Segun Oluwaniyi

The first half an hour will be cocaine football. Too fast for anyone's good with some unnecessary and aggressive tackling. If we can get through this period unscathed, I think we can take control of the midfield, quiet the supporters, and dominate to a degree. The match reminds me of Hatton vs. Mayweather. If we can turn this into a simple game of football, rather than a brawl, the win should be easily attained.

FYP I'm consistently impressed by how good Oscar is defensively. They haven't had to hide him at all. The boy should be world conquering in a few years.

Excluding my questionably creative use of French, I could have actually written this article for Cabaye. Nothing interesting or controversial so far. I think he is our most important player Sunday, unless Ben Arfa or one of the Senegalese do something exceptional. I think he is what separates our side from theirs the most. There is no Sunderland midfielder who has the class on the ball that Cabaye possesses. All of the players they have operating in the centre are very limited technically and minimally creative. The match will obviously be more frenetic and physical than most, but if he steps up and exerts his authority on the match, we should dominate that area of the pitch and really the match.

Dunno like, we still dish out long contracts like they're going out of fashion due to being chronically scared of losing out on transfer fees. Know the point you're making though, surely they should have done some background on the kid before dishing out the contract - like they allegedly do with the new signings. I'm quite sure his behaviour will have changed significantly. Obviously, he had a few incidents as a youth, you have to remember that he was given the contract under Shearer, which means he would have been a 17 year old just turning 18, and then again under Hughton when just 19. You would have expected him to continue to grow from that time. I know in the NBA, they often refer to the mid-1990s as being the era of too much too soon. As a result, of the league structure at the time, young players from poor urban backgrounds were being given massively long and incredibly lucrative contracts at the age of 18 or 19 without having ever achieved anything other than showing potential at the lower levels of the game. Coincidentally (or not), the majority of the players from this era failed to fulfill their talent. Many spent themselves into bankruptcy because they didn't know any better, most didn't work hard to improve their game because there was little incentive, and almost all developed big heads and egos that weren't warranted. This guy has many personal issues (most notably that of being a fucking idiot), but those stories remind me of him. He's been handed two considerable cotracts here without having to work hard, and followed suit by continuing to not work hard.

The progression of his descent is really something to behold. As late as about April 2011, he was considered a top prospect by the club and its fans and was even being upped by Pardew in the media. Less than a year later, in 2012, he was essentially an outcast who was despised by all fans, and by October he was banned from the first team. Amazing that he's ruined all that promise in such a short period of time.

I am not overly concerned with racism on the pitch, to be frank. I think those calling for blood in the Terry and Suarez incidents are misguiding their anger. The main issues regarding this in the game are organised racist behaviour at club level and football environments that are hostile to diversity. England have done a wonderful job eradicating this sort of thing from their game, especially when compared to the rest of Europe. The faces of coaches and upper-level club management at football clubs in England do accurately reflect the population (overwhelmingly white), but do not compare with a working force of players that is around 30 percent Black, and this will always be an issue with players as it would be with any workforce.

I'm surprised Xavi hasn't been given the award over the past few seasons, or Pirlo even would have been a better choice last year. Yaya should be considered as well.

Our reserves could probably beat Torquay in a League Cup match. Should we then start them against a Premier League side in the next match. Poland and San Marino are not in any way congruent and the results against them don''t have much correlation If you want to put in youth just for the sake of it, then I understand, but imo Cole is better than Baines and Defoe is better than Welbeck (who I don't rate particularly highly). I think Cole will still be better than Baines in 2014 as well. If Hodgson or any other England manager fails to qualify you, they will be sacked. Achieving qualification is simpler using experienced players rather than inconsistent, unproven young ones. International football is really a vicious cycle and many teams suffer because of it.

Canada should be ashamed of themselves. 8-1 to Honduras? How is this ever possible? The kind of result that can set a nation's development back a decade in country where the sport doesn't have a great foothold.

Keshi eyes Ameobi for Nations Cup http://www.vanguardngr.com/2012/10/keshi-eyes-ameobi-for-nations-cup/ The article is probably rubbish. There is no reason at all for this to happen.

