Segun Oluwaniyi

I feel like this guy has been walking on glass and rusty nails all season, wary of cutting himself. Regardless of whether he starts or is a useful substitute (I feel he is at his best as the "first substitute", though we don't have anyone that should keep him out the team), I just want a situation where he can play freely and without constantly being under so much pressure. Bewteen fan expectation, Pardew's reluctance to use him, and Hatem's own self-belief and arrogance, it feels like the World Cup final every time he steps on the pitch for us. This is even the case against Championship teams such as Wolves.

It is homophobia only in the sense that the ways in which the vast majority of young men interact around the world is homophobia. Most of us have probably challenged someone's manhood (jokingly or aggressively) using terms for homosexuals or women. He is a fool for using any offensive term in public given how sensitive everyone has become about generally anything. It is not surprising that the players fined for this are younger, and generally more immature, it is stupidity more than any genuine hate.

People on the Nigerian football forums are actually rating players based on text updates of the match. "Taiwo 5 His name was not mentioned enough" I always wonder why I never use that place for anything other than news, then immediately remember the reason a close the tab.

It is actually quite incredible how few Indonesians have any success athletically at all in any sports. It is the third or fourth largest nation in the world, you'd think they'd accidentally create some talent.

Looking at Villa's 18 active players for the Wigan match, 16 either came from the academy or were bought from other British clubs. The other two came from MLS.

Best winger at the club after Ben Arfa imo. Given his total of zero games on the wing as a professional footballer, I can see where you have formulated this idea from. Taylor and Gutierrez both would look much better if they were balanced out by an attacking player on the other side and helpful, attacking fullbacks. Playing both of them is quite negative, and the Simpson and Taylor pairing of the right will continue to give us nothing at all.

Didn't Klose spend the last two seasons being terrible? Scored the winner again for Lazio today and continues to be an integral part of their title challenge (still only six points back). Maybe the UEFA coefficients are correct and Germany just is the better league.

I don't know anything about this guy, but his brother is a very, very good footballer. Hopefully, he can follow in the family footsteps. I think Morgan was still in Ligue 2 at a similar age as well.

Feel good for Kuyt. Hate Liverpool, but I actually really like him.

All of you need to be smacked in the head. This team just lost 4-0 to West Brom away, now they have to battle in the Colosseum brimming with 52,000 bloodthirsty adversaries. WBA's African star striker ripped them to shreds. Our two will do similar. Get the hell out of here with this pessimism rubbish.

Pass the spliff.

You honestly think Ryan Taylor is a better option to start? That's not what I said, really. HBA is one of my favourite players. I loved him at OM and based on talent and what I know of the two players, I would pick Ben Arfa to start 10 times out of 9. But if this performance is an indication of what Pardew sees everyday, I cannot blame him for the decision. At least Taylor will maintain possession, occasionally out a cross in and graft. I have not seen any of this from Ben Arfa in his cameo.

Rubbish after the goal. Disappeared.

Why was he so slow today? He's ran and accelerated at a decent pace in most of our other matches. Couldn't get away from anyone at all in that match. If that is what he's doing in training, then it makes perfect sense for him to be our last option off the bench.

At some point you cannot blame the father for the foolish actions of the son. They were 2-0 up against a vastly superior team and collapsed. That is an indictment on the players, imo.

Absolutely terrible today. Weak, wasteful, and lazy. It is a testament to his skill and talent that he created our two best chances to win, but that was extremely poor from him. Don't expect him to start the next match because he hasn't earned it.

Williamson plays the rest of the season too. Not buying Mariappa could cost us Europe.

Ben Arfa happened to start away to Manchester United, Manchester City, and home against Chelsea (before they collapsed). He also played in the Fulham match where out defence evaporated.

Beyond all the Ben Arfa nonsense. Why the hell are we playing at rightback at winger against the worst form team in the league...at home. What are we scared of?

The guy played in France, ffs. It is not as if he has chicken bones while everyone else has those of an elephant. He can handle physicality. One bad injury will not change this.

They had a similar ruling in the NFL, and honestly it has been a success in that league where the problem was even more glaring (given that Blacks made up the majority of the workforce). They've gone from having almost none to a fair amount. It is hard to say how prevalent racism is at board level, but the fact remains that there are not enough Blacks being represented at managerial level given their presence on the pitch and in other aspects. I don't which side is at fault, or how to address it really, but it is something you notice. Also, I think there is some bias about the "image" of a manager. Pardew looks like a manager. Maybe John Barnes and Paul Ince do not.

What about Bolton makes you think they'll run away from the rest? I want QPR and Blackburn to stay up, anyway.

What a waste of a player currently in his peak. Could easily be playing for a top 4 team in the Prem. If the move goes through, Samba will probably lose a bit of respect from quite a lot of people (myself included). Samba will consider this as he sits naked in his pool full of rubles, straps on his platinum jewelry, decides which supercar to purchase, and remembers when he couldn't afford shoes.

VVV Venlo have just signed Mustapha Babadidi, who is the top scorer in the Nigerian Premier League. They seem to be building quite a pipeline of young, Nigerian talent at that club. This follows them bringing Ahmed Musa and Michael Uchebo to Europe. The strategy worked with Musa and it is a fairly good one in theory, buy young Africans for nothing and promptly sell them for large fees, they got 10 million euros from it last month with rumours that the Nigerian clubs received nothing in return. Still, I prefer young players going to a team like this and actually playing rather than wasting away in the reserves of some bigger team. /Martin Jol /I know you don't care.

Renovations for the Euros. Why?