Segun Oluwaniyi

How are we on the up? We have been on a steady decline over the past two seasons, and imo are currently at a lower point than we were at the beginning of 08-09 Premiership season. Unless we can maintain this upward momentum, this recent period of good feelings will be similar to a minor recovery in decade long depression.

As an aside, I think Ajax will do what Marseille should have doen last year and finish second above Milan.

Would make this an absolutely brilliant week if we can pull this off. Very pleased that Hughton has left his comfort zone to pursue Tiote and HBA (hopefully). Also, I like zinaldo and this means he would probably stay.

Rather pleased with Marseille's group. I think we're the second best team there and should stand a good chance of going through. The matches against Spartak will be massive. Will also be brilliant when Drogba comes back to the Velodrome.

The one decision that has happened under Ashely that shocked and confused me the most was giving Shola that new contract after he played a few decent matches under Kinnear. I really would like for someone involved to have explained the logic behind that to me because I think I understand evrything else.

They are paid far too much and are the main reason so many clubs are in debt. I understand that some foolish clubs have overextended themselves and raised the market, but regardless of this I actually think their pay is justified considering that they are the backbone one of the few universal Worldwide entertainments.

20 good matches in the Championship earns you 60,000 pounds per week? He's done nothing in the past two seasons to warrant any sort of payrise, never mind a 50% increase.

Ben Arfa is a quality footballer. I don't think anyone can deny this. That's not all that matters, though. Denilson was a quality footballer as well.

Footballers are paid too little if anything. It's probaly the world's biggest entertainment industry. God forbid the ones who are actually producing the product are compensatd well. This is probaly for another thread, though.

Good riddance. He's a decent player, and it is good for any club to have a few local boys in the first team, but he has done nothing to warrant such a wage increase. In fact, I do not see what he had done at the end of 2008 that warranted 40,000 a week. Since then he's been the third choice centreback on a relegated side and played half of a decent season in the Championship, where he was once more oushone by two other centrebacks.

Christ. It's just disgusting. The boy is a half-Russian born and raised in the country as well. Makes you wonder why he chose not to don their colours.

Entertaining game though! Weird to see Palop letting them down, though, he's usually great. Sevilla were just atrocious in the first leg. It's a shame this tie comes before the Spanish season has kicked off, because theydidn't look anywhere near ready or sharp.

Bremen-Sampdoria is brilliant. I think Samp will win on penalties.

Credit to him. He's improved himself, and made himself into a Premiership player, which I certainly didn't see occuring at this rapid a pace. I think we should sit and look on his performance this season instead of lavishin him with praise already, though. You never want a young player to get too high or too low.

Spurs put themselves in the CL by beating their more succesful rivals and the eventual champions in consecutive matches in April, and by going away to the club closest to them in the biggest match of the season and getting a hard earned victory. Full credit to them. They've progressed into a very serious team without the aid of a multi-billionaire. We should be emulating them. Maybe we ought to focus on our own failures before mocking the success of others.

Ankarngadünkatünk only took him on a 6 month contract then, clever . Pretty sure he was awful, so they didn't require a transfer fee to get rid of his wages. His contract was not expired.

Vassell was a failure as well. Between the culture shock and the stragely excessive expectations, I am not surprised by Vassell. Geremi is just finished, though. He should go play in MLS or something similar. Gourcuff seems to have moved from Bordeaux to Lyon. Stunned that no foreign clubs were in for him. Fantastic player.

We wouln't want to be shipping any central midfield players out anyway. The injury record for all of the players we have in that position is just stunningly awful.

He's not very good at all. Not terrible, just average. It's actually a shame he's spent all this time stagnating in Italy while being contracted to Inter, imo. Good enough for West Ham, anyway. He'll do something good every few matches, and fits well in England, imo.

He'd get one even if he had no caps, no-one get refused them now, you just have to prove someone else in who is a UK citizen couldn't do the same job in the same circumstances. I'm not sure of this. Last year Victor Nsofor Obinna was rejected for a work permit despite being a young player who was in and around the Nigerian squad for a few years and contracted to Inter Milan.

They have brought in Obinna. He's a completely different type of player, obviously, but I suppose he could be seen as a free replacement.

Brilliant humour here. Anyway, I don't see any reason Tiote wouldn't get a work permit. He plays for a highly ranked nation and has been a big fure in the team over the past year. Should get in easily.

Smith would fit in perfectly at Everton. Headless chicken who will run around fouling people all day.

Disagree with that Baba, Villa's performance may have flattered us but Barton and Carroll in particular put in performances that do them credit, show their potential and in Barton's case remind us of how well he can play. I thought both Barton and Smith were fantastic today and half the reason Villa didnt get a sniff, we wanted it more. The MOTD analysis showed a few examples of over-running them, then (and here is the good bit) actually one-touch passing and moving through Villa's midfield. I agree the scoreline was an anomaly but not the result. This is fair enough, but what I am saying is that none of these players will consistently perform at this level. Carrol CAN be very good on his day, as can Barton, Smith, and Nolan, but overall they are all average players and this will show itself over the course of 38 matches. However, we do have ability. People are underrating this squad because the one that went down was much more talented. However, that team was decimated by injuries, infighting, chaos, lack of leadership, and a collecive quitters mentality. If we can show this same kind of fight all year, I think we will be comfortable.

This game was an anamoly. A statistical outlier. We are no as bad as the media as the media would have you think, but if you simulate the result of this match 100 times, NUFC will win 6-0 less than one time. I'm happy with the three points and the ability to bounce back from a sound defeat, but let us calm down and look forward instead of celebrating small glories. Carroll, Barton, and Nolan are not as good as their performances today indicated, but there are some things we can take from this. Andy Carrol CAN successfully lead the line by himself in the Premiership. Kevin Nolan's skillset WILL translate to the Premiership. Joey Barton HAS the ability to still be a very effective player in this division.