Crayola Kid

I tend to agree with a lot of this, but you look like you have talked yourself out of the original sentiment by the end, just a bit?!?

Conspiracy level 2.0 says the secret footballer is actually agent John Colquhoun (sp?), and that the whole of the guardians footballing output is controlled by this agent and his stooges, to their own agenda. 'arf. http://footballisfixed.blogspot.co.uk/

Nah, I'm not. The column suggests that 'a club' did this to 'a player' at some point. Being the source which it is, there always seems to be a pro-player angle, perhaps naturally. We do appear to have been through a similar situation as far as bidding goes, but what we got was a re-focussed player who has hit great form since. That said, I have no idea whether our player refused to play against City, and would like to know what effect Wenger's comments may have had. People have said further up that players 'dont think like that' when others have suggested they would struggle to displace a regular at a new club. Well, Cabaye would have had to think about this, even if to dismiss the suggestion to himself

Did anyone read this column from the Secret Footballer? http://www.thesecretfootballer.com/articles/the-secret-footballer/14959/text-what-text-kenwyne-jones-the-truth/ "Clubs feed the public domain with stories like this all the time. I can remember a similar thing happening to a goalkeeper who I used to play with – the nicest, most professional and seriously talented player you could ever wish to meet. He did extremely well for our club and, as a result, he attracted a lot of interest from clubs in the top four. Eventually, one of those clubs put some serious money on the table. Understandably, our club did not want to sell him but, instead of rejecting the offer and releasing a statement, they rejected the offer and came up with their own plan. These days, it is not enough to simply reject an offer because there is so much money in the game that clubs are rarely put off by the size of a transfer fee alone. Our club knew that their goalkeeper would be the subject of further bids if it did not nip the situation in the bud immediately. On the Friday before a big game, the manager asked our goalkeeper if he was OK to play? Perhaps his heart was elsewhere, maybe he needed to have a weekend on his own to take his mind off things? “No,” replied our goalkeeper, “I’m fine with everything and looking forward to the game.” The following day the papers were littered with one quote from our manager: “We dropped the player for the weekend’s match,” he said, “because it was clear that his head was all over the place and he couldn’t deal with all the speculation.” And that was it. No more bids from the interested club; in fact, no more bids from anybody. Who wants a player, especially a goalkeeper, who crumbles under a bit of pressure? It was very clever and, at the same time, extremely vindictive." Add to this Wenger's comments about not paying so much for a 'squad player', and in August at least we had our player put perfectly in his place. Could this be happening again (if you think it could have happened then)?

Doesnt have to be nasty to be a red. This could very easily have been a red. Not the worst you'll ever see, but a poor tackle compounded by the second sweep he took as Nasri looked to have ridden the first. I cant be the only one who enjoyed seeing Nasri take a hit mind, for all the diving and whining, and not just today

It took about five passes I'm sure to get out of the pressure created by the pass inside from Hatem

He's been here ages and the team still can't read him. He made one run inside from halfway, beating a couple of men, but his lay off not far from the city box was disguised and played so quickly that we had to pass the ball back to the centre halves to keep control of the ball, taking the momentum out of the attack and allowing city to get back. Frustrating, we could make so more of the little situations he creates if we knew just what he was about to do. Coaching issue for me, which after so long with this club it's hard to see ever being resolved here

The ref wound the players up. It's impossible to play in a match like that where the referee is actively cheating against you and expect to be able to keep your cool throughout. aye, but a red card wouldnt have helped. i'd have subbed him, keep him for next week

i had the commentary turned off - thought cabaye could have had his second yellow for two different tackles today. would have subbed him after the second, looked like a red would follow

cheers. pesky internet kids

is the official twitter announcement, on the nufc account, about pardew leaving a wind up? anyone see it?

What a great pic! He certainly showed that ref, eh?!

