Dr Venkman

I like him in the number 10 position but I do think in certain games it'd be handy to have him start from a bit deeper. He goes past people really well, when teams are trying to crowd us out he can open up space really quickly by going past one or two.

He's got some self belief this one like

Thought someone had photoshopped a pastie onto Tiote's head.

MOTM today, imperious in the air, strong in the tackle, used the ball well, won a penalty

No complaints today other than how badly we started the second half, only one team looked like they came back out knowing what they had to do and with the belief to do it. We did play some nice stuff at times but I still see a massive gap between the 2 deep mids and everyone ahead of them.

Apart from playing the perfect ball to Lukaku what else could he have done? He could easily have been sent off by that point as well, was lucky to stay on.

It's Reading all over again this, huge game. 3 points or he deserves the sack again.

My memory of Bramble is him being stupid, below average and regularly costing us goals. That and seeing him tucking into a kebab at the top of the big market the night before a home game.

a year ago: I agree, which is why I've accused him of bottling it a few times this season, Liverpool was the worst. Like I said elsewhere it's only gonna take one or two upgrades to the first team for Pardew to look like the weak link every single week unless he changes his mindset.

Harper cost us a few goals last time was Krul was out, Elliot deserves his chance.

Sack the manager

Hi

We was just getting everyone back fit and then Tim's gone and hurt his ankle, so bearing in mind the injuries we've had, finishing 17th isn't too bad really.

We should still have enough to beat them, no excuses.

Not even watching it, thought it was in.

It's just refs in Europe man, they'll give owt.

COME ON YOU BLACK AND WHITE BEHEMOTHS. INSERT A GOAL INTO THE HOOP.

Sounds promising, first half goal would be massive, although I expect we'd just defend it.

Cisse right eh?

The answer is probably somewhere in between both arguments. I've no doubt that Pardew's a good man manager for Hatem, it'd be silly to argue with Hatem saying so. But I don't believe that Pardew not playing him was part of some man management plan. It was just evidence of an overly cautious, negative manager doing what he's comfortable with.

I'd managed to blank that out of my memory. What a complete f***ing arsehole Funnily enough that's not how Hatem sees it. But if you went on like a child every prematch/match/post match thread It's best to ignore Ben Arfa praising the way he was eased in or you'll realise how stupid you looked at the time. You're talking absolute shite Cajun, sorry like He never played because of his defensive work rate combined with his tendency to lose the ball more than other players, Pardew said this pretty much every week at the time, that Ben Arfa needed to "learn how to play in the team" and bollocks like that. You can see the effects of it now as Ben Arfa, to the detriment of his own game, has spent large portions of matches this season in his own 1/3. Honestly man, not playing Ben Arfa for about 3 months was not a master-stroke in man-management from Pardew, it was fucking idiotic and arguably cost us a 3rd place finish. Can you remember when the excuse was that he's not a wide player?

thats my worry though. goal line tech will be brought in then they'll say exactly the same about using technology for re-viewing penalty incidents and on it'll go. out of interest what would be so bad about that? it'd be fair. how long would every corner take while they sift through every minor confrontation ? would it lead to someone employed by the club sat infront of a bank of screens to check each and every single incident so they can claim ? how long would it take for incidents we still can't decide on, could we end up having play brought back 3 or 4 mins after the incident ? on each goal will the opposition be claiming (from their tele view) of an earlier incident that would rule out the goal ? will that sort of thing follow every contentious decision ? Well you wouldn't use it for minor confrontation would you? A system where each team had a set number of challenges in each half (one?) would limit it. Yes it would lead to each team having a guy watching screens, but if you limit the amount of challenges that's not a problem. How long would it take? Give the video official or officials a minute to decide, no longer than it usually takes for players to harass a ref. They might challenge on each goal yeah, but again if you limit the amount of challenges it'd stop it happening throughout the game.

Alan Comfort is a superb footballers name.

They do nearly get relegated every season mind. Yeah, I know. It probably goes without saying that they do that with a worse group of players than us though. They made quite a few changes away from home yesterday against lower league opposition and still played good positive football and it paid off, that's pretty good evidence of a way of playing that's implemented across the club imo. I don't even need to speculate on what our football would be like in those circumstances under Pardew. I'm just sick of watching teams like Wigan and Swansea and being envious of their manager/coaching team, aren't you?