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NEEJ

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Everything posted by NEEJ

  1. NEEJ

    Hatem Ben Arfa

    It's scary how agile he is, I'd be truly terrified if I was a defender and I seen him running towards me.
  2. NEEJ

    Hatem Ben Arfa

    He's got the potential to be an absolute legend here. The beginning of his toon career, the photo in the airport, the goal against Everton then that horrific leg break, it all makes him so much easier to love. I've got a feeling he realises just how much of an impact he can make long term at this club as well. Exciting times.
  3. Darren Gibson is going bald fast.
  4. I heard that aye, you could just tell he had been sitting there all afternoon dying to sneak it in.
  5. NEEJ

    Hatem Ben Arfa

    It's embarassing he's presenting a football programme on the BBC. He knows next to nothing about the game.
  6. That one-two between Ben Arfa and Cabaye man, what a couple of passes.
  7. Krul's got to open his mouth there like. Doesn't say a word.
  8. Didn't the arsehole have us down for the drop ? Always loathed that b******. "The finish: If they finish fourth from bottom, it will be a good year for Newcastle. It's not looking good for them right now and that's without knowing what other problems are coming their way once the season has started. I think they might just escape relegation, only because there are worse teams out there than them."
  9. Lua Lua's goal for Blackpool was a corker.
  10. Yes Mayor of Stoke-on-Trent, when I see Stoke City I think of Stoke on Trent making lots of pottery, and therefore rush to order pots from Stoke. Seriously, the amount of horseshit that's being given to allow Pulis to escape this driving ban is insane.
  11. It was a while ago I think, he was teaching Spanish at the Newcastle School for Boys or whatever it's called.
  12. If you needed a goal to explain what Stoke are all about, that one was it.
  13. Didn't realise what that was hanging out of Friedel's shorts there
  14. COE-WAA-TEZZZZZ! Paddy Kenny looked genuinely terrified by the ball.
  15. It's a pointless argument if you ask me. Messi is far and away the best player of his generation, I think very few can deny that. Whether Pele/Maradona/Player X could perform to the levels they did in their era today is irrelevant. Different players for different eras.
  16. How old are you Felipao? I just don't get this staunch defence of a bloke who played before the majority of the people discussing him here were born.
  17. NEEJ

    Alan Pardew

    We have a seasons worth of performances that show little correlation between possession/domination & results in comparison to the importance of simply having a very strong defensive system and attackers that will do enough to get the points. If teams have a very hard time scoring against you & you are good at putting the ball in the net, you will win games against most sides. Pardew has put in place the defensive system that achieves that & bought the attackers that do the business the other side. In what way is it likely that this will suddenly stop working? I wouldn't delegate that much praise on Pardew's doorstep, for systematically & deliberately targetting 'finishers' that are capable of killing sides with very few chances created in open play. The team's genuine matchwinners are Ba, Ben Arfa and now Cisse - with special mention to Collo as an additional threat from set-pieces. And those attackers mentioned falls into the overall policy of identifying & pursuiing players whose current value has opportunistically slipped below their true market worth, and can be moved-on for a profit. Arfa: damaged goods (at Marseille, prior to his loan) with his contract running into it's final two years. OM attempts to tout him (to bigger spending clubs, for a higher transfer fee) failed. Ba: we cashed in on a contractual release clause. Cisse: Freiburg's valuation far exceeds ours in the Summer, and we're appropriately rebuffed. Freiburg's table predicament changes later in the year (unexpectantly poor season) and the spectre of relegation forces an unexpected firesale of arguably their top asset, as they seek to reinforce the playing list (on a limited budget) for the post-Jan relegation fight . While they're on our books , with Ba hopefully secured to a new deal, all three are capable of putting 40m, into the coffers, for outgoing transfer deals. HBA is the wildcard in that lot, if he fully realizes his potential and doesn't become distracted, namely by man-management issues. The attacking trio in particular, thanks to their technique and athletic ability alone, are capable of scoring against the run-of-play. They'll survive in a turgid playing system of anti-football, on talent alone, but likewise we won't get the best out them over the long haul - just sporadic bursts. This type of Souness/Fat Sam/Kinnear/Pardew defensive anti-football goes against every principle they've been taught, and it will likely chip away at their morale over time. Ben Arfa has already made called-out Pardew's style of football, in that it goes against everything that he has been taught at Clairefontaine, by directly comparing it against & making reference to Brendan Rodger's pass-and-move football. They deserve better. It's sucker-punch football which is being coached by Pardew, and those genuine match-winners with resale value (who can conjure a score out of nothing) in many of our narrow wins this season will be difficult to replace. Within the constraints of our budget, by consistently attempting to acquire this calibre of player on the cheap, top-6 finishes (let alone top half) is unsustainable. Ba's and Ben Arfa's don't grow trees for a combined transfer fee of less than 10m. And it's a self-defeating style of play for any club hoping to develop raw talent from within the academy set-up, as the gulf in football coaching philosophies (between a more technical base at the academy level, and Pardew's) too wide a dividing gap. The Barcelona's, Ajax's and Arsenal's of the footballing world are consistent (re: their overall tactical philosophy) from academy to first team. Positive judgement is always passed on the rapidfire development once their youngsters are finally blooded into the first team picture. They look like seasoned already. Natural talent obviously has to be there, but the transition to first-team football is seamless. The gameplan and tactics are already entrenched, and that's thanks to having a consistent coaching & tactical mindset at all levels. Agree with most of that. What's the thing about Ben Arfa and the style of football? It was post-match after our first clash with Swansea, whether it was directly after or during the following week i can't specifically remember. He made mention of & admired Swansea's style of play, after they outpassed & outmoved us in that said match. It was the type pass-and-move footy that he was taught, back in his junior/academy days at Clarefontaine. Surprised he said that as Swansea were awful against us and played probably their most 'defensive' game of the season - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16124233 He said all this at the turn of the year, 4th of January I think. He was referring more to their style of play than their match against us. Using them as an example of how passing football can be executed.
  18. £10 for a bottle of juice? EH?!? I was gonna get some, but fuck that
  19. Yep. And it's not like he'd be poor if he hadn't moved. He'd still be earning a s***-ton. See, this is what's so weird to me. How much difference can that extra money do when you're already on such an insane wage? Surely quality of life while you're playing should be considered and weighted against the extra money you'd make? I would so much rather live in Milan or Barcelona than in some shithole in Russia, even if I only made £15m instead of £25m a year or whatever. The Anzhi players don't live or train in Makhackala, they live and train in Moscow which actually has some very nice and wealthy parts which is where I would assume all the players would live in and socialise. They only ever visit Makhackala for home games, they are flown in, escorted to the stadium, play, escorted to the airport and flown straight back out. Sounds a bit like that classy club down the road.
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