Ronaldo

I think he's a very talented player that can have a big role for us, you may be surprised to hear that with the strawman arguments his fans have attempted to build up but if you read back through at no time have I ever said he isn't any good. The doubts I have are as follows... He will improve the current team: People seem to think all we have to do is select him over Best and we will become an even better side which I don't see as being the case. One of the main reasons we are where we are in the league is down to the amount of work our players put in when we don't have the ball, we're not playing teams off the park by any stretch of the imagination but we are putting a ridiculous amount of effort in closing down and tracking back when we don't have the ball, a good example of this is when I posted on Saturday about Ba not having the best of games but he still put the work in and that is the same for all of our midfield and attack recently, we've seen with Cabaye that he hasn't been up to his high standards lately that he set at the beginning of the season but he's still putting plenty of work in covering the pitch and the same goes for Ba, Best, Tiote and Jonas. Ben Arfa is different in that he's not going to graft but he's technically more gifted than anyone else in our attack, that's great when he's up to speed and if he settles into the team but at the moment he isn't which makes me think he could end up being a passenger which we can't afford to have, this opinion is backed up by people who watched the Blackburn game that he started and was anonymous for large parts of it apparently. People bring up how long Coloccini and Enrique took to settle in before finding their best form but the difference now is that we have a very good alternative in Best and Ba that have formed a good partnership, back then if we didn't play Colo we had Taylor who was equally poor and N'Zogbia to cover Enrique, I would hate to throw away our current position by attempting to get a player that isn't up to speed and might not be any time soon. Partnership with Ba: The second problem I have is the potential partnership with Ba, I think people presume that Ba is a target man type but I don't see this as being the case and at West Ham and before coming to England he's played in more a withdrawn role, a role he continues to play here with great success (15 goals in 22 Premiership games) so how do him and Ben Arfa play in a withdrawn position unless we're going with 3 up top? People have suggested that Ba could play more of a target man role but when he's been as successful as all but a few in front of goal playing this role why should he change to accommodate someone? So not only do I think he lacks the work ethic for this current team but I think him playing in a number 10 role with Ba could leave the whole attack imbalanced, all this while he' clearly not up to speed anyway. Team player?: In the 10 appearances he's made since he's been here for me he's looked anything but a team player which I think is important for anyone playing in the number 10 role, we've heard people compliment him on his dribbling skills and such but how many occasions can you say he was an important factor in making something happen for someone else since he's been here? That's not having a go at the lad but it's a pretty obvious thing to notice and something that he can get away with more out wide than when he's relied on to be the heartbeat of the team. People have said that it's because of a lack of options in front of him but if he is going to play that role then it's only going to be Ba there the majority of the time anyway, he's going to find himself in plenty of similar situations like he did against Everton but is he going to continue to play for himself instead of others like a VDV would? I know people think I'm being harsh on the lad as he's been out injured so long but I don't think I am, if people were not demanding him being in the starting line up up top now then I'd happily give him his cameo's to get up to speed like I am with Gosling, however if he is going to have a starting place for us then I expect better than what we've seen so far and I don't care how long he's been out either, like I said if he's not performing he's a luxury that I don't think we can carry and maintain our current form at the same time. Long term I think he's going to struggle to get in up top, not because of Best as I don't think Pardew rates him that highly but I see whichever striker he buys if it's Maiga or whoever I see it with a view of linking up with Ba, our biggest goal threat by some distance, so what I'd like to see is HBA played out on the right which will give him his chance to get his fitness back and then for us to buy a solid right back (OMG Santon is a right back etc) that is happy to sit and cover leaving HBA to have a more free role out wide, someone like Onuoha would be great for the role. So to summarise I don't think Ben Arfa is s****, I also don't think him having one good game, scoring a great goal like he did against Everton or getting an assist would have proven me wrong which some are building their straw men to mean, it's about looking at the bigger picture and seeing if the form of the team improves or drops off over a longer period than that. Concur with all of that. Excellent work.

Aye. It worked against Blackburn.

Why wouldn't you just put Gosling at RM?

agree, how old is redknapp? and i wonder how serious his heart s*** is.... It baffles me when people go to the effort to ask this type of thing on a forum. Just type his fucking name into Google.

You've 'bumped into' Carroll in each corner of the UK and now you know his barber? Lovejoy is the male version of that girl from He's Just Not That Into You.

Bellamy hasn't been awful. Neither has Adam actually.

The former.

Why would he?

Totti.

Is he better than Cabaye? Debatable.

No, he wasn't.

Well his wife does have a scots name so maybe there is a link there. Also there is the fact that Scotland is actually a nice place. Fiona is an Italian name. Bloody hell.

The views from the Villa (a) thread last season would be better.

He pretended to be injured against WBA, that's what angered folk.

Should just wear them anyway. Ridiculous.

Yup. What? You would have been a bairn when he was in his prime I was also a bairn when Pedro came back here. Doesn't mean I can't say he was the best player I've ever seen wearing the shirt. We both must have seen Pedro play over 100 times in his second stint though.

It is the best rigth wing of nufc and he plays ol and french team i don't understand pardew why ben arfa stay of bench for obertan marveaux sammy ...wing gerland l olympique lyonnais 4 / stuttgart 2 le 7/11/2007 UEFA CL For the scoring ben arfa he plays 22 games and 15 games sub is league wing or playmaker ratio is good Jonas scoring ?? Ben arfa by 100min plays/goal or assist Yep.

He hasn't seen the likes of Smalling and Jones a hundred times.

Yeah. I don't understand it.

What purpose does it serve to put Taylor on the bench anyway? It's happened before.

I always thought that a lot of the Jenas hype was unjust. Predicated on both his young age and ridiculously OTT soundbites from Bobby.

Playing better than Terry. OK.

Yeah. Bastian 'didn't want to come' was the official line.

Keegan probably wanted Modric as much as he wanted Coloccini.

Still think he was our best CM when he was sold. Keegan had no use for a playmaker, so off he went.