Hughesy

I was thinking the same. I don't know which game it was, might have been against Stoke where he stepped up to take a free kick and bent it right into the top corner from 25 yards out. Then there was that volley from a 60 yard long punt against Man U. He's got far more ability than he gets credit for IMO. Scored a couple of cracking goals against Man Utd. in his time here. Is he a world class striker, no? But he's in that segment below who could do a good job tactically, in rotation or off the bench for most top sides. Which is important in case of injury. Would agree with that analysis really, but I think it would have been interesting to see him playing regularly in a top 4-6 side and see how many goals he would have scored. I reckon he'd score enough to certainly have a chance of starting for top sides on a fairly regular basis.

People can make of it what they will, but there is some US statistics guy on twitter who think someone mentioned in the Riviere thread who rates him pretty highly. I think he could come good to be honest.

Ba would undoubtedly score a lot of goals in a top 6 team like Spurs or Everton. I think people are underrating him quite a lot here - he never got a chance at Chelsea.

I don't necessarily have a problem with signing Colback on a free - he looked decent on Sunday and was better than I had expected. However, my issue is that buying him has effectively stopped us actually fixing the problems we have in central midfield i.e. creativity and he is no better than Tiote, Anita or Sissoko in their preferred positions.

Imagine him and Cabella running at defences - would be beautiful to see.

Looks promising - hopefully he will keep his composure a bit more in the future, but certainly has potential to develop into a good striker.

People seriously, and misguidedly, underrating Tiote in here.

Dummett really isn't good enough to play in the Premiership.

So many great goals to remember - I do love the Villa one as well. Almost feel it is an underrated goal by non-NUFC fans because it was Shearer i.e. people didn't expect that kind of touch finish from Shearer. In fact, Shearer generally had such an underrated technique - his first touch was consistently excellent. It's amazing to think that he could have been even better and scored even more goals if he hadn't had those injuries and essentially missed 2 seasons of playing.

he's awful defensively imho, even during that period when he was doing what pardew wanted he did little more than stand in front of the guy with the ball...can barely remember him ever making a tackle but during that period he did get back in position well enough I'd agree that from a tactical and technical point of view, he isn't a good defender, but I think he does pressurise people and puts the effort in to track back. To be honest, I can't think of many wingers who are good tacklers of the ball, so in my view it isn't really relevant. As long as he is putting in the effort to be a nuisance and close people down, Pardew shouldn't have any complaints at all.

I never get the workrate argument anyway - I don't actually think HBA is even that lazy or defensively neglectful. It is just a lazy argument.

Would be a shame to see him go to be honest. Even if he shouldn't be starting every match, he was beginning to return to form last season and when he's on form he is a good player.

Just watched some of HBA's skills on youtube. Don't know why I did it - feel a bit depressed now.

I think Hba would have more chance of replacing Gillespie than solano.

Bellamy and Dyer were consistently better than him (when on the pitch). I don't think Hatem would've got into the Keegan side. He'd take Solano's place in the Bobby side but by no means would the team be more geared to him than Shearer, Bellamy or Robert. Not sure consistency is a fair comparison tbh. HBA's consistency levels would undoubtedly be higher under a Keegan or a Robson and Dyer wouldn't have been as consistent (which wasn't exactly one of his strengths) under Pardew.

Is Stifler Jack Colback's mum?

How did you come to that figure? I can't imagine our wages have gone up much that much from last season.

Suppose so - it was also hard to think an underperforming team, as not many teams outside the top 7 have 'expectations' to underperform to!

I really don't see sixth as underperforming, more like par. Most fans of the top sides have completely dismissed us. In theory, it should be us and Everton duking it out for sixth and seventh. I think it's more that I think the gap between the top 5 and yourselves might be bigger than it has been before. That's more my point really.

It is ridiculous that informed observers of the game (by which I mean journalists etc) can be so blind to the facts. It's as if their memories don't extend beyond the current transfer window.

Never fails to amaze me that journalists never have a clue about a deal like this.

No way it is an easy victory. As others have said, the Premiership in 2002-05 was a better league than the one in 95/96.

Pardew really is an embarrassment to be honest.

Have we actually not got any other options? Why do we always do this?