Dr Venkman

i'd be interested to know where he's gonna play like if he's coming here for the first team opportunities. that said if we manage to get in the europa league we're gonna need bodies next season so he could be very useful. obviously none of this matters to Ashley if he thinks he can make a profit on him.

Gonna be a sad panda if this lad starts on Sunday like, considering what's happened in the last two games with Raylor/Ben Arfa on the right.

Fwiw I reckon he's staying if we qualify for Europe.

Some of your posts are batshit crazy like.

Yeah, and winning penalties, scoring and assisting.

It's not against the rules and highly immoral to give a player what he wants in a contract. It's against the rules and highly immoral to be revealing details of any players contract, particularly ones who don't play for the team you manage. The issue here is not about stupidity, it's about the same crook being up to the same underhand tactics that he's always used and gotten away with. Nice attempt at deflection though.

Ahh man, this is class

I'm happy for us to keep pursuing targets if it means we get the right ones. I'm presuming that whatever the scouts saw in him is still there.

Aye...both were sitting deep, hence Ben Arfa looking a little lost in the number 10 role. Both Barfa and Best were dropping back to try and fill the gap, but both ended up being too deep also. I think Cabaye was offering protection to Abeid with him being an relative unknown quantity. As the game settled, Cabaye was more willing to drive forward and confident to let Abeid to his thing, hence second half basically us camping in the Blackburn half. Fair do's, cheers. Hopefully they can carry that 2nd half forward if they're paired together on Sunday then. For my money Abeid should keep the shirt, by all accounts was more than competent against Premier League opposition and is the sort of player to be filling in for Tiote while he's away. I do like Guhtrie's form this season but naturally this weekend will be too soon for him.

This! should be gather more troops with Twitter or make it a surprise?

Just the Tee O Tee O Tay one iirc. never heard it sung like

Have we got a decent song for this lad? He deserves one.

If you want him to sound less like Barry White it's the high pass filter you're after

Pathetic mindset isnt it, I'd much rather have a more competitive league.

You'd hope so wouldnt you. You never know....we might go get Cissokho in the summer..... honestly couldn't give a toss which foot they kick with providing they can do the job. i've seen enough players play very well on their supposed wrong side to know that for some players it just doesn't matter. Well yeah but having a quality left footed LB and a quality right footed RB is better surely? why ? in the same way that maldini was better then john beresford at left back, just try for the one who is best in that position regardless of what foot they use if they are better at doing the job. sometimes i read posts on this place and it's like a 1950's tactics school. A natural left back and Santon on the right would make us more balanced and carry significantly more attacking threat. wouldn't you rather the best available regardless if they both were supposedly wrong sided, given some players are better on the supposed wrong side. also from what we;ve seen of him so far he does look more comfortable on the left. also from the limited that i saw from santon playing in otaly it was exactly because he was so good at coming inside confidently that made him the attacking threat that he was. I'm not one to argue with empirical evidence. All i've ever said is that I think his best position would be right back and that having him there (with a left footed LB of similar ability) would improve the team massively. If it happened and we looked worse I'd happily admit I was wrong. It could be that exactly what makes him a threat on the right is attacking the outside of the fullback where there's more space?

absolutely, I think concentrating on getting them attacking and opening up space by keeping wide would help us, particularly against poor teams. Ironically Christmas Tree used to harp on about it all the time

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/newcastle-united/9001147/Newcastle-manager-Alan-Pardew-purrs-as-Hatem-Ben-Arfa-displays-his-Messi-side-against-Blackburn.html the plot thickens. who told him then? If it was Ben Arfa he's going to some lengths to protect him. Honestly man, just stop talking about it, your persistence with Obertan was horrendous, draw a line under it and play your best players.

This. No idea why people have Jonás Gutiérrez on the right wing and Hatem Ben Arfa on the left wing. Gutiérrez and Santon can keep building on their partnership on the left flank... and Ben Arfa had a good game and scored from the right wing against Blackburn. 1. we can't rely on Ben Arfa and Jonas to score every game 2. We need to make space for the two up front, we can do this by playing wingers on their natural sides, opening pitch up 3. We need to get crosses in for the two up front, our best chance of this is having the wingers on their natural sides 4. Santon's a better defender than Danny Simpson, Jonas can protect Simpson on the right. I still have no idea why people have Jonás Gutiérrez on the right wing and Hatem Ben Arfa on the left wing. We must play Jonás Gutiérrez on the right wing and Hatem Ben Arfa on the left wing because we can't rely on them to score every game? As far as I am aware, Jonás natural position is on the left wing. Just because a player is right footed he should play on the right wing? He's not a classic winger running down the flank and creating crosses to our strikers. And he has played in this position all season. His natural position is not on the right wing. Davide Santon is a very attacking left back = will be supported by Jonás to cover for him when he makes forward runs and is out of position. Danny Simpson is a very defensive right back = no need for Jonás to cover for him. Hatem Ben Arfa will from his right wing position cut inside a lot. That's his style of play. You can't put him on the left wing and expect him to create crosses for our strikers all game long! However, I agree we need to create crosses for our strikers (Ameobi, Best) but putting Ben Arfa on the left wing and Jonás on the right wing won't solve anything! Have them swapping wings depending on what's working, everyone's a winner. Unfortunately I think Pardew's style is too rigid to do it.

You'd hope so wouldnt you. You never know....we might go get Cissokho in the summer..... honestly couldn't give a toss which foot they kick with providing they can do the job. i've seen enough players play very well on their supposed wrong side to know that for some players it just doesn't matter. Well yeah but having a quality left footed LB and a quality right footed RB is better surely? why ? in the same way that maldini was better then john beresford at left back, just try for the one who is best in that position regardless of what foot they use if they are better at doing the job. sometimes i read posts on this place and it's like a 1950's tactics school. A natural left back and Santon on the right would make us more balanced and carry significantly more attacking threat.

Wrexham please, I'll take the shitter team every time.

This. No idea why people have Jonás Gutiérrez on the right wing and Hatem Ben Arfa on the left wing. Gutiérrez and Santon can keep building on their partnership on the left flank... and Ben Arfa had a good game and scored from the right wing against Blackburn. 1. we can't rely on Ben Arfa and Jonas to score every game 2. We need to make space for the two up front, we can do this by playing wingers on their natural sides, opening pitch up 3. We need to get crosses in for the two up front, our best chance of this is having the wingers on their natural sides 4. Santon's a better defender than Danny Simpson, Jonas can protect Simpson on the right.

No, it looks like Pardew's now trying to suggest this was the case, after previously saying he didn't think Ben Arfa 'had the relish' for that position. I'm more than prepared for the possibility that it was Ben Arfa's choice. But after seeing how obviously disappointed he was when Sammy came on at LW instead of him and knowing Pardew's stubborn streak, I think this cryptic stuff could be an attempt by Pardew to put him on the wing without having to admit he was wrong. Spectacularly wrong.

Possibly. If Pardew has changed his mind though, suggesting it was Ben Arfa's reluctance to play wide which has given us Obertan for so long could well be his way of not having to admit he was wrong.

only one way to fix it

He pretty much did, and he was.