The Prophet

Both Tim Krul and Demba Ba seem throughly decent, down to earth chaps, until they leave of course.

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Are we actually using the absence of an untested youngster who's attitude is in question as a stick to beat Pardew with? I'm pretty certain there are larger more troubling branches out there.

For obvious reasons, decided to play for them over Spain quite recently.

Off the top of my head: Heiko Vogel It's a bit early to judge him, but since taking charge of Basle in October he's taken them to the last sixteen of the Champions League at the expense of Man United. He has them playing some really exciting stuff even if they do look a bit suspect at the back. Antonio Conte Looks to be leading the Old Lady back to the glory days. They're currently unbeaten in Serie A, sitting one point behind Milan with a game in hand and almost certian to return to the Champions League. Domingos Paciencia Recently move to Sporting Lisbon following two fine seasons with Sporting Braga. In his first season they led a league normally dominated by Benfica and Porto for a long period before eventually finishing second. In his second season he led them to the Europa League final beating the likes of Liverpool, Dinamo Kiev and Benfica on the way.

The healthy financial position of the Bundesliga has had the knock on effect of the average price of a ticket falling to around seventeen quid a game. That combined with safe standing allows for consistently top crowds. Due my abysmal financial situation I don't get to as many games these days as I used to. However in my view there's a marked difference between the standard Saturday three O' clock bunch and a majority of our other crowds and it has little to do with attendance. They moan and groan at every misplaced pass, jump on the backs of certain players and generally go to complain rather than support. Obviously this is only my opinion and it is a generalisation that won't apply to every individual, but it is very noticeable. Tin hat donned.

Just going back to the point about expectations. At the beginning of the season I felt progress would have been shown with convincing top half finish. By that I mean avoiding the mid-table melee. Last season we were caugh in a cluster of sides including, Sunderland, Bolton and Fulham that could have finished anywhere from 8th and 14th, only the odd point seperated those sides. That pattern has developed again this season with the likes of Sunderland, Everton, Stoke, Fulham and West Brom battling it out for the top half. At the beginning of the season I would of been pleased to simply avoid that scrap. Expectation has undeniably changed given our position in the top seven, mine included. We've maintianed our league standing for a large majority of the season with barely a challange from anyone below, perhaps Stoke during our blip. To finish outside that top seven now would be undeniably disappointing regardless of any previous expectations. For me anything on top of that would be an absolute bonus, the very fact we're punching our weight with the likes of Arsenal, Chelsea and Liverpool is an achievement in itself. Despite our progress this season the three of them still have much larger squads packed with more quality, players such as Simpson, Perch and Shola would get no where near those sides, we still have a long way to go before we have that kind of strength in depth. I think some have lost sight of where we are as a work in progress. Yes the three aforementioned sides are having somewhat disappointing seasons but they've still pulled away with realtive ease, the only difference being we're right up there with them. For a squad containing seven or eight players of real class mixed with a lot of dross that's a cracking season. Obvisouly it isn't over yet, but if we maintian our current standing it would be a very impressive achievement, in my eyes at least.

I get where you're coming from but that bit in bold in pretty inexcusable now. I mean we've had plenty of opportunities to improve on the squad players and replace the likes of Simpson and Raylor from a starting XI but cost has come above team. Williamson, for all I've been a big supporter of his in the past, should have been on the bench yesterday with the kid from Watford getting a game. To have had to start Longball Simpson each and every game this season is ok if we're scraping the bottom 5 but given we're pushing top 5 surely Pardew has to have the argument with Ashley over replacing the c***? And, as for starting Raylor ahead of HBA, when we're playing the 'Dog and Duck'.....................he needs his f***ing head reading. I'll reiterate what I kneejerked yesterday, the guy needs to grow a pair of bollocks and show some confidence in our players instead of worrying about the opposition and what Prozone is telling him. If football was played on a computer we'd all be applying for his job. While I completely agree a centre back should of been acquired in January, player recruitment isn't something you can lay squarely at Pardew's feet, he had no choice but to play Williamson yesterday. That said unless you're Man City or Chelsea it's diffciult to go out and purchase a quality squad in a short space of time, it's entirely natural for it to be deficient in areas. As far as Ryan Taylor goes I completely agree, there's no excuse for him being above Ben Arfa in the pecking order, it's one of the areas Pardew has been found wanting in. He seems to have bought into this idea Ben Arfa a) doesn't work hard enough and b) gives the ball away far too much, the first being a complete myth and the second being the nature of the play maker that he is. Ryan Taylor has proved himself to be a very handy squad player but there's no excuse for leaving such a talented match winner in Ben Arfa on the bench.

