Arsenal are slipping behind this window – but why? And maybe it doesn’t matter?

By Tony Attwood No, Arsenal are not slipping behind in terms of ideas on who we could buy – over 70 players coming in according to the media thus far.   And of course there is still more than a month to go before the window creaks into a closed position (or “slams shut” as …

Is a new stadium a boon or a millstone? A look at ongoing PL ground improvements

by Tony Attwood At the moment there are a lot of people denouncing the Kroenke family who own Arsenal, just as for quite a while there were people around who denounced Mr Wenger for not giving Arsenal more than three FA Cup triumphs since moving to the new stadium. And the angst among some Arsenal …

If the story about Vazquez to Arsenal is true, transfers are in real trouble

By Tony Attwood This is a continuation of our regular update on all the players tipped to be in the pipeline for an Arsenal signing but the tale behind one of them, Lucas Vazquez, has caused a little bit of interest among those who study such matters.  And this because if the story is right, …

Junk rumours: the 26 Arsenal players the media says will leave this summer. But who will?

By Sir Hardly Anyone First thing to say is that this list of men going is nothing unusual for the summer.  Quite often in a summer transfer window the media end up claiming that everyone is leaving, with each “outlet” citing someone else as the source, while simultaneously ignoring every other junk rumour that is …

Boreham Wood v Arsenal: the second half and Kroenke out

By Tony Attwood There always has to be someone to blame and for a number of years it was Wenger.   Wenger out! placards were all over the place, and finally the mob got their way, only to find… it didn’t make any difference.  Now you might think people could learn a bit from that, but …

Boreham Wood v Arsenal live match updates: the first half

By Tony Attwood Problems with my subscription to the Premier 1 Sports channel meant I missed the first few minutes of the game and by the time I did get a picture Arsenal were 1-0 down.  Unhelpfully, the Arsenbal players do not hve names on their shirts so I’m struggling to say who is playing.  …

The reason why there are empty seats for Arsenal league games

By Tony Attwood There is an argument that says that Arsenal should fill up their stadium for every game of the season, and because there are empty seats around that shows that the club is failing and the owner and management are to blame. In fact in terms of seats that are the argument is …

Boreham Wood v Arsenal: the Arsenal players and the TV coverage

By Bulldog Drummond A little confusion is happening in the Bulldog household owing to conflicting information. In terms of watching the match against Boreham Wood on TV today, on Arsenal.com there is only one method signified: by signing up with Premier Sports, who are said to have exclusive coverage of every Arsenal pre-season game. It’s …

Satire: Arry’s weird view of Arsenal, Aubameyang leaving, Bellerin injured

By Sir Hardly Anyone Arriving at Arsenal The headline “Arsenal mulling over move for Senegal international Keita Balde”  in the Daily Mail does take a new twist on the journo lingo that has been causing us some amusement.  “Mulling over” indeed.  Not ready to buy, not having bought, not “the deal is on” but just …

Farewell Oooooooooooooooooooospina; hello new keeper lineup.

By Tony Attwood When Ospina came to Arsenal the fee was modest – £3m was the reported sum, and his contract was for a four year deal.  He started off playing in the League Cup (a home defeat to Southampton) and the Champions League (at home to Galatasaray after Wojciech Szczęsny was sent off).   Although …

Arsenal has a secret weapon for 2019/20: but will it be enough to make the top four?

By Tony Attwood One thing is not a secret, nor even a point of discussion at Arsenal is that there is a lot of mumbling about the owner of the club and his apparent restriction on the transfer budget at a time when Arsenal have been making a profit. In 2016/17 the club made a …

Having a laugh: Arsenal consider signing Indian ball control genius. (Warning, contains humour)

By Brickfield Gunners Having been an avid reader of this blog form almost from the beginning of its inception ; and also being a very occasional contributor of articles, but a regular commentator here , I have observed first hand the gradual mental decline of many Arsenal fans and the anguish and the utter confusion …

So far 72 players have been tipped by the media to be coming to Arsenal. Here’s the full list.

