The Loans: two clubs dominate the loan deals this summer. But is it really working for them?

By Tony Attwood I started the summer thinking I might run four indexes this summer (see note at the end) one of which tracks all the players going out on loan from PL clubs, but the numbers grew so rapidly, and included so many players I hadn’t heard of (meaning I had to keep double …

Under the surface, football is cracking up. For now it is all being covered up. But soon…

By Tony Attwood A central theme that I have tried to evolve in the nearly 10 years we’ve been doing our thing on Untold, is that there are problems with the organisation of football.  Problems that are to quite a large degree ignored by the media, but the multiplicity of which suggest something is seriously …

A big week for Arsenal’s U23s making it two wins out of two

by Andrew Crawshaw It is a big week in terms of games for the U23s, They faced Manchester City last night at the Emirates, followed by a game on Friday evening at their normal home of Borehamwood against Liverpool.  Both matches 19:00 kick-off. The first game of the season saw Arsenal coming back from a …

Rooney is world class. As for others like Giroud, just look at his stats. Yes go on, take a look.

By Walter Broeckx Hurray hurray huuuuuurrayyyyy Wayne Rooney has scored 200 PL goals. This has been a bit of a theme in the media after Rooney scoring a goal against Manchester City on Monday evening. Now of course scoring 200 PL goals is an amazing achievement. And as I have played against a very young …

Referees go wild on red cards, Jack sent off, but somehow the media miss the statistics.

By Tony Attwood There are two types of football supporter Type A and Type B.   And two types of manager, Type A and Type B.  Oddly there is only one type of football journalist.  Type Zzzzz. Type A people know by looking.  You just have to look at Arsenal to know that you they …

The Arsenal first team squad members who are under 21: the updated report

by Andrew Crawshaw Following the widely reported promotions to the Arsenal First Team Squad here is a breakdown of the players we are likely to see more of as the season progresses.  I have listed them in order of their birthdates. Cohen Bramall – 2 April 1996 (not 1995 as the official Arsenal web site …

Changing to Wembley and moving to the Ems hurt Arsenal. So how did Tottenham do?

By Tony Attwood During the summer we debated the decision of Tottenham to play their home games at Wembley this season – an obvious topic for us as Arsenal tried out a similar venture with their Champions League games across two seasons. For Arsenal the experiment was pretty much a failure – I’ve never spoken …

Passengers of the beautiful game….

Passengers of the beautiful game…. ARSENAL 13   “Uwot? 18/08/2017 at 2:06 pm Listen to pundits? Never have,never will son.just beleive what my eyes tell me & if you don’t’ think ” ozil” is a passenger most of the time(.that is certainly when the going gets tough.)i suggest you save yourself a lot of anguish …

The aftermath of Stoke: kill the cat or take on the world.

by Tony Attwood Some things change, some don’t. That of course is how it goes.  Mr Wenger’s criticism of Granit Xhaka was unusual for him – and in not staying positive the manager has distanced himself from the standard line of Arsenal managers through the ages.  I can well remember the joke we had about George …

Stoke – Arsenal : 1-0 the PGMO back to normal already

By Walter Broeckx Arsenal starting line up: Cech, Mustafi, Monreal, Kolasinac, Bellerin, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Ramsey, Xhaka, Özil, Welbeck, Lacazette On the beach: Ospina, Mertesacker, Coquelin, Elneny, Iwobi, Walcott, Giroud A first chance for Stoke when they break but Cech rushes off his line to smother the effort.  Meanwhile it is clear that Bellerin plays on the …

Which squad has the most Champs Lge winners? Yep – the thugs are playing Arsenal.

by Bulldog Drummond. Now this is something I did not know: “Stoke City’s recruitment of Jesé Rodríguez on a season-long loan from Paris Saint-Germain means Mark Hughes now has five Champions League winners in his squad, more than any other Premier League club.” Goodness me, that puts the Champions League in a new light. Anyway, I had …

The Evil Empire of the Pots vs Arsenal

By Bulldog Drummond According to today’s media Sea Kolasinac is the strongest player Arsene Wenger has in his squad, and perhaps the strongest player he has ever worked with. Which must make him good at playing wugger or whatever that game is called that they play in the Potteries. So they immediately dig up the …

Stoke v Arsenal: team news, just how awful is our defence and some historic videos

