Sifu

Well, that's a surprise See ya Stephane! Seriously though, without Sessegnon, the mackems could very well struggle next season. O'Neill won't sign another player like him, the man will probably sign an overrated English/British based player.

Simpson's a doubt.

If Simpson is out, wouldn't mind seeing Santon at RB and Ferguson at LB on Sunday (in fact, I would very much like to see it happen!). If Fergie's having a rough time (I'm sure he'll be fine though), then we can easily bring on Perch for the second half.

Just to add on to this, the deal Arsenal had with Monaco was apparently a 3m initial fee with an add-on of 9m if Park could at any point get out of his national service. So Arsenal are about to fork up an extra 9 million Euros. For a player who never plays Nice transfer negotiations, Arsene (+ the board), ha!

i was thinking that but after reading snippets from an interview with ben arfa saying his head wasn't right and how much sharper he looks now, i'm not so sure. can anyone link to the interview btw, i can't remember if it was in quotes or from pardew or whatever, it was while i was at work very early in the morning but made me put my thoughts on the matter on hold a bit. Think this is it: http://www.newcastle-online.org/nufcforum/index.php/topic,91227.msg3562130/topicseen.html#msg3562130

Hmmm. Really don't mind Hart like.....

What's wrong with Hart? Tagging him as John Terry MkII is a bit extreme like.....

Interesting, very interesting.

Some good work tonight, Manchester.

If this is true, then what a farce this has been from the Wolves board.

Bye Man U. A much deserved win for Bilbao. Completely outclassed the Mancs.

Oooo, that's a great strike from Rooney.

Game over for Man U. Much deserved goal for Bilbao.

That would have been a great goal there. Did so well until the finish.

Wooo, Nicky Butt.

Llorente off, shame!

It really does. Lovely.

Great goal.

Just switched the Bilbao-Man U game on. So I gather Man U have been crap? (judging from wormy's post).

Yeah, it was one of his better games this season. So it was actually a shame what happened at the end, it does go to show that one lapse of concentration can really be costly and stupid. In terms of his development, you could say that his poor performances at the start of the season were down to his personal problems - but now that such a period is behind him, I was really hoping to see some signs of improvement from last season and to see him properly step it up. Unfortunately, I've hardly seen any signs of him developing. His attacking play is very limited and it does limit the team, it has to be said. Like I've said before though, would still like to have him around.

That's a nice, interesting read. The analysis is decent imo and it does point to one thing that we've known for a while now, we miss Steven Taylor. But, as ever, stats don't count for anything if you don't have the actual performances to back it up. For example, Simpson making the most tackles doesn't really say anything about his actual overall defensive ability (still better than Raylor's though).

A serious doubt according to the Chronicle.

Nice couple of articles on the last two pages or so. Very positive stuff. The lad certainly has a massive role to play in the final 10 games! Now, whether you can attribute Hatem's recent rise/return to the team to Pardew's man management is quite a difficult question to answer imo. I really think that Pardew's handling of the whole affair has been wrong. What Ben Arfa simply needed was an extended run of games and given the same number of opportunities as the others, such as a certain Gabriel Obertan. Pardew's quotes in the press about Ben Arfa's workrate/defensive work has also been the wrong way to go about the whole situation too - Alan was pretty much voicing a bit of his discontent in the public and you really can't be doing that. However, you could probably argue that Ben Arfa needs to be constantly reminded of his responsibilities to the team so maybe that's why Pardew's been saying these things in the press (I'm just guessing here btw, no one really knows what goes on behind the scenes or at training). So, genius man management? I doubt it, the fact that Ben Arfa has been in and out of the starting lineup doesn't really equate to Pardew handling the situation properly (for me anyway). Think we should give credit to Hatem, guess he's really stepped it up in training and showing Pardew that he can be relied on in both an attacking and a defensive sense.

Worst set of tactics I've ever seen a manager employ. I remember that SSN interview very well, "0-0 would be a good result." Urgh.

They own the airport man. Said so on RTG. Ponteland ftw/tbh. FTM.