He looked by far our brightest player when he came on.

Everybody is entitled to their opinion, but the fact 12% of the forum believe Pardew is performing poorly while 32% feel he is merely doing alright is staggering in my view. Yes we’ve had some below par results of late but the season as a whole has gone brilliantly and the manager has to take credit. Yesterday was up there with West Brom in terms of sheer disappointment as far as a single result is concerned. It was a shocking day at the office. Williamson made Doyle look like Messi, Simpson was dreadful and Pardew deserves criticism for a performance laced with complacency. The tactics were wrong, the substitutions came too late and Wolves thoroughly deserved their point. Having said that, I’ve maintained all season Pardew is an average manager doing a very good job and I’d stick with that. Currently we’re sitting sixth, four points ahead of Liverpool , eight ahead of Norwich and just three behind Arsenal and Chelsea. While performances have been mixed we’ve got a hard working, well organized unit together who have made a habit of kicking results regardless of how they play. This can be largely attributed Pardew’s meticulous preparation and pre-match research. While there are certain areas of Pardew’s managerial ability are certainly open to criticism (certain aspects of the team selection, his reaction time and general substitution making) the fact he’s even got us mixing it in amongst the top six speaks for itself. It’s all a question of progress, the fact we were relegated two seasons ago is entirely relevant for me. Some aspects of the squad are still Championship standard, especially in respect to the lads who fill in, it’s inevitable we’re still going to turn in poor results. Last season we comfortably avoided relegation and I stated I’d be happy with a resounding top half finish this year given the progress it would represent. Having seen how the season has progressed, to finish outside the top seven would be disappointing, but if we maintain that position it will show very good progress in our post-promotion evolution.

Is it right until their last campaign Barca hadn't won an away tie (knockout) in the Champions League under Pep? Their overall record is 2-5-2 away from home in the knockout stages, not great.

Of course its all conjecture, but I think playing HBA instead of Obertan gainst Spurs would have at least kept their defenders on their toes. With Obertan, their fullback was overlapping and we were under wave and wave of attacks. Personally I don't think it would have made any difference to the fullback getting forward at all. If Ben Arfa was a traditional wide man perhaps, but he constantly floats inside attempting to find space for a dribble or pass. Don't get me wrong this isn't a criticism, you only have to look at Mata at Chelsea as an example of a wide playmaker who does this very well, it's intelligant play and makes him a constant threat throughout the game. During the game the forwards had so little of the ball and were so poor when they did I doubt Ben Arfa would have influenced the game at all. I would have played him over Obertan of course, but I doubt it would have impacted on the result.

Aye. We got well and truly beaten by a fantastic team who on the night would have beaten any team in Europe. s*** happens. I don't think the result matters that much, it was a 1 off. So was Norwich and so was Fulham. Are we ignoring context altogether now?

The UEFA Cup is now on ITV 1, well now the Mancs are in it.

He got ripped to shreds for going 4-5-1 at White Hart Lane last season.

Wish people would stop saying 'pen'.

Feel sorry for anyone who misses now like.

Ronny hattrick, might as well turn this off now.

Automatic yellow in Spain.

1-1 Ronaldo penalty, Levante down to ten.

Ramos is such a tit, should of walked there.

Lovely finish from Ruben. 1-0 Villareal.

To an extent, it was a no win situation for him yesterday. He either went with two banks of four in the hope one of our forwards could muster a goal or two out of the few chances we'd create, which he did. Or he could risk an extra man in the middle in an attempt to stifle Spurs by retaining a bit of possession which he did last year and got absolutely slated for it.

Ben Arfa should start ahead of Obertan and Taylor, I agree. However, talk of binning Pardew is ludicrous.