alpal78

Eduardo had a much worse break than Ben Arfa, Eduardo broke his shin, fibula and ankle, his foot was almost hanging off as the bones had cut through his skin. I'm sure the break was so bad that Eduardos leg had a 90 degree bend in it where it shouldn't have had one, his ankle was also dislocated. Mick I'm no medical expert, but isn't the tibia also known as the shinbone in which case, we would have to conclude that HBA also fucked his shin?

I guess to me that is the worst part of this episode (well aside from losing him for almost the whole season). With him playing, he was 90% ours, the 25 games clause was to protect Marseille, but it also works in our favour. Given how good he was and the impact he would have had on our team, I could not see Hughton refusing to play him for 25 games just to avoid buying him . But now everything is up in the air and it gives any of a variety of parties the perfect excuse not to go through with the deal. I would not be surprised if we've seen the last of HBA in a black and white shirt

Why? hahaha the choice for the whole online order was kind of limited

Just sent some get well baloons through the club, hope it reaches him. I know baloons sounds like poof but it was that or flowers

"There is an option for Newcastle to purchase him bound to a number of matches. He won't play them, obviously, but we'll have to see what Newcastle do" Which means we'll buy him if we want him?! Of course, the 25 game clause is their for Marseilles benefit, to ensure we couldn't get a good season out of him on the cheap and then return him, it'll have no baring on whether we can sign him or not. Correct me if I'm wrong, does it also not mean though that had he played the 25 games, Marseilles can't refuse to sell and the price is fixed, which means he is ours if we want to. But now that he won't be playing the 25 games, Marseilles can reject our offer or increase the price?

i'm still not claer on the terms of this agreement. is it a) he HAS to play 25 games for us to have the option to buy him. or b) if he plays 25 games we HAVE to buy him for an agreed price? any progress on finding out where we can send get well soon cards too, i think we should organise a mass Newcastle Online card sending bonanza I'm all for that...count me in if ever

Just posted that in the de Jong thread. "Tackles like that have to stay as part of the game" f***ing moron. Takes a special kind of dick to manage to say something that f***ing stupid especially when the victim of such tackle is a player from a club that he happens to be the assistant manager of!

Did that really happen?...I just thought some of our supporters in their anger made that up...he's more of a cunt if he really did that!

Exactly Parky, a bad tackle is not just a full blooded studs up tackle. I always thought that a scissor tackle was equally as bad and resulted in an automatic red card. In a way a scissor tackle is worse than a studs up tackle because in the latter the striker can still move just before the point of impact but in a scissor tackle once the front leg goes in to block the striker's leg, the striker in effect can't move anymore and all that is left is for the trailing leg to crash into the trapped leg. In other words the striker is at the mercy of the defender and all that determines whether there is a leg break is how strong is the impact of the trailing leg.

At least the surgery was successful, the way our luck was going, I would not have been surprised had the surgeon fucked up the surgery! http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/n/newcastle_united/9055823.stm

What makes it really sad for me is that not only have we've lost our main creative outlet but a player who I feel genuinely loves the club. I mean the guy came to the club on his own to seek a transfer, he was always so sure he would play in the black and white that it feels almost like destiny and fated. Even when injured and on the stretcher where most players I've seen just cover their face on the way out, this guy sits up and applaud the fans. In what must be one of the most difficult moment of his career and persumably in some pain, his first thoughts was clapping the fans. If that does not make you feel something inside, then you are more robotic than a Peter Crouch dance!

Wow look at me, I'm different and macho. I can compartmentalize my emotions and be sooo rationale about the whole thing! Someone had to say it

Wow look at me, I'm different and macho. I can compartmentalize my emotions and be sooo rationale about the whole thing!

I'm sorry Keegan or no Keegan, any commentator who says that there was nothing wrong with that tackle is ignorant and a c*** of the highest order! Even if De Jong went in for the ball, one of the most basic rules on tackling is that a scissor tackle is a straight red for precisely the reason that it is almost certain to be a leg breaker. Essentially the front leg blocks the victims's leg from moving and before the 'victim's' leg can move out of the way, the other leg comes from behind and thrash it with such force that it basically goes through the bones. The combination of the force from the hind leg and the obstruction from the front leg is almost guaranteed to break a leg. Any commentator who does not know this is just an idiot! I would have thought that Keegan with his brand of attacking football and understanding of flair players would know better, unfortunately he is just as idiotic as the rest who thinks a leg breaker tackle is synanomous with a welcome to the English League.

I couldn't agree more...I absolutely hate it when cunts like McMahon defends tackles like against Aaron Ramsey as just bad timing or there was no malice. Fuck me if you go in with a scisor tackle like that, I don't care whether it's reckless or bad timing, you're out to break a leg. It's like throwing a molotov cocktail into a room full of petrol and say oh I didnt mean for the place to explode!

Might only be a month hopefully. Parky you're taking the piss...a leg break and only out for a month!? That was a fucking scissor tackle with both legs crunching into the ankle...how is that not a red card. We seem to be doing well...but I've lost interest in the game.

That's a double blow. Not only are we severely depeleted in attack now, but we obviously won't be keeping him for next season as there is no way he will be playing 25 games now! I fucking hope that one of our players either take out De Jong or fucking break Tevez...an eye for an eye!

Hard to argue against Nolan's undue influence after reading something like that. This is getting sad quite honestly, stubbornness that will be both his and unfortunately our undoing.

