Christmas Tree

For those trying to ring, one of the lads on Toontastic posted this.... Right I've just spoken to some bloke called John Hunter did a bit of digging went through to the media centre and who gave me his extension. He runs the T/O top bod with Simon Esland. Apparently there's 15 staff at the ticket office who normally take calls but they've said fuck that, too many people queuing so all of them are dealing with face to face customers downstairs.<br /><br />There's a call centre in Nottingham, who are taking calls, but only 4 staff in there, he said when its full it cuts you off. FFS

The save is for season ticket holders though. Someone without one can't get this, but let's just say you had a mate who couldn't afford a regular priced season-ticket, or a son or whatever, would you not want the opportunity to be able to afford to let them go? This for me like.

Good for you!

While I would much rather see Marveaux in the team, I havent given up on Obertan and just think he needs some further training on the attack front. A spell in the reserves learning to take on and beat "lesser" players may also do him the world of good. Some of his interchange play coming out of defence at times on Saturday was excellent so he obviously has something to build on.

Really good idea. I originally gave mine up when Keegan went and wouldnt have one still other than the wife bought me one for our anniversary in August. I now can not imagine not being there again and am loving the whole match day experience again. Hopefully this will tempt some more disgruntled back and they also get back into enjoying it again.

Another excellent move by the club. Sure it's in their interest but anything that gets the ground full seems good news to me.

Utter rubbish. He created an immediate link between the midfield and attack and our shape immediately looked better after he came on. As madras has said, if he lost the ball a couple of times when dribbling, that was as much to do with the lack of movement in front of him than because he was greedy. If there's a pass on he will make it. He was hardly in the game at all and even some of the crowd were getting pissed off with him losing it. The lack of movement thing is a way of blaming everyone else for his failures, look at Marveaux for example when he came on, how many times did he lose the ball? Hardly any and the reason for that is he knows when to play it simple, knows when to play one touch football and knows when to try something more extravagant. Ben Arfa on the other hand prefers to hold on to it rather than playing the simple ball far too much, he isn't going to get great movement in front of him because he's picking it up too far up field on most occasions and he's only got one striker in front of him instead of two as he's taking up one of the positions unlike when he played on the wing, there was also occasions yesterday when Ryan Taylor pulled wide unmarked where if he was played in he could get a ball into the box yet was ignored by HBA who preferred to double back and attempt to take someone else on. Clearly a talented player but I'm going to need some convincing he can offer us enough playing off one striker, that includes goals. Sums it up at the minute. Cant understand as well if he's so desperate for match time why he is not using the reserves as Marveaux did. Why is he not using them? Don't you mean Pardew? I mean quite a few keep saying he needs more games to get fit. If thats the case why isnt he playing in the reserves? Obviously he was down to play the other week and then went to Tunisia instead. Seems either a strange decision by Pardew or who knows, maybe a french strop? Regardless, it seems daft.

Bottom line is Obertan needs to go and learn / polish his craft in the reserves. As I've said before I think this is a "Pardew only" buy which is why he has so far kept Marveaux out.

"He ran over to masseur Micky Holland, who had told him before the game that he would score, while Steven Taylor - who played on despite a broken nose - also shared the love." Cheers.

I appreciate this is a stupid comment given the the limited glimpses we've so far seen (and you tube), but I think once he gets in he will quickly be seen as the best player in the team. Seems to have it all. Goals, crosses, passes, dribbling and all played with a cool calm persona. Literally cant wait.

It looked as though he ran to celebrate with someone particular on the bench. Is this right and if so who?