St James when Ruud Gullit was manager, shortly after watching some Muhammed Ali film (not sure which). There was a belting round of 'Ruud Gullits Black and White Army' which sounded so much like 'Ali Bomaye' from that film. Loudest chant I can remember, though these things are impossible to judge, obvs. With the Ali thing, it gave me goosebumps and still does

265 games in sir Alex's first team, he's got to be ok?! Then Madrid for over a hundred, same for England. He was great man and if he was like another player, I'd throw in Kevin Keegan, as he has pushed himself to the limit of his talent, followed success at home by moving to another challenge abroad also successfully, and embraced the media opportunities that came his way. Wor Kev could have had a very similar career if he had been born later (without the kegs adverts, ugly get tbf)

98-02 Speed is better. Brilliant box-to-box midfielder. More suited to the PL than Cabaye, tbh. Solano-Speed-Dyer-Robert It wouldnt be Speed making way for Cabaye, IMO. He'd be fighting it out with Dyer Wouldn't be much of a fight, tbh. When that midfield was available I fancied us to beat anyone. Would surely have beeen Jenas-Speed-Cabaye-Dyer-Bellamy with Shearer up front alone, if we had had the current manager, arf

98-02 Speed is better. Brilliant box-to-box midfielder. More suited to the PL than Cabaye, tbh. Solano-Speed-Dyer-Robert It wouldnt be Speed making way for Cabaye, IMO. He'd be fighting it out with Dyer

If you had been told in may 2012 that we'd have HBA, Colo and Cisse on our bench in november 2013, you'd have been drooling at the thought of who we'd bought for the first team! This club man Howay Shola son!

Negative stories about NUFC? It's almost as if the club have done something to p*ss them off...oh wait... yeah, of course, but what do you want to see when you pick the paper up after a win? after a week of crap results, especially. the same paper will no doubt put themselves forward as fighting some principled cause in the name of the fans, well, dont spit in our eye like this, it doesnt affect anyone on either 'side' to throw a dumb non-story in like this. the paper just looked small-minded today, like i say, i dont often read it. without the current backdrop, it's the kind of article louise taylor may pop up with after a good result, and that aint a compliment

I dont often pay too much attention, having not bought a paper regularly for years and years, but the Journal today had a sour look about it. The front and back pages get 'previewed' on twitter, and Mondays front page had a coloured header strip screaming that THEY DIDNT KNOW WHETHER REMY WOULD STAY!!!! and the back page main story was the same, just a blah blah blah about a situation which wont change for some time. This is a non-story for me, in the first issue of that paper after a fine win at home. Reckon it would have been all about the match if we'd been smashed by chelsea.

Usual concerns ahead of this fixture - namely that cattermole is likely to try to injure one or more of our better players, which could mean them missing subsequent matches and leaving us weaker in those games. There isnt another player around who does this so blatantly, imo

basjen the 'swiss ramble' website is pretty thorough, and fairly unbiased, but the age old problem with such queries is that the most up-to-date information is often 18 months old when published the sporting intelligence twitter site often comes up with good links, also

Possibly, think Keegan threw them all in a couple of times too. Was gutted when Peacock, understandably, left. me too, but i remember thinking not too long afterwards that it would have been just a bit hard on him had he stayed as he wasnt getting in the team we ended up with. obvs he would have backed himself to challenge had he stayed, but life got in the way so we'll never know

didnt peacock miss a few games here and there, little injuries? and i cant remember clearly, but one of them must have made way for cole, who played the last 12 games?

Beardsley scored 2 brilliant goals against Carlisle and Man City at home and they were almost identical. He was running away from goal on the left chasing an opposition player who had the ball almost on the half-way line. Both times he went down almost on one knee and wrapped his foot around the ball from behind the player. Both times he stood up as quick as he went down and he went on to score, I don't think I've ever seen a player score a goal like that before, Beardsley did it twice and it might have been in the same season. He was good enough to be able to admire him as a liverpool player - and thats not easy. I dont like anybody else's players! Then he came back and was our x-factor, our whatever the difference between talented/plucky and being dangerous is. What a time, those first two seasons back up here

Hmm. Why? Looks a bit championship to me... Don't know much about him, personally. Goal scoring record seems decent according to Wikipedia. Still... Brazilian striker! So was Mira and he never settled FFS man, Mira had a pig farm in Brazil to attend to, he couldnt just piss around suitin himself playin footy?!!?