Beren

:lol:

Urgh.

"Not quite"

Lost control of the dressing room. Players making decision on how to beat the opposition.

Alan Shearer is a weird one as a pundit. Seemingly, his attempt to appear neutral has gutted any charisma or cheekiness that would have made him mildly entertaining as a pundit. It's taken us rising to the dizzy heights of third to stop him from over-compensating with negativity towards the team in his quest to appear objective. As nauseating as we find the bias of Lawro and Hansen, part of me would quite like a Newcastle representative (who pissed off fans of the other clubs! ).

Worried by how quickly Dave found such a specific quote.

Would it matter? Everyone will call it SJP anyway.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/15666185.stm Magedia

You can't have it both ways. If you credit the good, you have to debit the bad. Your devalue your support of any issue by saying "only look at the points (no matter how fleeting) that support my argument". Strange choice of word. During, what is essentially still convalescence, I do think you can have it both ways. An argument by definition is an attempt to persuade someone of something, by giving reasons or evidence for accepting a particular conclusion. Why do you say it is a strange choice of word? It appears to me that you are arguing the position that this player has only positive attributes. Maybe you need to define your terms for me. What does "essentially still convalescence" mean? I understand that convalescence is but have trouble applying it here. Is he physically unable to perform? Or, do you contend that the player should not be commented upon until such time as you deem it appropriate? I admit that I have trouble with the line of thinking that says no negative comments because he suffered an injury 13 months ago. How is this reasonable? Expectations can be modified to come to terms with that reality; howewer, no player can be excused. If anything it is the, so far unjustified, claims that he is going to be brilliant for Newcastle that are adding to the degradation of the thread. Wow. For the sake of clarity, though: - I didn't say HBA has only positive attributes. - By 'convalescence' I mean he has not recovered from breaking his leg, and is lacking match sharpness that only gradual and incremental gametime can provide him. In the interim, I do think it a little ill-advised to make criticisms of him as a player. You might as well be criticising Shakespeare's literacy skills as a toddler for all the relevance it has to what Shakespeare will have as a writer when an adult. (the comparison is a little extreme, I grant you ) So, by all means criticise him, but criticisms are fairly meaningless at this stage (unless they're based on pre-injury Ben Arfa viewings). - In terms of when it will be appropriate to criticise him (and yes, it seems as though some are waiting to do so! ), I don't know how things will play out. So I don't have any answer for you - though I appreciate how much stock my opinion holds with you! I would say that in the absence of Tiote, Cabaye, Marveaux and Obertan, it seems telling (to me, anyway) that Pardew brought in Gosling, Guthrie and Sammy Ameobi ahead of Ben Arfa in the midfield, who eventually came on to replace an injured Best. Whilst Pardew may see HBA as a "number 10", I'm fairly confident he would have come into midfield much sooner if Pardew thought him to be on top of his game. So, I don't think that time is here yet.

You can't have it both ways. If you credit the good, you have to debit the bad. Your devalue your support of any issue by saying "only look at the points (no matter how fleeting) that support my argument". Strange choice of word. During, what is essentially still convalescence, I do think you can have it both ways.

I was going to listen to it until I heard Shearer was going to be on it

Cabaye doesn't feel settled in the league yet (by his own admission) yet his quickly-found relative success so far seems to have skewed expectation levels for Ben Arfa upon his return after a year out. Right now, there can only really be positives - every flash of brilliance (no matter how fleeting!) can only be progress. Everything else really can't be taken seriously at this stage. If any perceived weaknesses or foibles are still overly evident months down the line of playing - then the doubts can have credibility, but right now they're without foundation or substance IMO. That being said, for those who are intimately familiar with the player he was pre-injury (and I'm genuinely not sure how many there are!), there's no harm in discussing his future role in the team (ie. discussing pre-existing features of his game which would better suit him to certain positions over others).

Nah, I hope so too, mate. Let's pick this up again in a couple of years time, aye? Or at least once he's had one full season?

Daddy Simpson and Leon 'Papa knows' Best in one season. Congrats to the big man.

Was the accompanying picture of villagers with pitchforks and missing teeth? European mainland an unknown land ffs. Who do they think Newcastle are? Sunderland? Pfft.

Citeh 2 - 4 NUFC Man Utd 2 - 1 NUFC NUFC 1 - 2 Chelsea

Definitionally, the Real test won't come until we take down Mourinho's men. Easy fixtures until then.

Followers of African international football: Will our hattrick hero destroyer be starting for Senegal in both games against Guinea and Cote d'Ivoire, do we think?

Agreed. You da man, Sifu.

Left wing wasn't he? Thought so, just double checking.

I forget - how and where was Ben Arfa playing prior to De Jong's tackle?

You are not Alan Pardew. You may wish to be Alan Pardew, but you are not Alan Pardew.

Fair price, tbf. It's a friendly and I'll be surprised if Spain turn up with any real intent or purpsoe. It's an exhibition match. England conversely will work hard with little quality but lots of graft. It'll be a tight game IMO.

The pitch was water-logged, ball stopped in the grass as we passed it around... sucks to drop points like this, but it was the worst possible environment for us. Basically, you wouldn't have a chance against Stoke on a cold, rainy Wednesday night. Nice. Tbf to Barca, they're not Newcastle man. They're doing well given their resources.