Utter rubbish. He created an immediate link between the midfield and attack and our shape immediately looked better after he came on. As madras has said, if he lost the ball a couple of times when dribbling, that was as much to do with the lack of movement in front of him than because he was greedy. If there's a pass on he will make it. He was hardly in the game at all and even some of the crowd were getting pissed off with him losing it. The lack of movement thing is a way of blaming everyone else for his failures, look at Marveaux for example when he came on, how many times did he lose the ball? Hardly any and the reason for that is he knows when to play it simple, knows when to play one touch football and knows when to try something more extravagant. Ben Arfa on the other hand prefers to hold on to it rather than playing the simple ball far too much, he isn't going to get great movement in front of him because he's picking it up too far up field on most occasions and he's only got one striker in front of him instead of two as he's taking up one of the positions unlike when he played on the wing, there was also occasions yesterday when Ryan Taylor pulled wide unmarked where if he was played in he could get a ball into the box yet was ignored by HBA who preferred to double back and attempt to take someone else on. Clearly a talented player but I'm going to need some convincing he can offer us enough playing off one striker, that includes goals. Sums it up at the minute. Cant understand as well if he's so desperate for match time why he is not using the reserves as Marveaux did.

Looking lively doesn't make you a good footballer, or mean you performed well. A chef can cook 50 meals in an hour but it doesn't mean they're tasty. No it certainly doesn't, but an absolute crap performance does make you the scapegoat sometimes. Ben Arfa has been out for a 1 year and a bit more, and has the intelligence at least to when he's not performing well help the ball movement on the field. In 45mins he was closer to scoring than Obertan has in 7-8 games. He's in more of a sausage role to do so. Angel Gabriel is a provider - even though he hasn't really provided. Ben Arfa lost the ball in dangerous areas yesterday, and against a better side it would have cost us. He's also (understandably) less effective in defensive situations. Obertan may be average/shit but he's useful when we don't have the ball. Ben Arfa cannot do owt wrong for a lot of people, it's canny stupid tbh. Two good posts fella.

Some Pardew speak

Hope it all eventually comes good for him but dont think he warrants taking Best's starting place yet.

Spot on and when you add in the expectation of a Wigan battering and people also eager to see Marveaux it was always going to be like that. A spell as super sub might do him some good.

Hey, I'm not disagreeing I might just miss it. Maybe I did and maybe it looked better on the telly but I dont recall him firing crosses in or getting to the bye line and whipping them in or bringing great saves out of the keeper.

Simples. Has to start the next game.

I must just miss it. Just looked like another Jonas performance with little end product. I wonder if some people just praise him no matter what.

Not much to say. Worst game I've watched this year live. Very lack lustre and lots of sub par performances. Only saving grace was having Cabaye at 14-1 for first goal scorer. Funny old game Not Blown away by Ben Arfa yet but loving Marveaux..... Classy team player. 3 points though and one of those games we might have got nowt from last year.

nee more sleeps

16,790 sleeps ;-) Happy Birthday for yesterday. Lol Poetic licence, still another 40 sleeps til the big 46 :-)

Keegan obv and Sir Bob ( I like honest, tell it like it is types) What about Andy Cunningham or Charlie Mitten, bet you just started following us when we got in the premier league. Our history does not start with Hughton and end with Pardew FFS. Further down my list comes Willie Mcfaul, but we never really got to "know" those managers as we have since the 90's due to TV etc. I'm sure we used to get the odd glimpse ever now and again of older managers on TV or read the odd comment in the press, but not quite the same. I've also met KK and Sir Bob in the flesh on several occasions which also helps. Best really not to bet on things you know nothing about ;-) I was messing, i met sir bob once, liked the fact my middle name was the same as his fathers. Aye lovely fella, shame we didn't get him sooner.

16,790 sleeps ;-)

Keegan obv and Sir Bob ( I like honest, tell it like it is types) What about Andy Cunningham or Charlie Mitten, bet you just started following us when we got in the premier league. Our history does not start with Hughton and end with Pardew FFS. Further down my list comes Willie Mcfaul, but we never really got to "know" those managers as we have since the 90's due to TV etc. I'm sure we used to get the odd glimpse ever now and again of older managers on TV or read the odd comment in the press, but not quite the same. I've also met KK and Sir Bob in the flesh on several occasions which also helps. Best really not to bet on things you know nothing about ;-)