Wallace

Will both legs for Fener v Lazio be behind closed doors?

That was down to the police because of the Notting Hill Carnival on the Sunday.

Rather the pricks didnt go to our games if thats what they do every Euro game tbh. Why bother? Same as the tossers who ran on the pitch for 3 games in a row or whatever it was. Aye, I was to the right of it. After I while I could smell it, some right special ones went last night. Europe has shown how many tosspots support us this year. Absolutely no need at all to do it every game. Can't understand how few regulars around last night. I'd imagine it will be all ticket from now on though with a much higher uptake by season ticket holders. I'm a season ticket but usually sit elsewhere in the ground on European nights especially whilst the ticket prices are so reasonable. I know quite a few do likewise.

I am worried about this. Always seem to fall flat on our our faces once we start to get excited and gain some belief.

Why can't the media just leave him alone? I am not sure that the media circus around him is helping.

Tbf, they already had a unit in there when they took over JJB. I think this is replacing the unit in Eldon Square. Does that mean that horrible Sports Direct sign over Blackett Street will go?

Last 3 home games.

Hiddink said he's out for a while after the game, could be mind games tbf but hopefully not. One of the reports I read said he seemed to be OK after the game so I guess we will have to wait and see.

I admit, it is hypocritical for me to moan about the huge amounts of money that gets chucked at some clubs, when for four years recently, we spent more money on transfers than 90 percent of clubs in the league. Slight ramble, but I was in a low-grade card shop the other day, here in Warwickshire, and they had this display of revoltingly garish football club calendars. They had Liverpool, Man United and Man City. Now, call me cynical, but I imagine, say, four years ago even, you'd have to travel at least 80 miles north to find anywhere selling Manchester City merchandise. That's no longer the case. I walk around my local towns and frequently see people wearing Man City shirts / scarves / yada yada whatever. I would imagine that a few years ago, these people would probably have latched on to Man United. Then again, I live a 15 mins drive from Coventry, and when I walk around, say, Warwick, Leamington Spa, Stratford Upon Avon, places which (esp the first two) you'd expect to be in the natural orbit of Coventry City, I never, ever see people wearing Coventry shirts or scarves. Literally, never. But I very frequently see people wearing Villa colours. Also, I very frequently see a lot of other Villa fans getting on the train down here when I take public transport to matches. Were I a Coventry City fan, this would annoy the s*** out of me, in the same way Man City fans annoy me now. I guess, the lower down the pyramid you go, the larger the choice of teams more successful to which plastics can attach themselves (even teams who haven't won anything for years). I sometimes think football is just cyclical. We are currently in a period of being s***, but it won't be too long before we have a decent period again. The same goes for Newcastle, Spurs, Everton etc etc, lots of clubs. What won't change, though, is the fact that to really consistently do well and win stuff (Man United are a slight exception here), you need a rich sugar daddy. Spurs getting into the CL this year won't be enough, they need to do it year after year. See also, Everton, when they made it. The FFP stuff, if you actually look at it, looks more like a bunch of measures made to defend the status quo, rather than encourage challenges to it. Football used to be cyclical. Teams would do well for a few years then fall back to the pack. I am pretty sure when we played in the 74 Cup Final, we had won more than Liverpool at that point. Unfortunately, it looks like the trophies will just be rotated between the 4-5 richest clubs whose fans then turn round and mock everyone else for not winning things. It is depressing when you look at the last 10-15 years and pretty much everything has been won by Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool. And all you hear is their fans complaining if they don't win something one year and how it is a crisis. Arsenal have won things consistently throughout their history but there have been several 10 or 15 year periods when they haven't. Their time will come again. Man Utd were similar and it was only in the 90s that they started winning trophies so consistently. You want to have that hope that your team can win something and with a good collection of players, good managment and a bit of luck, it might just be your year instead of thinking with every good performance that the better players will be cherry-picked by the richer teams. As the options reduce for other teams, is it no wonder that supporters of other clubs start thinking what is the point?

mental. That would mean he's left the West Ham squad after game and came straight up here. He has done that regularly since he left us.

I found it hard to pick the referee out. Kept asking why one of our players didn't move for balls they could easily get until I realised it was the referee. It does seem to have been an unlucky strip for us like that blue and black inter one a couple of years back.

I would think Jonas will start. Think it just illustrates that Pardew sees Cabaye as a more influential player, which of course, he is! I know someone said different in another post but I am sure on Sunday that Colo went up to Cabaye with the armband first and then went on to Jonas which appeared to me as if Cabaye was saying that Jonas should take the armband as he was the next in line. Different obviously if Pardew sorts it out pre match.

