durhamunigeordie

Not sure what people were watching???... Adam clearly went in recklessly and with intent and ended up doing himself an injury... Ref was right in front of it... Adam is the lucky one from what I've saw of it... Luck YC made nothing of it... Firstly it was Jay Spearing not Charlie Adam, I'm sure Adam would be chuffed you think he looks like gollum! Secondly, Cabaye was extremely lucky not to see red for that. I like his feisty approach but there are ways to go about it. That was just stupidity and will cost him games through suspension if he repeats that tackle again. Cabaye far from covered himself in glory, but I do remember thinking at the time that Spearing had flown in at such pace that he maybe caught Cabaye unaware. Then again it could be my black and white specs kicking in. That was my reaction at the time too. Having watched the incident again though, Cabaye was lucky no action was taken against him at the time (ie. a red card). Haven't seen it again since last night - he did catch him and it looked bad, but at the time I thought there was no way Cabaye could have premeditated it as Spearing came flying in so quickly from such a distance. Must be talking about a completely different incident... Was definitely Adam... In the centre circle... Adam went in to clatter him and ended up hurting himself leading to his substitution and the introduction of Gerrard... His teammates surrounded the ref looking for a card when it was Adam that was the lucky boy... The Spearing incident I can't recall so that in itself would suggest it was much to do about nothing... It was definitely Spearing

Not sure what people were watching???... Adam clearly went in recklessly and with intent and ended up doing himself an injury... Ref was right in front of it... Adam is the lucky one from what I've saw of it... Luck YC made nothing of it... Firstly it was Jay Spearing not Charlie Adam, I'm sure Adam would be chuffed you think he looks like gollum! Secondly, Cabaye was extremely lucky not to see red for that. I like his feisty approach but there are ways to go about it. That was just stupidity and will cost him games through suspension if he repeats that tackle again. Cabaye far from covered himself in glory, but I do remember thinking at the time that Spearing had flown in at such pace that he maybe caught Cabaye unaware. Then again it could be my black and white specs kicking in. That was my reaction at the time too. Having watched the incident again though, Cabaye was lucky no action was taken against him at the time (ie. a red card). Haven't seen it again since last night - he did catch him and it looked bad, but at the time I thought there was no way Cabaye could have premeditated it as Spearing came flying in so quickly from such a distance.

Not sure what people were watching???... Adam clearly went in recklessly and with intent and ended up doing himself an injury... Ref was right in front of it... Adam is the lucky one from what I've saw of it... Luck YC made nothing of it... Firstly it was Jay Spearing not Charlie Adam, I'm sure Adam would be chuffed you think he looks like gollum! Secondly, Cabaye was extremely lucky not to see red for that. I like his feisty approach but there are ways to go about it. That was just stupidity and will cost him games through suspension if he repeats that tackle again. Cabaye far from covered himself in glory, but I do remember thinking at the time that Spearing had flown in at such pace that he maybe caught Cabaye unaware. Then again it could be my black and white specs kicking in.

Doubt it will be Smith. Most likely is Tiote and Vuckic, but it could be Ben Arfa or Abed in there.

The headline for the link on Newsnow is 'Ben Arfa rested for West Brom clash'. I was like what on earth...very misleading!

You can't expect that from players though. They're not fans. The club is just a job to them. How excited are you about your job? Would you be hanging out around work seeing how the other guys are doing after taking a sick day? Yes, they're paid a lot but that's the only kind of paycheck they've ever known. I doubt most of them think of themselves as especially privileged. It's naive to believe that players "love the club" and it's certainly unrealistic to demand that they do so. Totally disagree - don't think it is unrealistic at all. As a professional footballer in the premier league there are 19 homes and all first time players should be expected to be in attendance whether or not they are playing. They are paid to be footballers and so when there is a match on they should be at work. Of course there will be exceptions if a player is unwell, there is a family issue etc, however, if the player is well enough to be walking around a shopping centre then he should be at the match. Away games are different of course, although players should be encouraged to attend.