Daily Mail put out a decent list of teams affected by Africa Cup of Nations: Arsenal Emmanuel Frimpong, Daniel Jesse Boateng (Ghana), Gervinho (Ivory Coast), Marouane Chamakh (Morocco) Aston Villa: Karim El Ahmadi (Morocco) Chelsea: John Obi Mikel, Victor Moses (Nigeria), Bertrand Traore (Burkina Faso) Fulham: Mahamadou Diarra (Mali) Liverpool: Oussama Assaidi (Morocco) Manchester City: Kolo Toure, Yaya Toure (Ivory Coast) Newcastle United: Cheick Tiote (Ivory Coast) Queens Park Rangers: Samba Diakite (Mali), Adel Taarabt (Morocco) Tottenham Hotspur: Emmanuel Adebayor (Togo) West Bromwich Albion: Peter Odemwingie (Nigeria) West Ham United: Modibo Maiga (Mali), Guy Demel (Ivory Coast) Wigan Athletic: Arouna Kone (Ivory Coast) ----------------------- I wouldn't call it comprehensive as I can think of Mayuka, Mulumbu and maybe even Anichebe as players who could be added to the list as their countries qualified. It doesn't seem like anyone will suffer too much. A few Premier League sides should be rejoicing at the results in Yaounde and Dakar. In terms of Newcastle, Villa will be without El-Ahmadi, who has started every Premier League match when go to Villa Park Chelsea will be without Mikel Obi, who has started every Premier League match, and Victor Moses when they come to SJP. We also play Tottenham during the African Cup of Nations. Adebayor will be at the tournament, but Togo are not expected to go far and he may be back with the club by this time.

Anita isn't spending pennies or exploiting loopholes. He was under contract for a good amount of time at Ajax and cost the club seven million pounds. Unless, I am forgetting someone, he is the third most expensive player in our squad. As with Cisse, we spent a relatively high amount for a player they truly coveted. It's far too early to be writing Anita off anyway, and even Marveaux hasn't had any sort of chance to prove himself (assuming the injury was an isolated incident and he isn't broken). You just can't judge players based on how they "look" their first few games in a new team and especially a new league. For example, I remember laughing at how poor Ramires was during his first season in England. Even Santon was a liability at times for the first half of last season. The transfer philosophy we have isn't going anywhere. It isn't perfect at all, but it has worked better than most, and is very efficient.

You must have never played or seen basketball. The NBA has just instituted policies against diving this season. Any quick moving sport where contact is penalised with something advantageous will involve exaggeration. It is most noted in football because the stakes of the decisions are higher. And Cameroon, one of the giants of the continent, have failed to qualify for the Cup of nations for the second consecutive time. African football is definitely more competitive than ever, but it is quite sad to see such a powerful team suffer this fate, regardless of national rivalries. I hope they can start over, get their act together, and return to at least being relevant.

Senegal have a history with this. They pulled the same sort of nonsense when Adebayor and Togo took the WC ticket from them in 2005. I think CAF and FIFA will come down fairly harshly. Unfortunately, I cannot see them banning the team, but they should not play in front of their supporters until after the next World Cup.

It was only 11-12 years ago that 150 people died in a stadium in Accra and these fools want to purposely start fire in a stadium packed to the brim for the biggest match of the year. End this shambles now!

Shameful behaviour, and all too common on the continent. It is one of the reasons our local leagues are dying. Corrupt refereeing and incompetent security. You could reverse the adjectives and it would be the same.

Has anyone seen this Fabrice that plays for Malaga? For some reason, I've not heard of him until today. I just noticed that he's in Cameroon's squad for their big match today and has been seeing the pitch in La Liga this season. Only 16 as well.

His career here is over I think. By the time he recovers, he'll be in need of a long run of first team action which he won't receive here. I think there is still hope for him to make it as a top-level player, and Haris definitely has talent and quality, but he needs a move to a team in the lower divisions or elsewhere on the continent to continue his journey and further his development. I wish him well. Godspeed!

Yes, the 2014 WC qualification scheme is directly at fault for Africa's performance in the past. The lack of coherence and relevance to this post is shocking.

Nothing is wrong with prequalifiers. CAF has a similar amount of member nations and for the upcoming World Cup, the lowest 24 (I think) ranked sides have a knockout round to enter the main draw. There is no problem with giving more successful sides a bye to the group stages based on a numerical formula of past results. You cannot only focus it on certain incompetent teams, though. It would have to include at least 18 countries, as there are nine groups. It would be unfair to only make qualification more difficult for nations Interpolic thinks are irrelevant because they have less people than Peckham. UEFA's qualifying has an unnecessarily high amount of games, tbf. Massive and inefficient for both tournaments.

If I remember correctly, the booking was for releasing his inner demon all over the pitch, rather than the actual foul that proceeded it.

Actually, thinking of it, he hasn't been up to his original dominance since he that day last February where the Zambians had him laid on the pitch in tears. Maybe that contributed to his emotional instability.

Gignac>Ibrahimovic. The guy has been fantastic all season. It is amazing to watch. This is a brilliant match as well.

He's been a parody of himself this season. Some sort of joke.

The senior players in this team need to forcibly hold Bigirimana down and remove that monstrosity from the top of his head.