Was that successful journalism?  Presumably yes since no one apologised, no one mentioned the gross failure of the …

Clubs in areas that voted Leave should not sign foreigners after today

By Tony Attwood OK I don’t mean the headline seriously, but Blacksheep came up with what I thought was a really funny idea, of identifying the constituencies of football clubs and then seeing whether those constituencies voted remain or leave. And then saying that to be democratic the club should abide by the referendum result …

End of January: what does the league table today tell us about the end of the season?

By Tony Attwood In recent years the league table at the end of January has given us a rough guide as to where Arsenal will end up by the end of the season, as the table below shows. The second column here shows us the position of the club on 31 January for each year …

44 players moving to Arsenal. Only 1 arrived so expect a busy day at the airport

by Sir Hardly Anyone Sometimes the media find the whole notion of transfers a little difficult to grasp.  Take Sport Witness who report Edu flew to Brazil in their report to escort Pablo Mari back to London amidst “widespread confidence a transfer was sealed.”  And here we pause.  “Widespread confidence” among whom?   I imagine they …

After Brexit, how many foreigners can play in a Premier League team?

By Sir Hardly Anyone You might have thought that since it is around three and a half years since the UK voted to leave the EU that by now we might have worked out what it means for football, but seemingly not.   For there is still no agreement as to whether UK clubs will be …

Does spending money on new players take a club up the league? The eastern experience

The latest video: Untold Gooner News on injuries   By Tony Attwood I have been arguing for some time that just as changing managers is not a guaranteed recipe for taking a club up the league, nor is buying lots of players.  In fact figures presented here recently show that the six clubs that spent …

The games football fans play in an attempt to put their point across

The latest video: A radical new direction for Arsenal   The Athletic, the troll, the errors, the comments: the story so far by Tony Attwood I’ve been critical of The Athletic for the way it has presented itself as being “The New Home of Football Writing”.  “New home” seems to imply a centrality and superiority, …

The 42 players tipped by all-knowing journalists to be signing for Arsenal.

by Sir Hardly Anyone Strangest headline of the day: after months of knocking Mustafi at every turn Goal gives us this one, “Arteta confirms Arsenal looking for reinforcements after Mustafi injury blow”.  Two weeks ago an injury to Mustafi would have been hailed in the media as a bonus for Arsenal!   Now it seems to …

Football: With reporting like this no wonder corruption is rife

By Tony Attwood How will Brexit affect the Premier League?  See the video When it comes down to it, there are a lot of things wrong with football. There’s the big debate on gambling (and yes I am neither blind to the problems that gambling causes nor to the fact that in order to keep …

Bournemouth v Arsenal FA Cup. The line ups and Arsenal injury news

By Bulldog Drummond Follow the video on Untold Gooner News Arsenal’s injury list ahead of this FA Cup game – the last game to be played before the replays start, is at the upper end of the scale.  He is the table modified from details on the Physioroom web site Player Reason Further Detail Potential …