Hughesy

Noever got the Taylor scapegoating - even when he had his dip in form, he wasn't anywhere near as bad people liked to try and make out.

And the rumour is...?

Ridiculous....

The Invincibles.

The Harper bashing is absolutely ridiculous. Not only that, it is completely baseless.

We'd just had a corner and the ball had been cleared and picked up by Ryan Taylor who played it to Simpson who then played the ball to Tiote. Tiote played the ball forward to Ben Arfa who played the ball back to Tiote, Ben Arfa then headed away from goal and into space. The ball was played forward of Tiote and forward of Ben Arfa who was facing away from the Wigan goal. Ben Arfa was running away from goal because Tiote passed the ball to him while he was running into space in that direction and he let it run. He was running across the pitch and away from goal while being tracked by Watson. Ben Arfa looked to his right and saw Cabaye was making a cross field run between two Wigan players and Coloccini and possibly Taylor who were on the edge of the Wigan area. Ben Arfa turned away slightly more towards our end for a couple of seconds as if to feign a run and he played the ball to where Cabaye would have been if he carried on his run. Cabaye was probably two to three yards from the 18 yard box and roughly in line with the D. Cabaye was running towards the centre of the pitch when Ben Arfa looked up. No way could any player have found Cabaye with the ball at that point as the Ref and a Wigan player were both between the two. Cabaye did stop running while Ben Arfa was facing the other way to him and couldn't have known that Cabaye had stopped his run unless he's got eyes in the back of his head. Not what I saw. Will have to take another look if I can find it.

Brainless? And what if it came off, genius? The lads rusty, off the pace is all. A few matches from now and I expect he'll be firing on a few more cylinders than currently. Only one way to get that competitive edge is playing games. I've already said he needs more time. I think he is an incredibly talented footballer who hopefully will be an absolute hero for us. But... I still think the backheel was brainless and I stand by that. Yes, flair players will try high risk, low percentage stuff but they also need to have an appreciation for when the simple ball will suffice. In this particular instance, I don't think Ben Arfa made the right choice and could have potentially been a costly error.

Rubbish, Ben Arfa was running away from the Wigan goal and he looked up and saw Cabaye making a run, he waited a couple of seconds and played the ball not knowing that Cabaye had stopped his run. Why was he running away from the Wigan goal (he was actually running across the pitch more than away from the Wigan goal)? Because he had already delayed passing the ball to Cabaye about 5 seconds earlier in order to hold onto the ball. Cabaye was standing in exactly the same place when Ben Arfa tried the backheel - except that the option for the pass had now been closed off.

In fairness, I am all for giving Ben Arfa time etc etc - but that backheel was bloody awful and completely brainless.

I don't think the location where racist remarks are made has any bearing to be honest. Did you deliberately misrepresent my post or was it a genuine mistake? Not sure really - I am assuming it was a mistake. Although I am still not quite sure what you meant. Clearly school is different to the Premier League - in the same way that a badger is different to a goat. That much is obvious and so I am not sure why you said it? My post was directly related to the discussion at that point in the thread, which was about reacting to such comments. I think it's much more likely for adults to react on the big stage than kids in the school yard. I was asking whether you missed this line of conversation or just wanted to make it look like I was justifying racist comments. Looks like the latter and I don't appreciate that thanks. I think what you said was ambiguous. IHaving read about it 8 times since your last post, I can just about now see what you meant (although I am not sure that PL footballers would be anymore likely to react a racist slur than a schoolboy). So I will reiterate what I said earlier - I didn't follow your line of conversation as I couldn't understand how it was relevant.

I don't think the location where racist remarks are made has any bearing to be honest. Did you deliberately misrepresent my post or was it a genuine mistake? Not sure really - I am assuming it was a mistake. Although I am still not quite sure what you meant. Clearly school is different to the Premier League - in the same way that a badger is different to a goat. That much is obvious and so I am not sure why you said it?

Seem to remember Jenas having an absolute blinder against Davids in this match? Didn't Davids get taken off at half time?

I don't think the location where racist remarks are made has any bearing to be honest.

No, it's just kids that he stubs cigars into the eye of or beats to a pulp... The cigar ncident was f***ing sick like from the sounds of things, but the guy tried to set his shirt on fire and this was a decade ago. And that kid he "beat to a pulp" was out in Liverpool centre on a Saturday night giving him lip. I'm not at all condoning it, or saying he was in the right, but it hardly makes him a t***. It kind of does...!! If those actions don't make him a t*** in your book, I'd hate to know what he has to do to be considered one.

Just been saying that to my Dad. Absolutely ludicrous that he has the cheek to celebrate like f***ing Cantona. Jeeez, so now his celebrations are all wrong. Give the guy a break, people. Pretty sure you were more than keen to jump on Barton's back for everything he said/done like Bit different really. Slagging off Barton for being a disruptive goon... and slagging Shola off for his celebration..

They should be.

Not really..

Brilliant brilliant finish.

:snod: :snod: Well said Steve. Do you understand that you have finished above us 6 times in 20 years?

Like, ever? Like, ever ever. Seriously though, he can outpace most wingers and yet he's built like f***ing Optimus Prime. The f***er shouldn't even be able to jog with that much muscle weighing him ffs He really isn't that big..?

Can't actually believe that anyone can have a bad word to say about Pardew at the moment.

I'd agree with this. Harper is nowhere near as bad as some people are trying to make out. Last season, I think Harper was deservedly No 1. The reason Krul is now No 1 and should remain so, is that he has improved a great deal after he was dropped and throughout the summer. Can't understand some of the Harper dislike. Just doesn't make any sense.

Was just about to post that - good article.

If he wants to do that then he should forfeit his wages for the weeks we play away. I was told on tuesday that he wouldn't be at Wolves on saturday but would be watching his son play in the North of Newcastle on saturday instead as he didn't want to traipse around the country to just sit on the bench. I was sceptical but the kid who told me was adamant it was true and this article from Pardew today confirms it. Quite happy to be on the bench at home (or Sunderland just down the road) but not to travel away with either first team or reserves. He is as bad as Tevez. Wouldn't say that the article from Pardew 'confirms it'. Bit of a leap there.

Fantastic news.