tmonkey

Great game.

Absolutely immense signing for a Championship side. Think he's going to have a great career here.

You don't get to where Pardew is in life without being an odious, slippery c*** of a human being. Pardew will always weasel out of all responsibility for f***ing NUFC over from having someone who would have been one of the best players in our modern history had he just played him correctly, just like he does whenever Tevez and Mascherano rotting away on the bench under Pardew's visionary management get mentioned. Absolutely sickens me that there are actually people out there who still back Pardew on his treatment of HBA, and still think HBA "wasn't that good". Pardew is the type of c*** who could be given a team like the title winning Leicester City side and have them in the bottom 5 within a year, with all the mongs out there guzzling and slurping down the spunk spewing out of the massive bellend as they nod collectively at his excuses and horrendous management.

Ronaldo must be the most demotivating teammate in the world.

What the f***. I'd have more confidence in his dedication/professionalism as a footballer if his appearance was a bit more down to earth and "normal" , like Mickey Owen for example...

As long as he doesn't shoot like he did in the last match, that's an extra couple of million in the bank for Rafa.

Because he's consistently shit/desperate/pathetic at this level.

McClaren's fitness regime shining there for Moussa.

Mr I Dream of Arsenal.

That's him moving this summer.

Reckon he'll score 15+ in the Championship, injuries permitting. Fair few from free kicks judging by the ones he's taken so far.

Good luck to Omonia, they're going to need it being managed by this mong.

I think it's clear he's a bit of a luxury player at this point in his career, and the fact that he's not a goalscoring luxury player means he's even more of a luxury player given how pivotal a hard working CM is to being a good side. However, I think there's scope for significantly improving his output by simply improving those around him. With our current crop of strikers pinging perfect balls over the top isn't as useful a weapon as it ought to be given the general lack of pace in our frontline (Cisse always offside and has no pace anyway, Mitrovic is slow and thick, Perez has decent movement but that's about it). Our wingers don't really make runs in behind either. At the same time, his defensive flaws are exacerbated by us having as porous a defense as you can get (until the last few games anyway). Improve in these areas, as we need to naturally irrespective of Shelvey, and Jonjo becomes a more useful midfielder. Although he's not worth £12m, if we got back into the Premiership he's the sort of central midfielder you'd want on paper as an immediate backup to a first team pairing or in rotation (discounting the possible poor attitude of course). At home against weaker teams where we're likely to dominate he'll be able to provide the passes that will win games, although again that's only if the players on the receiving end are able to make use of those balls. With respect to his attitude problems, whilst I won't deny that they may exist I do think in this sport many fans are quick to come out with this kind of nonsense about perfectly good players on the basis of very little (e.g. the "Fatem" tag), especially once a reputation has developed (e.g. Anelka - this club would be in an entirely different state of we had signed that "poisonous" Frenchman instead of "great guy" Owen). I don't think writing him off on the basis of very little evidence of said attitude problems is entirely fair right now. On top of that there's always the possibility that under the right management he could change, or his ego be managed appropriately. It could also be that he simply hasn't been fit enough since joining NUFC, and that a better training regime over the summer might produce a more well-rounded central midfielder. The bottom line for me is that the guy can pick a pass, especially a forward/through pass. Not many CM's in the Premiership can (let's forget the Championship), and we've had ample CM's over the past decade or two who were garbage on the ball and only good at passing it sideways. I'd say since joining the Premiership only Lee and Cabaye were genuinely good forward passers we've had capable of splitting a defense with a great pass, and to a lesser extent Speed (and at a stretch Emre too). On the basis of this talent alone I'd want us to try whatever we can to get the best out of him, give him time, adopt a glass half full approach instead of a glass half empty. If it doesn't work out because he's an egotistical prick who can't change his ways then so be it, but at least we'll have tried to nurture troubled talent instead of dumping it at the first opportunity.

Going to wreck the Championship.

If we had kept Abeid and let this fraud go we'd have stayed up imo.

