Memphis
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Posts posted by Memphis
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I assume once this thread gets to 400 pages, Ben Arfa will immediately be signed on a permanent basis.
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Apropos of nothing...
In the tunnel at Goodison Park, the 23-year-old with his wispy beard looked the model of a young footballer, wonderfully happy to have scored on his full debut, let alone with something so special."It was a very important win because, after losing to Blackpool, the pressure on us was enormous," Ben Arfa said. "It was building up inside our heads, so we are very relieved and happy to have won. Losing to Blackpool was something we didn't expect; we knew Everton would be very hard and to have won here tells you something about what we can achieve."
Thus far Ben Arfa's only problems have been that he does not speak English and, apart from Cheik Tiote, Newcastle's Ivory Coast midfielder, nobody at St James' Park understands French, although the Tunisian's family have accompanied him to Tyneside to make settling in easier.
His first impressions of Newcastle were of "a big, big club with some really astonishing supporters" and, as Ben Arfa acknowledged, you could say the same of Marseilles, the club he had just left. And yet, to have exchanged the French champions for something as uncertain as Newcastle, when the likes of Werder Bremen were offering Champions League football, was something of a risk.
"No, sometimes in football you have to take a risk," he said. "When I came to Newcastle for the first time you could see how big it was. It may have been newly promoted, but it didn't feel like it. There are so many good players at the club. You could see that on the pitch. And it is a great thing when you play in front of passionate fans. You want to give them something back."
Sounds miserable.
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This really says it all...Alan Smith's chalkboard from the Blackpool match compared with Cheik Tiote's from the Everton match:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/54M9E95wk2r00064A2f6
The difference in mobility, activity, and obviously the result is astounding.
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its a mix of both, i wouldn't trust shearer to tell me about a player from the french league but then i wouldn't be too keen on gaby marcotti highlighting tactical bits and playing insights like ex players can.The problem, and this is being echoed online by many professional pundits/commentators, is that regardless of whether or not the general public knows about a player, a pundit is paid to know. If you don't know, don't go on the air and say that. Go on the air after doing your research and educate people about what you learned. That is the point of your job as a pundit. Especially if the public is supporting your poor efforts financially.
I wouldn't expect a detailed breakdown of statistics and performances from Shearer but to act like he's an unknown commodity takes the piss. Just a little scouting. Use that massive BBC video library to give a little watch to a few of his previous performances and then talk about him on the air. The BBC has hundreds of interns that can edit all sorts of tape together to make it easy on him if he wants to do it. But he doesn't. It's a lack of professional pride and it's like taking money when he gets paid.
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The problem, and this is being echoed online by many professional pundits/commentators, is that regardless of whether or not the general public knows about a player, a pundit is paid to know. If you don't know, don't go on the air and say that. Go on the air after doing your research and educate people about what you learned. That is the point of your job as a pundit. Especially if the public is supporting your poor efforts financially.
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True enough, but in addition to that, he's played significantly for teams in the Champions League and Ligue 1. Lyon and Marseille are reasonably well-known, I'd have thought.
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Shearer's embarrassing himself a bit making comments like, "No one really knows a great deal about Ben Arfa..."
He's a full French international, Al. Watch a little football from time to time and you learn lots of neat stuff.
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It's amazing what it looks like when you have a mobile midfield that can pass a bit and tackle a bit too. We've completely overrun a more than decent Everton central midfield of Arteta, Osman, and Fellaini.
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Can't believe how good Ben Arfa's goal was. You can't believe it. Out of nothing. Just biding his time about 25 yards out, eases the ball to his left foot, then BOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!! Into the upper right-hand corner like a laserbeam - Howard had no hope. We haven't seen anything like that in ages.
And Tiote is just awesome. Awesome. Totally controlling things in the center.
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Why do people expect pragmatism and perspective 5 minutes after a home loss to Blackpool? That's not ever going to happen.
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Still like the guy but the response to today's loss will be extremely telling. Will he have the cojones to drop Nolan and Smith?
And we can see now for certain that tactical adjustments and substitutions are a problem.
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This is what we do.
This is who we are.
I wish it weren't so, but it is.
Beat Villa 6-0, lose to Blackpool 0-2. Sounds about right for our club.
