Hughesy

I particularly enjoy his description in the last line as an 'ace'.

He used to love the triple substitution. And it worked once from my memory when Stephen Glass scored vs Man Utd in 2000. After a Lua-Lua miskick. Bit of a fantasy that. It was true in his early days but simmered down a lot after the first few weeks of that 2000/01 season with Cordone and co. Once we had a good and settled team (Bellamy/Robert onwards), it was pretty rare. Perhaps too rare. In 2003/04: He did 3 substitutions against Man United, Birmingham City, Portsmouth, Fulham and Bolton. That's still quite frequent! Aye but not the 'lets get groovy' triple whammy, which I assume is what we're talking about*. A 67th, a 75th and a 92nd combo doesn't count. *It might have happened once among those games, can't say I've checked specifically. Those all were triple whammy substitutions. Rather embarrassingly - I actually checked the matches. Where can I check? Genuinely interested to see. Fair play. I'll be pedantic and point out Portsmouth was actually two substitution phases 1 minute apart, but still. Four or five is a good couple more than I was expecting. Just trawled through nufc.com match reports! Looks like the year before was less though - think it is only 3 or 4 occasions. Even I was surprised about the number of time Robson made 3 subs in the entire game (not of the triple whammy type) - certainly liked to utilise the bench.

He used to love the triple substitution. And it worked once from my memory when Stephen Glass scored vs Man Utd in 2000. After a Lua-Lua miskick. Bit of a fantasy that. It was true in his early days but simmered down a lot after the first few weeks of that 2000/01 season with Cordone and co. Once we had a good and settled team (Bellamy/Robert onwards), it was pretty rare. Perhaps too rare. In 2003/04: He did 3 substitutions against Man United, Birmingham City, Portsmouth, Fulham and Bolton. That's still quite frequent! Aye but not the 'lets get groovy' triple whammy, which I assume is what we're talking about*. A 67th, a 75th and a 92nd combo doesn't count. *It might have happened once among those games, can't say I've checked specifically. Those all were triple whammy substitutions. Rather embarrassingly - I actually checked the matches.

He used to love the triple substitution. And it worked once from my memory when Stephen Glass scored vs Man Utd in 2000. After a Lua-Lua miskick. Bit of a fantasy that. It was true in his early days but simmered down a lot after the first few weeks of that 2000/01 season with Cordone and co. Once we had a good and settled team (Bellamy/Robert onwards), it was pretty rare. Perhaps too rare. In 2003/04: He did 3 substitutions against Man United, Birmingham City, Portsmouth, Fulham and Bolton. That's still quite frequent! -- Bugger, ignore this edit.

He used to love the triple substitution. And it worked once from my memory when Stephen Glass scored vs Man Utd in 2000. After a Lua-Lua miskick.

So, in brief: You find the reactions of people who you don't agree with annoying, but you find the reactions of the people you agree with justifiable. I find it annoying when people misrepresent the opinions of others. Was a bit of a joke to be honest. Obviously should have whacked a smiley in there somewhere.

Well - that is where I would start him. I think Obertan has had a good run in the side and hasn't performed. Although I actually think he played reasonably well yesterday. But, I still stand by the fact that I understand perfectly why Pardew may not have felt comfortable playing him up until now and I stand by the fact that there seems to be a general feeling on here that we need to treat him with kid gloves so he doesn't storm off back to Tunisia/Paris next week. And I regard that as being unacceptable.

I really really hope Ben Arfa makes it at NUFC because he has all the talent in the world. But... 1) We don't know what is going on behind the scenes. We don't know how Ben Arfa is in training. We don't know his fitness levels. 2) So far Ben Arfa hasn't shown enough to be cast-iron starter at the moment. On talent - we all know he should be starting, but I am not convinced that his performances this season so far have merited a starting XI place. As has been pointed out so far, our relative 'success' owes a large amount to the formation we have been playing and the solidity and industry of the team as a unit. Understandably, Pardew has probably been reluctant to change what was a winning formula and/or jeopardise the work rate of the team by including a talented but not so industrious player. 3) I also find it a little bit odd (not going to trawl through for posts, more an impression I have got) is that people seem to think we should pander to Ben Arfa because he is a talented player and everyone thought getting him to NUFC was a bit of a coup for us. We can't live in fear of Ben Arfa's potential hissy fits. He should realise that he is part of a squad and he needs to earn his place. Already there are 'stories' that he doesn't look very happy and possibly starting to sulk a little - if that is the case he should grow up and realise that he can't just throw his toys out of the pram at every club he is at if things don't go right. Having said all that - I would have brought him on yesterday and want to see him in the starting XI sooner rather than later.

Exactly - was just thinking about the reaction on here if we had gone all out for victory from 55 minutes into the match and then been hit on the counter (as Swansea were beginning to do in the second half) and lost. Hindsight is a marvellous thing. Especially if the ball had been lost from a Ben Arfa dribble... We had done enough in the first half to persist with the team as it was set up.