  By Bulldog Drummond First off, Ladbrokes are sponsoring Arsenal Fan TV.  If you have any thoughts that perhaps Arsenal Fan TV is not something that you like, and you fancy a bet, you might care to avoid Ladbrokes.  Totally up to you of course, but just a thought. Moving on Untold Arsenal confirmed this …

Stoke v Arsenal Saturday 19 August – The Match Officials: will the improvement continue?

by Andrew Crawshaw Well last week’s game was a fairly pleasant surprise – a game with Mike Dean in charge and at the end of the match we weren’t all fuming about him having totally screwed us over. Of course some of the pundits were incensed about what they saw as a handball by Özil, …

What happened to the Grenfell Tower money collected from the Community Shield match?

By Tony Attwood Let me admit from the off that in answer to that question, I don’t know.  But I think I ought to be able to find out.  And I ought to be able to find out when the families who suffered as a result of the Grenfell Tower fire got their money.  Not …

The Arsenal 25 man Senior Squad – where are we now?

Facts by Andrew Crawshaw Wild speculation by Tony Attwood First, Andrew’s section: As I write this (lunchtime on Thursday) we currently have 34 players over the age of 21 who are vying for inclusion in our 25 man senior squad which has to be named on 1st September.  All but four are currently listed as …

Are Premier League teams really so bad in defence as the media suggest?

By Tony Attwood “Why are so many Premier League teams so bad in defence?” You’ll know, if you have read my meanderings across the years, that I rather like evidence.  Not “The evidence of my own eyes” but actual numbers.   So when someone rages in a bloggetta that “Xhaka is clearly not up to …

The key questions facing Premier League clubs this season, plus the transfers so far for the top 10 clubs.

By Tony Attwood We’ve been trying to keep tabs on all  the transfers that have gone through this summer involving the top ten clubs from last season buying players in.  The latest table is below. In terms of the number of new players coming in the table reads Everton: 13 Manchester City 6: Chelsea: 5 …

The 89 players now tipped to be joining Arsenal this summer. The Index vol 9.

By Tony Attwood There is no doubt things have stalled.  The number of new players and new rumours in the last week has been virtually nothing – all we have had is the rehashing of the same old same old.  It is by and large a pretty poor show.   We’re only on 89 and …

Arsenal’s Opener: The good, the bad and the unpredictable.

By Don McMahon Once I had digested the entirety of the Arsenal Leicester game, I decided to write a review based on wearing two hats; a referee’s viewpoint and a certified coaches’ viewpoint, so here goes. I will describe or break down the key elements of the game as follows: Team lineup, Fitness levels, Tactical …

Dramatic Arsenal transfer news as all credibility flies out of the window and Jack needs more surgery

By Sir Hardly Anyone It is really important to stay in touch with the bloggettas these days so that we know exactly where we are.   Football London for example today tells us that The end of August is edging ever closer – You can just imagine the panic in and around the training grounds …

Arsenal Under 23s win and make the season’s team options a little clearer

By Tony Attwood Arsenal under 23s went two down to Derby County, and then came back to win 3-2.   That’s rather gratifying but the basic fact hides a few other interesting details. For a start, Nelson scored two – carrying on where he left off last season when he scored in the home draw …

Football’s biggest drugs related case explodes but of course, it couldn’t happen here, because…

By Tony Attwood FC Barcelona’s former defender, Rafael Márquez – the man known as “Emperor of Michoacán” is a national hero in Mexico. And a pretty big hero to Barcelona.   But now the US authorities are investigating him. And they are doing this for one simple reason: Márquez is said to have been involved …

Footballers are taking performance enhancing drugs. So why are the FAs, Uefa and Fifa are covering it up.

By Tony Attwood Der Spiegel is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. It is one of Europe’s largest publications of its kind, with a weekly circulation of 840,000. And on March 18 this year they wrote: It is often said that taking performance enhancing drugs makes no sense for soccer players. Then why …

Journalists still working hard to ensure that football ignores the drugs cheat threat

By Tony Attwood Oliver Holt in the Mail got rather exercised this week claiming, “The seven minutes and 16 seconds encounter with Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman shows athletics has lost its drugs battle” His sub editor then gave us some headlines… A journalist asked Usain Bolt, Justin Gatlin and Christian Coleman why …