Wouldn't say it was the greatest ever by a long shot, but I remember thinking at the time that it didn't get bigged up enough. It was execptional - had Rooney or Aguero etc scored it it would have been talked about for weeks.

I'm not trying to spread sh@te just passing on what i've been told. Well thanks for passing it on - you can rest easy tonight

Absolutely love Heskey. Lad we used to live with at uni claimed to be a massive Villa fan - used to go mental watching it on tv, but rarely went to a game. He hated Heskey so the rest of us used to bang on about how good he was all the time to wind him up. A few of us went in the Villa end at the SoL a couple of years back on a Wednesday night. 6 or 7 of us had a tenner or so on Heskey bagging the first goal. He duly obliged and we went absolutely mental - don't think the mackems knew what was going on as most of us ended up on the ground. That is probably my favourite non-NUFC football moment. It is those rare occasions that make it all worth it!

Best isnt thick like, i see it with Obertan who just reminds me of like lads at school who are skillful but make weird decisions a la Walcott, but Best? he seems fairly well screwed on to me...also sure ive heard somewhere that he is a bit of a "student of the game" in that he really tries to learn about his position and constantly improve. Wish he'd sit down and learn to stay onside then. fairplay this is a complaint, but that is just one area of the position, i dont want to cain any one player but Obertan makes completely wrong decisions in a totally different positions where Best is just getting his timing wrong...i think its a bit harsh on Best mind... Not really - I didn't rip Best apart, just said he needs to learn to stay onside. As a striker trying to play off defenders that is pretty key. I lived in Somerset for a fair few years and was a regular watching Yeovil Town when Best had a loan spell down there - even then in League 1 he was always needlessly offside. I imagine it is because he hasn't got electric pace so is always trying to play right off the shoulder of defenders, but it is still unforgivable the amount of times he gets caught offside.

Best isnt thick like, i see it with Obertan who just reminds me of like lads at school who are skillful but make weird decisions a la Walcott, but Best? he seems fairly well screwed on to me...also sure ive heard somewhere that he is a bit of a "student of the game" in that he really tries to learn about his position and constantly improve. Wish he'd sit down and learn to stay onside then.

Pretty sure he is?

Someone mentioned RT was injured. Not usually one to wish injury upon people, but I do hope that is true. Would rather Santon kept his place and Raylor was on the bench, however, if the only way for Santon to get a game ahed of him is for Ryan to be injured then so be it.

Never going to happen and, for me at least, not in the ideal line up either.

If Raylor is injured then he might not have much choice if he isn't prepared to gamble on Williamson. Another option would be Santon in the centre and Ferguson at left back, but surely Kadar is more likely to come in at CB.

Given that Tiote is back in training I would hope that he would at least make West Brom.

It may sound over dramatic but I totally agree. There is absolutely no need for him to start a game for us ever again. However, I think that Pardew may know this - he seems to name him on the bench occasionally and give him a couple of minutes here and there to keep him happy. For example am pretty sure Smith was on the bench for the Wigan game ahead of Guthrie and Gosling, but then Guthrie started at Blackburn, Gosling was on the bench and Smith wasn't in the squad. Fingers crossed this is the case anyway!

Looks like the bib game might be quite accurate in this case. Perhaps he had a look at both Abeid and Vuckic in the centre in training. Think I would rather see Abeid in this game with Cabaye (based on very little other than what I have heard), however, as long as it isn't Smith I don't really mind.

Glad that we cleared that one up

So will we hit 52k or not?! You haven't really gambled on one or the other there!

I am pretty sure we have, however, it would take half the fun out of a thursday afternoon if we didn't speculate!

Mehdi and Yohan getting used to playing with each other in the training pics...that's if we are playing the bibs game! Then again Vuckic also seems to be on the bibs side Swan Hunters

Aye, and if someone could sit James Perch down at the same time and show him a Gerard Pique highlights reel we would be laughing!

Haha i was at that game. We won IIRC. They missed a pen. Think we only had ten for much of the second half as well? Babayaro or someone got sent off when giving away that pen. I remember the 'He's a dwarf, a dwarf' song coming out at regular intervals.

Excellent