Untold Arsenal: Supporting the club, the manager and the team
"I believe the target of anything in life should be to do it so well that it becomes an art." A Wenger
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal made two changes compared to the side that beat Chelsea 1-0 to win the Community Shield. Debuchy came in at right back in the pace of Bellerin and upfront we had Giroud in the place of Walcott. And maybe one surprising name on the bench… Alexis. The team that started: Cech, …
Apologies if you read this immediately after publication, we had a coding glitch which made much of the article even more unreadable than normal. Fixed now. By Bulldog Drummond. What is new this year is that for anyone who says, “Wenger should sign x y and z,” the difficulty with signing the very very best …
By Bulldog Drummond Ere we go ere we go ere we…. well you know the rest. Start of the new season an’ all that. Actually the Independent thinks maybe we don’t and seriously has Here we go! as its lead headline this morning. That’s so passé it is positively out of date, outdated, unfashionable, old-fashioned, …
Read More “Arsenal v State Aid Utd; off we go again on another record busting season”
Arsenal v West Ham United – Sunday 9 August – The Referee Preview By Andrew Crawshaw Well at last proper competitive football and I will again look at the Match Officials, what Arsenal’s history is with them and attempt to predict what they will do during the game. For Sunday the Officials are Referee – …
By Tony Attwood Pre-season time is traditionally “lists” time, although the papers of late have taken us into the all-the-year-round-list of “five things we learned from the way the referee walked out of the tunnel” variety of late. But we are almost there – we’ve got the ref preview from Andrew coming up and the …
WINNERS & LOSERS…….Don McMahon Tony’s excellent 10 point review of the Arsenal and my personal experience in winning and losing, inspired this opus about the “winning mentality”, the journos and aaa go on about. And as a psychologist, I can explain a little about the so-called “winning mentality.” First off, a few definitions to …
Read More “WINNERS & LOSERS: what is the real meaning of a “winning mentality””
By Tony Attwood In my recent article on state aid for West Ham United, I made the point that not all the awful details of how the state (which means all of us who live in the UK and pay tax) is paying for West Ham’s ground had yet come out, although those that had, …
Read More “If you live and work in the UK, you pay for West Ham United, no matter who you support.”
In the last couple of weeks we have published four articles about referees… The Referees’ accuracy 2014-15. When it’s important you might as well toss a coin. A FRIGHTFUL REALITY: the world of Premier League refs is not all it should be 2015/16: An introduction to the Referees. Do not read this standing up. How …
The 10 key factors that seem to me to be of prime influence as we enter another season. by Tony Attwood 1: Olivier Giroud and Theo Walcott Last season Thierry Henry was reported by part of the media to have said that Arsenal needed a “top, top striker” to win the league. The newspapers chimed …
Read More “How Arsenal will do this season and why there is no “winning mentality”.”
The Referees 2014-15 A quick summary by Andrew Crawshaw First breaking news from the referees announced for this coming weekend – the PGMO have introduced an additional referee who is not on their Elite List. Simon Hooper is to take charge of the Norwich v Crystal Palace game. It will be interesting to …
Read More “The Referees’ accuracy 2014-15. When it’s important you might as well toss a coin.”
By Tony Attwood This is the third and final part of the little series of articles answering the question “What determines if a club is well run or not?” The series began with my own personal view of how I feel about the club I’ve supported from childhood with 10 ways measure Arsenal. Then I took …
Read More “Does TV revenue make a club well run? Or is it just taking clubs to the edge of a cliff?”
by Tony Attwood I wrote in the last article about the issue of measuring club success. It strikes me that this is important because it gives an ideal of a feel supporters have for their club. It is perhaps hard to remember or recognise that before the Emirates and before Wenger, Arsenal was not always …
Read More “Measuring Arsenal’s success: asking silly questions, manipulating the figures.”
By Tony Attwood A recent article in the Telegraph sought to evaluate the best run clubs in England. I found that quite a challenging concept – and what made it all the more difficult to deal with was that the Telegraph produced tiny summaries of the clubs that were nominated for being among the “best …
Read More “How do we measure club success? 10 ways measure Arsenal.”