So, in brief: You find the reactions of people who you don't agree with annoying, but you find the reactions of the people you agree with justifiable.

I really wouldn't try to ever compare Pardew to Wenger, and I have never mentioned his ability to buy young, unproven talent. I think Wenger is a very good manager who gets his team to play a good brand of football and usually gets the best out of his players. Secondly, I don't think he got any of his substitutions right today never mind all of them. We have had two dodgy results but we've been lucky on quite a few occasions where we've had results which were better than our display deserved. Today was a poor result against a team we should have beaten and we didn't do enough to get the points. Our game plan wasn't working and we stuck with it until the end of the game, I’m not going to congratulate Pardew for screwing up, you can if you want to. As for who is deluded, we’ll know by the end of the season, won’t we? I wasn't comparing Wenger to Pardew in terms of managerial ability. I was discussing your comment asking what Pardew was good at. For example (and I paraphrase), you claimed that us signing good players was not down to Pardew but Carr. Well - is Wenger responsible for the players he signs? No, he isn't. Not sure what you don't grasp about what I said. Interesting that you say Wenger plays a good brand of football and gets the most of his players. Under Pardew, we are playing better football than we have done for a while. Under Pardew, I would argue that one of his strengths is getting the best out of players. So yet again - not comparing Wenger and Pardew or claiming that Wenger and Pardew are equals. Substitutions - I can see reasoning behind most of his subs. I think he should have brought Ben Arfa on though and I am not sure why he didn't. To me, that was his major mistake. Other than that - didn't see much wrong. We have had luck on our side this season. Who hasn't? Every team has. We have also had bad luck. We did enough to win today, for example. Luiz should have been sent off in the Chelsea game. We had a severely depleted team against Norwich (no way we would have lost that game with a full strength team). Not sure where I proposed congratulating Pardew for today?? More stating that no manager will get every game right and Pardew, in my eyes, has done enough to deserve a fair bit of leeway when it comes to a game like today. A game which we deserved to win.

Clearly a hard man to please then!

So has he been saying them after each match when we were winning? Or has he voiced his opinions after defeats/draws? Have absolutely no problem with people having opinions - otherwise this forum would be dull. But I think that some of the criticism levelled at Pardew after this 'banana blip' is a bit OTT to be honest. As I said - we are having a great season at the moment. Would be good to remember that and not start complaining that we didn't beat Swansea.

Can you tell us the respective points per game for each manager? And exclude Championship stats.

What a strange thing to say. First, is it actually that easy to pinpoint what any manager is good at? Especially when you then try and pull apart each quality and attribute it to someone else. Do you think Wenger scouts all the players he buys himself? No, he has a scouting team for that. However, ask people what Wenger's qualities are and the first thing people will say is his ability to buy young, unproven talent. Second, you don't think he got all the substitutions right today. Show me a manager who does? You seem to be expecting a 100% success rate. It isn't a science - you can see why Pardew didn't change anything at half time bearing in mind we could/should have been 3 up by then. We could go round in circles on this one - but seriously, we've had two dodgy results all season (one of which was understandable given our lack of options) and people are having a go at Pardew?!?! We are in 6th place for God's sake with a pretty small squad! Where did you expect us to be? What does Pardew have to convince the doubters that he is doing a good job? And you wonder why NUFC fans have a reputation for being deluded? Absolutely staggering overreactions.

Agreed. Agreed

100% agree. Never really did it for me that goal. Still can't quite see what people think is so good about it.

That's why he is wearing a sports bra.

I had wondered what that creature was... http://www.canaries.co.uk/page/NewsDetails/0,,10355~1466346,00.html

Still think the second one was a better goal than the first.

The stats of ben arfa is good for mifdfield or winger but he plays not lot of game in season 25 (perhaps the coach don't like a player who say shut up pardew bitch never ben arfa had played season clash with coach every time) 109 games holder 63 x decisive (30 goals and 33 assists ) For 120 min play/ one goal or assist for example nasri 300 min plays for one goal or assist example sanchez 130 min play/for on goal or asssist.Every year ben arfa plays >= 8 goals 8 assist for 25 games The only problem he comes back injury if he not plays he is not recovery Yeah Hughsey. Shut up. I would love to shut up - but I just don't understand a single of word that has just been said. Currently trying to follow that post through word by word and saying it out loud to see if it helps..

Although I realise that stats do not tell you the full story in football, I was a little concerned to look at HBA's stats for goals and assists in his career. As a quick disclaimer - I am not jumping on either the 'HBA is rubbish' or 'HBA is amazing' bandwagons.. more just an observation.

Is that what you want to happen or what you think will happen? Either way - it is wrong.

We wouldn't be struggling to do anything if we don't get 4-6 points from the next 2 games, except maybe struggling to stay in the top 8.

Sums it up for me. It's not even a lack of application I don't think - it seems to be a complete lack of confidence.