Changes all around for next week then. We'll probably win 0-8.
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If it was difficult to justify dropping Nolan/Smith based on results so far, and it was prior to this, it isn't now.
Maybe that's the only silver lining here.
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Amazing that Ben Arfa hasn't been thrown on yet.
It really is.
Spend weeks trying to negotiate to get a player of his quality in and then not use him in a perfect situation. Perfect.
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Hope the availability of what should be legitimate impact subs on the bench makes Hughton a more daring manager.
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http://cache2.asset-cache.net/xc/103936922.jpg?v=1&c=NewsMaker&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF87892102A727B1636DE2E6185151CDAD1DA830A26433D7EAC1F81EB4B3985FF563EA26
Lovely work here.
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I have to say I'm really pleasantly surprised by the efficiency and effectiveness we've shown in the window. We've got a sensible manager who keeps his business to himself, seems to have unified the squad, and boosted confidence and spirit among the players. We've got a young Geordie forward who looks to be on track for great things if he continues to progress at this rate. We've signed a true wild card, flair player who has international class and skill, is only 23, and will be motivated to succeed here because of the nature of his transfer. In short, I didn't expect that we'd have been nearly this effective, and I think we've got a squad that puts us comfortably in the middle of the Premier League - which would be just fine with me.
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Don't know where else to put it, but Ian Holloway's column in the Independent yesterday is well worth a read - I really like the guy and find myself pulling for him.
It was great to sit down with Arsène Wenger and talk football for a few minutes after our game at Arsenal. He had a glass of wine, I had a beer and he was lovely to speak to.As well as being someone whom I hugely admire, he is simply a very nice man, a total gentleman. He is quietly spoken, very thoughtful and he was very complimentary about us, despite the scoreline.
He thought that we did well and pointed out that in an hour with an extra man, his team only managed to score four.
We might have conceded an equaliser three minutes from the end but what a fantastic game against Fulham yesterday. I enjoyed every minute.Fabio Capello was watching from our directors' box but I think he was looking at Bobby Zamora rather than my players.
The whole thing is worth checking out.
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Can't get enough of that video.
The presenter's response is cringe-worthy, though - "I didn't mean it like that!!!!"
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Luis Fabiano has signed a contract extension with Sevilla.
(the Spurs ITKs must have missed that one)
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http://unrealitymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/teenwolf560.jpg
He's also supposedly quite good at basketball.
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Not too pour too much cold water on von Wolfenstein 3D or whatever, but having had a look at the hat trick against Celtic, the first two were penalties. Third was a lovely finish, however. Does look to link up well it would seem.
Youtube Wise would easily pay 2 or 3 Nachos for him, but I'm not so sure.
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its easy to drop him if you believe you have a better option. what hughtons choice is, is to make a change or two for what should be one of the easier games ? will the changes make a win more or less likely, yes the personnel will be stronger but will they gel straight away ?We have to crawl before we walk. Whether you like the guy or not, he's scored goals and been in goalscoring positions. On that form, it's hard to drop him. We can't just sign one highly-touted creative player and go from Smith/Barton/Nolan to Xavi/Iniesta/Messi - there's got to be a middle ground.
The style will adapt and Nolan will probably slide out of the starting XI. But he's also key to team unity/spirit, etc. Dropping him is a delicate situation potentially, especially if you're replacing him with a moody Frenchman.
Sure, Hughton will have to pick the right spot and the right method to integrate HBA into the squad. But I hardly think that he's going to slot him in straight away in place of the team captain and a very vocal leader on and off the pitch, especially after we've made such a decent start to the season. If anything, I can see him dropping Jonas and/or Routledge more so than Nolan. Less of a risk, particularly with Routledge, of damaging morale and balance.
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We have to crawl before we walk. Whether you like the guy or not, he's scored goals and been in goalscoring positions. On that form, it's hard to drop him. We can't just sign one highly-touted creative player and go from Smith/Barton/Nolan to Xavi/Iniesta/Messi - there's got to be a middle ground.
The style will adapt and Nolan will probably slide out of the starting XI. But he's also key to team unity/spirit, etc. Dropping him is a delicate situation potentially, especially if you're replacing him with a moody Frenchman.
Hatem Ben Arfa
in Football
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Indeed. Impossible to add to that.