By Sir Hardly Anyone Yes no less than 72 players have now been tipped by the media to be coming to Arsenal this summer, while 22 have been said to be leaving.  Here is Untold Arsenal’s unique list of all the nonsense tips. Our own tip is that by the end of the window only …

Arsenal’s new player – Gabriel Martinelli: not everything you need to know but quite a bit

by Tony Attwood So Arsenal have made a signing: Gabriel Martinelli. That makes it one out of 72 rumoured signings so far in this transfer window that has come true.  A success rate for the rumour mongers of 1.4%.   Not that good so far. The original claim that Arsenal was interested came from Yahoo Esportes, …

The 15 Arsenal players the media have mentioned in the last 3 days

By Sir Hardly Anyone When we run silly stories we try to say so in the headline (not to mention with  the name of the author).  But not Football.London who have tricked innocent Arsenal fans into reading their stuff with the tale that “Ismael Bennacer has impressed with Empoli in the season just gone, registering …

Zaha: the really worrying side about his move to Arsenal

By Sir Hardly Anyone Today we hear that Arsenal have offered £40m for Zaha and Palace value him at £90m.   And the Daily Express tells us that Ray Parlour “wants Wilfried Zaha over Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang as Man Utd eye Gunners ace”.  The reason is because Abua is now 30 and so, it seems, of less …

Why is the Arsenal news always so negative, minute after minute, day after day?

by Tony Attwood Here are 10 headlines from stories that all appeared within about two hours of each other.  All have strong negative connotations.  All are about Arsenal. And I wonder why – why are we getting all these stories (most of which are either untrue or highly convoluted with the clear intent of giving …

What the Africa Cup of Nations means for Premier League players and their clubs

By Sir Hardly Anyone As you may have noticed, the Africa Cup of Nations has begun.  A little later than planned, but it has begun. What it means is that those players involved will not be available at the start of the season since they won’t have had a proper summer rest.   In this case …

The top six clubs are shedding players. Here’s the chart of who has gone

By Tony Attwood I decided to put in this chart of players in last season’s top six clubs who are already noted as leaving, following some blog comments to the effect that the release of half a dozen players by Arsenal for the grand sum of £3.5m showed how disorganised we are in our long …

SATIRE: 65 players the media say Arsenal are signing, 20 leaving, 1 new director

Research, analysis and constant hiccups from too much time associating with football journalists by Sir Hardly Anyone. Of whom it has been said. Part 1 of the Transfer List: The Players coming to Arsenal this summer We have six new players announced in the past week, with five others having their rumours updated by the …

Satire: 10 players arriving, five leaving and Edu arrives (although that’s probably not satire)

By Sir Hardly Anyone So the season ends and as expected Cech went back to Chelsea.   And immediately the blogs were reporting Arsenal fans being annoyed – TBR Football was one of many such sites with this story. But the report came with no sense of irony; irony because many supporters had been saying …

Manchester United taking on Arsenal’s role of the game’s great incompetents

By Tony Attwood “Incompetence” has long been a theme of disenchanted supporters of Arsenal, and the bloggers and journalists who love to encourage their moaning, day after day after day.  Arsenal are not just poor at football, they are incompetent at management, recruitment, organisation, training, decision making, pitch maintenance… Take these stories across the past …

Project Yoof: there does seem to be a serious plan in place to cope with the lack of money

By Tony Attwood I guess for many of us who just go and watch the under 23s occasionally through the season, the appointment of Freddie Ljungberg to first team duties as a coach was a bit of a surprise.  Not because Freddie is not a good coach and a man who is totally Arsenal orientated, …

Arsenal next season: the story the media refuse to reveal

By Tony Attwood If you want to know what the media are saying about Arsenal this summer and have been saying since the end of the season it is simple.  We need to buy loads of players – particularly defenders.  Indeed Charlie Nicholas, increasingly disjointed from contemporary reality, summarises nicely in the rant reported in …

SATIRE: Could Hérold Goulon be Arsenal’s  answer for the problematic  ‘central spine’?

From  Brickfields Gunners Could Hérold Goulon be Arsenal’s  answer for the problematic  ‘central spine ‘  in our defensive midfield  and  center back /positions?  Who ? You may well ask. Although Goulon  has played before in the English league ,the Frenchman has been  mostly plying  of his trade in the lower leagues for most of his …