He's a player learning, there was nothing for him to do in that match because he was isolated. Fair enough his defensive duties didn't make the grade but really not many would have faired much better the way we played Carroll yesterday. He had no service, Routledge managed only a couple of decent crosses in to the box, but were too far away from Carroll, wrong angles or pace and his only really chance for me came from Jonas and he at least hit the target, one or two more of them and he might have got a goal. The team 2nd half was atrocious, uninspired crap, we can't expect the young lads to pick us up, it has to come from our captain and senior players but those have shown to be the real problems, ones which show no signs of going away until their contracts run out. You mentioned his movement, but really his movement was typical of the whole front line. Carroll needs a partner to help with the burden, preferably a fast tricky player he can flick and head on too and be set up by. HBA is the only player we've got that matches that description even though he's not a striker but that means dropping Nolan, and that isn't happening apart from injury or hell freezing over. I agree with you mostly. Obviously playing up front alone and Hughton's stupid insistence for Nolan to 'support' him contributed to him not beng able to do anything of substance. But putting these factors aside, he too had a poor game (perhaps measured by his earlier performances). What struck me the most was that he wasn't making any runs at all. Surely he realized at some point that it was gonna be difficult for him to outmuscle both Huth and Shawcross, but even when HBA ran to the middle and looked up for a killer pass, Carroll jus remained static. There were just no options for HBA. Compare this to his run against Villa for the last goal. My assessment of him does not depend on him scoring, like against Everton eventhough he didnt score, I thought he had a decent game. Remember that run he made when HBA perhaps passed a split second too late? Carrol had a shot anyway but the keeper saved. Didn't see any of that against Stoke.

If that is his comments/justifications...then he has clearly not learnt his lessons. Yes Chris it is good to have goal scorers on the pitch but could you not see that HBA in the middle (replacing the knackered Nolan) with Jonas on the left would have been more of a threat than having two immobile strikers 'supported' by the lumbering Nolan?

So, basically, he was giving the ball away repeatedly? That's not true, he only lost the ball once. If anything he wasn't trying to make something happen enough. Not sure that is particularly true either. He was trying to create something but there were just no movement upfront for him to do anything. A couple of times (at least in the 1st half) he dribbles past players to the center, paused for a while to look for runners and there was none (I was screaming my head off for someone to run into space). Without that he inevitably tried the only option he had which was to cross to the back post (still a few decent crosses) but there was no way Carroll was gonna get those when he was being marked out by both Huth and Shawcross.

Why was Bafra poor exactly? He's not going to score wondergoals every game. [/wink] He is the only player we have who can give good passes into the box and he did that, just that there wa nobody there except Carroll marked by about 500 Jabba's. He's obviously not going to be amazing every game, and I'm not suggesting that. I just thought he was poor. He rarely attempted to run at anyone, and there was 4 or or 5 occassions where Barton was trying to tell him to go past Carroll from flick ons and he just stood there. Obviously, there is a language barrier there to break down, but I just thought he was poor, and practically marked out of the game. If that is you summary then maybe we were watching different games because apart from scoring another screamer, he played he same way in the first half as he did against Everton. Ya second half he was less effective but he is playing as a left winger...it should be Nolan's role to play off Carroll or to get Carroll's flicks. If he is gonna be labelled poor because he didn't cut in from the left dribbling a few players pass to Carrol (who wasn't moving into space) and then run in to get the return balls, then God help him.

I don't wanna be harsh on him because on his day he is quite decent and he is really the only hope we have upfront. Bu Carroll need sto improve the basics like running off the ball...he was as static as Nolan today.

Couldn't agree more. We were never going to beat Stoke by getting in a battle with them. We should have hit their lumbering defenders with speed and skill, HBA had plenty of joy in the first half had anyone had the wit or movement to make the most of it. I like Hughton but he needs to show a bit more faith in his football principles instead of trying to shoehorn all his favourite characters into the team and playing safe. All true - agree about Barton too, because playing a 4-5-1, esp at home, puts huge responsibility on ALL the midfield players to support the CF ; esp when he's having a tough day as was Carroll. Main problem is we haven't got enough pace on the flanks - Gutierrez and Enrique are a better pairing there than Jose and HBA. HBA needs to play in Nolan's position with Guti on the flank. You then have the problem of Guti's poor crossing and final pass...... As was said before the season , we are short of a couple of players - a striker and a creative midfielder who can put accurate passes through a tall massed defence. You made some good points but can't agree with the part of the creative midfielder. We have one already and probably one of the best in the league, it's just that a) Hughton is blind and can't seem to drop Nolan and let that creative midfielder play where he is supposed to and ii) even when he did roam to the middle to try and influence the game more, there were absolutely no movement upfront...nobody was making any runs at all! HBA got frustrated being stuck on the lef that he was going inside and even to the right to try and make something, but that inevitable meant that we lost our shape. If Hughton only had the balls to drop Nolan, that would solve quite a few problems. a) HBA would be more influential and he can be given the freedom to play across the park and b) with Jonas on the left, we would not be losing our shape that often with the added bonus of getting back the Enrique + Jonas combo. The only downside I see is that with Jonas on the left, yes we would have to endure some of his shit crosses, but that would be more movement and I quite fancy Jonas and HBA combining well with short and run passes.

He's not supposed to get into the box. He's a deep lying playmaker of a type. I feel sorry for him, cause he and Ben arfa had no one to pass to. And if you didn't see that you're blind. There was no forwards to support as there was no ball. A more static offensive line than the one lead by Carroll and Nolan today is hard to find. Maybe if you put an old man and Jabbahdahut up top there be less movement. Completely agree with this. In the first half when HBA dribbled past players he looked up that was absolutely no movement, nobody was making any runs...it's like they were all watching him and saying..."oooh lala he is a good player non"! He inevitably tried the only option he had, to cross the ball, but that is playing right into Stoke's game plan...don't think many teams will beat Stoke via cross and headers.