A FRIGHTFUL REALITY………Don McMahon There has been much written and posted about the PGMOL and its members. Lets be clear and rational about some aspects of these referees: 1) Where they come from probably doesn’t have much to do with how they officiate but who they support does. 2)What they are told to do …
Read More “A FRIGHTFUL REALITY: the world of Premier League refs is not all it should be”
By Sir Hardly Anyone The hunt is on for the winning piece of transfer news of the first month of the window, known as the Prize for the Winning Piece of Transfer News of the First Month of the Window. And there is no doubt about the lead story. It comes under the headline: …
Read More “Done deal: it’s the prize winner and the biggest shock of the whole transfer window”
2015-16 Referee Previews – An introduction to the Referees by Andrew Crawshaw The Official Web Page for the Barclays Premier League has the following to say about the PGMO :- “Led by General Manager Mike Riley, Professional Game Match Officials Limited (PGMOL) is responsible for the training, development and mentoring of 79 referees and …
Read More “2015/16: An introduction to the Referees. Do not read this standing up.”
Wenger vs. Mourinho, Baker’s Dozen Failure, A Tale of Two Managers By Jerry As Arsenal prepared to face Chelsea on Sunday in the FA Community, everyone was aware (due to the usual media reminders) that Arsène Wenger has managed against the self appointed “Special/Happy One” José Mourinho on 13 (a baker’s dozen) occasions without a …
Read More “Wenger vs. Mourinho, Baker’s Dozen Failure, A Tale of Two Managers”
By Walter Broeckx I have had the luck of being at Wembley when we played there two seasons ago in the semi final against Wigan. I always say that is there where the first signs became visible of our new team. A new team that would go all the way. Only 2 years later we have …
Read More “The Arsenal Belgium flag at Wembley is our Lucky charm”
By Walter Broeckx It would be interesting to see the line up for this first real competitive match in England. Cech to make the start in the first match and that against Chelsea so a bit of extra spice for him. Oxlade-Chamberlain was in the starting line up and Walcott started up front. Giroud was …
Read More “Community Shield : Arsenal – Chelsea : 1 – 0 To The Arsenal!!!”
By Bulldog Drummond I have not noticed anyone mention, in the build up to today’s overture to the season, that since the spring of 2014 Arsenal have played five and won five at Wembley. 2014: Arsenal 1 Wigan 1 (4-2 on penalties) FA Cup semi-final Arsenal 3 Hull 2 (after extra time). FA Cup final …
Read More “Arsenal seeking sixth consecutive Wembley win since spring last year”
By Tony Attwood Remember Dennis Bergkamp? Even if you’ve only come to Arsenal of late you will know the name and most likely seen some of the film. Arsène Wenger called him a genius – which is not something he calls a player very often. Indeed I may well have missed it but I am …
Read More “Community Shield: the preparation for the game tells us what the manager has in mind.”
Pre-match preview by Bulldog Drummond. The 93rd Community Shield fixture. It used to be called the Charity Shield until the Charities Commission realised that the FA were keeping no proper records, were not giving enough money to charities, and generally making fast and loose. The Charity Commission could have sued the FA and closed them …
Read More “Not very charitable Shield preview part 1: the context”
By Tony Attwood On 9 August 2012, I published the article If Gillingham FC are guilty of racist behaviour, what will the FA do about the club? It was an article which raised a number of comments from Gillingham supporters and regular readers of Untold at the time, all of which are of course still on …
Arsenal Ladies – a busy fortnight by Andrew Crawshaw Whilst we have all been interested in the Arsenal First Team pre-season games, the Ladies have been in full on competition. The Ladies season re-started following the World Cup with a visit from Liverpool Ladies and an unaccustomed loss. Arsenal Ladies v Liverpool Ladies – …
Read More “Arsenal Ladies – a busy but very successful fortnight”
By Walter Broeckx On the facebook group of my supporters club in Belgium, we have had, over the last few weeks, time to run a poll over each position on the field and consider who we think should be played in that position. The result of this poll gave us the following team Goal: Cech. …
Read More “DONE DEAL. Yes we really have built a team while the media weren’t looking.”