A bit more detail here about his physical condition and the injury. http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/hatem-ben-arfa-injury-news-1736375

Surely there comes a point, though, when all the good and decent managers say "No" to Roman despite the wads of cash on offfer? At which point the choice between, for instance, John Barnes and John Terry makes the latter a reasonable choice? * BTW I should clarify my "decent shout" comment as meaning "there's a reasonable chance of that happening", as opposed to "I think that would be the correct decision for Chelsea to make" I think that is already starting to happen. They worked really hard to get Guardiola but he didn't want to know. Klopp has said he is not interested. Laudrup said this week that some clubs just don't allow you time to build something and with a couple of bad results, they get sacked and that didn't appeal to him. Chelsea are starting to run out of options. The fans seem to want Mourinho back - not sure if that will happen. He and Roman have made up but Mourinho may have a choice of clubs in the Summer and may want a different challenge.

Now you done it, he's blatantly going to go on a run of scoring now. To be honest I think he'll probably prosper once they get a manager who has them playing better and picks him over Torres consistently. That's true but I think in the Summer, they will want to bring in a big name striker who will have to play virtually every game and Ba will be back to the bench again.

I will admit to liking Carroll but if he comes back, it would be a risky transfer because he has not done well since he left with regards to both his injury and playing record. But Carroll for Ben Arfa plus money is an absolute non-starter for me and I would be furious if that happened. Unless Ben Arfa himself expresses a desire to leave then there is no way we should sell him. We have one of the most exciting players in the league and we should do everything we can to keep him here as he is Box Office. And £20m plus Carroll is a laughable price. Carroll's value has seriously dropped and if Ben Arfa stays fit, his value will rise considerably and to me this is just a way for Liverpool to try and save some face because of the Carroll deal and to disguise their losses in pretending to buy a player for £20m and sell one for £17m (that would probably be the reported fee because of the agreed price with West Ham) - looks a lot better than buying HBA for £30m+ and selling Carroll for £5m. I just think we should never sell our best players to Liverpool especially as we could conceivably be competing with them next season if we keep hold of HBA and Cabaye.

Liked this bit from the Times interview: "Whenever I get the ball I feel like the crowd are really behind me, almost kicking it and moving forward with me. They're telling me: 'Go, go, go. Go and do something.'" It's good that that he feels that sense of excitement and anticipation in the crowd whenever he has the ball. I am often cynical of the crowd-pleasing soundbites from players but for some reason I do believe Ben Arfa when he says such things.

One of the match reports said that Cabaye had been suffering from flu.

Also the "can't win after playing in Europe".

He was rubbing his head as if it was sore at one point when he was saying something to Taylor and he went off very soon after that.

He is always going to be a key for us. Such a class player. steady on. this could be the new player bounce as he never seemed so good in france, long may it continue but it's too early to come out with that sort of stuff. (unlike sissoko/mapou who showed in france to some extent what they were about) I think I read somewhere that the French were quite surprised at the impact Gouffran has had and that the Bordeaux people thought he would sulk if not playing centre forward so it could be a case of a new player trying to make a good impression.

I'm worried the thinking behind Haidara is that Santon will attact significant interest soon enough, don't believe a lot of the Italian rumours as don;t think he's that interested and not going to pay what we want. Doubt we'll sell him that soon though. I think his value will be much higher after next season than this summer. Want to hold onto him long time, he;s a very gifted player. Excited by Haidara too though Can only be good for Santon to have another player pushing him for his place. He's had a good season overall but he does tend to have a run of games, where is he off the pace.

I agree but I like how it can allow young players to develop. I guess if loans like this were stopped it would stop Chelsea stockpiling players I think Lukaku has already said that he would like to stay at WBA for another season. He wants to play and does not want to just sit on Chelsea's bench. I guess it depends on what Chelsea's plans are for him - they could have done with him this season. That's the trouble when you keep changing managers as there is no long-term plan as each manager has to make an immediate impact so that they are not under pressure and so are not able to take risks with younger and inexperienced players.

http://www.themag.co.uk/tyne-talk/exclusive-ben-arfa-interview-i-want-newcastle-to-be-ambitious/ Some lovely comments from Ben Arfa that have been translated from a magazine article for The Mag.

Yes but how strong was there team though? they could have had half there reserves out as well. Haven't they just signed that Willian from Shakhtar Donetsk in January?