steve_69

pissed!

laughing my cock off!

Sunderland (H) - win City (A) - Lose Stoke (H) - draw Wigan (H) - win West Ham (A) - draw 8 points

I know this is a slightly tenious contribution but Dickie Bird (probably the best cricket umpire the game has seen) claims that his experience as a first class cricketer was instrumental in him being such a good umpire. The difficulty with footballers is that most of them are verging on being retarded, but i've no doubt that some of the more intelligent ex-players would do a better job as officials than most of the current lot. I certainly think they'd command more respect

Am I the only person on here who doesn't rate Gary Neville? Aside from the fact he's a detestable, cuntfaced little prick, I've never actually thought he was as good as people made out.

I think his main problem is that he's a right-footed winger playing on the left. For some this isn't so much of a problem eg. Ashley Young, but Jonas is more of a 'take it to the byline' type winger. When he gets to the byline his left foot isn't good enough to swing in a decent cross so he just fucks about for ages until we innevitably win a throw in or a corner. I'd like to see what Jonas could produce on the right wing, with Ben Arfa on the left. Unfortunately this means dropping Routledge who has looked decent so far.

Others not mentioned anywhere: Paul Gascoigne Teddy Sheringham Andrew Cole David Seaman John Barnes David Ginola Wayne Rooney Jurgen Klinsmann Marc Overmars Emmanuel Petit Claude Makelele Robert Pires Jaap Stam

....................................Schmeichel Dixon...............Adams.................Hendry..............Pearce ......................................Viera Beckham.........Ronaldo..............Beardsley............Giggs ....................................Shearer

So according to the collective, there's no chance he'll drop Barton, Nolan, Routledge or Jonas. Looks like a frustration season for Ben Arfa!

I can see Hughton employing two holding midfielders for this one, as he did in some away games last season. Hopefully that'll be Barton sitting deeper alongside Tiote but more likely is Barton dropped and Smith playing alongside Tiote. If that is the case then we'll most probably be looking to counter-attack which gives Hughton the ideal opportunity to play the more pacy Ben Arfa behind Carroll. .................................Harper Perch...........Colo...................Williamson.........Jose ...................Smith..................Tiote Routeldge...................................................Jonas ................................Ben Arfa ................................Carroll Or, I could be way off the mark.

It's not like Nolan is standing there while the rest of the team plays this high energy attacking football around him. We simply don't have the squad to play like that, and one new player will not magically turn the rest of them into a team that can play like that. We have to live with that fact for this season at least, and Hughton has to try and put together a team that works effectively week in week out with what he has. Nolan is playing as a forward. His job is to get into positions to get chances, to score goals and set up others. He did it all last season and he's been doing it this season. As long as he keeps doing that, and as long as he keeps putting some of them away, then he's doing his job. If there's someone in the squad who can do that better than Nolan then fine - Shola? Lovenkrands? Ranger? - but I'm not sure why everyone is so keen to shoe-horn Ben Arfa into that position when he's been a midfielder most of his career. You say "we looked far more threatening after his introduction". Well he replaced Gutierrez, not Nolan. Perhaps that's why we looked better. best post in the thread imo It is like that actually. Ben Arfa also made a difference due to his individual efforts. But so did taking off both our wingers, we lost what little shape and width we had and the game resembled a playground free for all. Somehow Nolan survived the baffling changes and trundled about in his wading through treacle way, with the best view of all. I'm pretty sure Nolan has also spent his entire career as a midfielder yet you seem to have no problem with him being shoe-horned into a forward role?

Smith is Vice Captain right? The two players who most need replacing in the first team hold the Captaincy and Vice Captaincy. I'd be surprised if he drops them both but if he does he'll go up even further in my estimation.

I've just added my team from my work league to this league. I assume my existing points tally will carry across?

So far none of the players have given him an excuse to drop them - until yesterday. If he'd taken Nolan, Smith etc. out of the first team for yesterday's game it would've been poor management IMO, because they've done nothing to warrant being dropped. After yesterday's performance I think there's a reasonable argument for dropping Smith, and maybe Nolan as well.

Fucking filthy Ruski pigs!

Brilliant. Thanks Dave

Can anyone point me in the direction of the video containing the dog from the smiley?

Hughton must get loads of pussy. He always says exactly the right thing at the right time.

Use the guy as an impact sub until he's up to speed with the rigours of the Premier League. It's a fast, physical league that Ben Arfa isn't used to so it would be daft to just chuck him in at the deep end and expect him to be shit hot. Dos Santos is a similar kind of player to Ben Arfa and he couldn't hack it. He's getting the occasional run-out in the Spurs first team now but he's been in England for 3 years?

Given what I was expecting when 'no new capital outlay' was announced and 'loans and free transfers' were seen as the only options, i'm absolutely over the moon with our transfer window. A pacy striker would have been the icing on the cake but I now think we have enough quality in midfield to make up for the collective lack of talent up front (Carroll obviously excluded)

Super art.... He's got ridiculous balance and he's quite a bit quicker than I thought he was. Very exciting!

Just watched the match on football first. Looked like everyone played well including Smith. Routledge seems to be getting netter with every top flight game. Very well done to Barton for not losing his head. I don't think i've seen a more blatant case of targeted thuggery on one player in all my time watching football. We've got to stop giving away silly freekicks in our half though, the better teams in the league will punish us from set pieces if we don't cut it out

Assuming Ben Arfa signs, if someone had told me at the start of the transfer window that we'd sign him, Sol Campbell, Dan Gosling and a quality defensive midfielder i'd have laughed my tits off. Full credit to Hughton and (dare I say it) Ashley and Llambias as well.

Sell him for £5m, buy Curtis Davies for £4m, spend £1m on pies and hookers. Everyone's a winner!

I can understand why he's been transfer listed but I think it's a shame that he's going to leave the club. Let's just hope the fat chod is prepared to reinvest whatever money we get from his sale.