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 Tony Attwood Last season our academy teams seemed to do exceptionally poorly, compared with the sorts of results we have been used to. The central cause was that the vast majority of the under 21 squad were let go during the summer of 2013. There were of course many different reasons, and Arsenal …
Why the AAA behaves as they do From the case notes of Dr Brian. MBChB, BSc, Dip.So.Mani@c Consider 2,008 years ago in the days just before football was a twinkle in Tony’s eye, Narcissus was a really, really, really good looking bloke who suffered from the unwelcome attentions of a nympho called Echo (so good …
By Tony Attwood I buy two magazines a week, neither of which have anything to do with football. One is Radio Times – the magazine that lists radio and TV programmes on the main channels available in the UK and the other is New Scientist, which as you might guess, relays the main science …
Read More “End of the Nation. Get used to it Roy, your job may go!”
By Andrew Crawshaw So after the transfer window who do we have registered and likely to play for us this season – at least until the next session of madness (the January Window). Name Squad No. Home Country Position List Home grown? Wojceich Szczesny 1 Poland GK S Y Mathieu Debuchy 2 France RB S …
If you think that Financial Fair Play has had no effect, take a look at the summer transfers. Not the total amount spent, but the net spend. The money spent on transfers less the money brought in from sales. Now “What might have happened” is always by definition a hypothetical argument, but even so …
Read More “The net spending of each club gives insights into their take on this year’s FFP”
By Tony Attwood It’s a funny old world. Wednesday afternoon found us with this news… In true Arsenal style, Danny Welbeck is reported as injured despite being with the club for less than 24 hours after picking up a knock in training on international duty.(Arsenal News) Arsenal’s new £16m signing Danny Welbeck has been ruled …
The silly season is over, time to get behind the team by Mahdain Well another silly season has passed and hopefully it takes along with it all the agendas, rubbish rumours, silly childishness, entitled demanding, drivel opinions and outright idiotic outbursts. Finally the summer transfer window is shut and thankfully so because it was just …
Read More “The silly season is over, time to get behind the team”
WHEN IT IS SERIOUS…….Don McMahon This article continues our series on the interpretations and meanings behind the laws of the game. FIFA’s concern about players returning to the field of play with serious head injuries is justified and proportional to the need. That said, the player also has his word in this decision and if …
By Walter Broeckx This article is the second of me walking around in the virtual world of Arsenal fans and supporters on transfer deadline day. Part 1, if you missed it, is here. All the moaning fans were for 100% sure we would sign “Fa Kin No Wan”. Again. Again! AGAIN!!!! Anyone daring to suggest …
By Walter Broeckx As I had stayed clear almost the whole transfer window of the madness that surrounds these things I thought it would be nice to have a look at how fans reacted to it on the last day before the window slamed shut or whatever the expression is that people like to use. …
Guest appearance By Mike T Its one of those things that you say “ok yes” and you think you will do something but after an hour or two when reality kicks in you think to yourself why on earth did I agree to do that? I thought I better point out that Tom Cruise I …
Read More “The unofficial referee review: Leicester – Arsenal or Mission Impossible”
So now we know the 2014 results: In: Calum Chambers Mathieu Debuchy David Ospina Alexis Sanchez Danny Welbeck Out: Benik Afobe on loan Nic Bendtner Johann Djourou Thomas Eisfeld Lukasz Fabianski Carl Jenkinson on loan Chu-Young Park Bacary Sagna Wellington on loan Jon Toral on loan Thomas Vermaelen Ryo to FC Twente on loan Ignasi Miquel to …
Read More “Welbeck and Henry on the same starting line at Arsenal.”
In 2013 we had Boris Johnson, Mayor of London as our guest previewer talking through who we ought to buy. Here’s what he predicted who we would buy. All the names were taken from prime tips of the day. 1: Diego Costa. 2: Stevan Jovetic 3: Kevin Strootman 4: The New Jack Wilshere “Arsenal are …
By Tony Attwood I’m endlessly fascinated by the way football fans respond to football. Obviously I meet different groups of fans in all sorts of places, restaurants, pubs, car parks, trains, and in the ground itself, and most are reasonable decent people who can instantly understand that we are each regular guys who, through fate …
By Tony Attwood We filled the away section, out-shouted the home support for most of the match, but then, oh dear. I don’t know how many times the “49” song was sung, but it was great, it was powerful and it drowned the home support, and left even their mascot (who loves to goad opposition …
Read More “12 Unbeaten; AAA lead the sheep; Leicester do the water treatment”
By Walter Broeckx Arsenal drawing at Leicester is when you look at our recent history not that strange. As in the pre match article we pointed out even the invincibles had to settle for a 1-1 draw. And when you look at the fact that that season Arsenal won the league unbeaten and Leicester went …
By Bulldog Drummond It is my motto always to live an exciting life – to go to strange places (Leicester here I come), do unusual things, and wherever possible wear strange hats. I also try to be hearty and jolly in a sort of unremitting way, except when dealing with the sort of hearty …
Read More “Leicester away, all the details plus tomorrow’s newspaper headlines.”
Leicester v Arsenal 31 August 2014 – The Match Officials By Andrew Crawshaw Before I start on the officials for Sunday, here is a table illustrating the wrong important decisions to date – two games, six wrong game changing decisions, five against Arsenal and these two games were officiated by two referees who I considered …
By Tony Attwood 10 August 2013: In a somewhat unexpected result Arsenal beat Man City 3-1 in a friendly. Sebastian Perez Cardona appeared for Arsenal, and the AAA and their journalistic allies made much of the fact that the player did not have a work permit. He came on as a sub in the 67th minute wearing …
Read More “How Chelsea sneaked in Willan, but Man U failed with Rojo”
HE GOT THE BALL……by Don McMahon Recently, there has been a lot of debate about a statement that pundits, media types and commentators on TV and other media regularly use to justify a serious foul during play, often committed in a manner that is excessively dangerous and careless/reckless. As Tony mentioned to me in a …
Read More “But….. he got the ball (or “It’s the consequences squire, not the intent””
By Walter Broeckx As you may recall from an earlier post, a few months ago I was voted chairman of the Arsenal Belgium official supporters club. Since then our new board has done an amazing job. We have used all the resources we had on social media and our own website to spread the word …
By Walter Broeckx So Arsenal have done it again. For the 17th consecutive year we have managed to qualify for the CL group stages. And we all know how important that is for a club like ours. As long as we are paying for the stadium it will be an important part of the income …
Read More “Showing character is as important as playing nice football”
By Tony Attwood This was quite a night in the Emirates. Noisy, some serious long-term chanting, nervy. I thought the elderly gent (well, my sort of age) just along from me was going to have a heart attack but his wife helped him up at the end and he made it out. You could feel …
Read More “Unbeaten run gets to 11: but were the press actually there?”
By Walter Broeckx Well that was an interesting match I think. Just as in Turkey we didn’t get it handed over on a platter. It was hard work from the start to the finish. Not helped by a ref who just as the one in Turkey managed to go from brillant to blind within seconds. …
Read More “Alexis on the score sheet, Arsenal go in the group stage”
By Bulldog Drummond So, having brought you Arsenal against some toffees it is now time to face the turkeys. I don’t have to bring you the news about Giroud since it is all over the papers, displaced only by the heroics of the players from one of the Empires greatest ancient cities – Milton Keynes. …