Based entirely on his form whilst at NUFC, at the very least he'd have single handedly won us at least 5 extra games imo. That's purely focusing on half the mediocre teams we've faced at St James' who we've been unable to do anything against because the likes of Sissoko, Wijnaldum, et al have gone missing and the likes of Mitrovic and Ayoze have been unable to threaten the goal properly. All we needed in some of those games was someone to pick the ball up and make something happen once to win - such was the margin for winning or losing. It's also ignoring the fact that when he was here and given a run of games in a suitable position, he carried the team's attack, picking the ball up in his own half and beating a player or two to open up space. He acted as a magnet for the opposition players to mark him tightly. I'd imagine the likes of Townsend, Wijnaldum and Perez would find more space to exploit (and more chances coming their way) with Ben Arfa in the team.

The mistake Vardy made was not going for the right type of "dive" (as opposed to simply going for the dive). The centreback very clearly tugs his arm/shoulder, which would have put Vardy's balance off given the pace he was running at, and I suspect that is what caused Vardy to think "I need to go down" as a shot on his weaker foot whilst off balance would have been difficult. He just chose the wrong type of dive in the split second he made his mind up - needed to fall backwards/sideways to clearly show the effect of the defender grabbing him. Strikers go down quite regularly in this scenario, and never get carded when the referee decides there's no foul.

Tempted to think we'll come straight back up if we retain enough talent. Appreciate that many clubs who get relegated don't do that and we won't have the experienced core we had last time, but my recollection of the Championship last time we were there was it being full of utter dross. Most teams had zero pace/talent in midfield, mediocre keepers/defenders, and absolute garbage up front - the type of league where Harewood and Lovenkrands (when they were no longer Premiership standard) were good players. I don't think it'd take much to have a team that stands out as the best. Can see the likes of Haidara, Lascelles, Elliott, Dummett, Armstrong, Aarons, Saivet, Riviere, etc, doing very well in the Championship. If we add a few experienced players to that (e.g. Williamson, Routledge type signings) in addition to whoever remains because noone else wants them (probably a couple from Colo, Mitrovic, De Jong, Shelvey, Marveaux, Gouffran, Colback, possibly Saylor), it could very easily be another season of us stomping teams weekly as we'll find that the crap Premiership players we're currently lumbered with are genuinely decent to good players by Championship standards. Maybe I'm being overly optimistic and that season for us was a fluke - certainly was surprised at how weak some of those teams who had somewhat recently been in the Premiership were. However, still certain that even after the exodus we'll still have a fairly decent squad that will just need some decent fillers and we'll be fairly competitive at the very least.

"Messi hasn't been in it at all so far". Nothing new really, usually plays shit in these types of games till he pops up with a goal.

On a seperate note, relevant to a discussion in this thread a couple of days ago, Mahrez just put in the kind of performance against West Ham Sunderland that would have had all of these "fans" who criticised Hatem during his time here up in arms. Massive game yet he coasted through it not bothering to defend properly, losing the ball frequently, having zero impact in the final third, generally looking uninterested, etc. Reminded me of Hatem's 45 minutes against Hull when he went from one of the best attacking players in the league at the time (publicly acknowledged by Pardew) to instantly a villain in the eyes of some after he failed to convert a couple of dribbles into something meaningful. One wonders why Mahrez wasn't hauled off, blamed publicly, and immediately dropped/forced to play with the reserves - might be because Leicester won the game due to the rest of the team being competent, and therefore there wasn't this ridiculous double standard in play of expecting Mahrez to single handedly win games whilst absolving the rest of the team for doing nothing. Or maybe Mahrez isn't a "bad egg" or "an arsehole" like Hatem supposedly was. On which note, thank f*** we've got nothing but "good eggs" now, should be really handy for the Championship...

I think he's flat out our best footballer (on the ball) at this point in time. Which isn't saying much, but at least he controls the ball well and can pass it with a degree of talent and intelligence, something you can't really say for anyone else. He's going to be inconsistent or anonymous every other week because if he wasn't he'd be playing for a bigger/better team. I hope he stays in the Championship so we can build a team around him. Get some pace up front and players who like getting in behind and he'll be ace. Realistically though he'll be off.

I think he's looked very nervous on the ball, so far anyway. His balance is weird, like he's tiptoeing or something. Will be good for the Championship, but any potential will be stunted by playing alongside Saylor.

All part of Pardew's legacy. Remember those youngsters from the Academy set to come through who Pardew promised us we'd be "very excited" about whilst he was gutting our squad and freezing out Abeid, Santon, Ben Arfa, M'Bwia?

Matuidi another player who looks consistently shit whenever I watch PSG in the CL.

:lol: This game is hilarious.