Shola Ameobi

[alexf]

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/44522000/jpg/_44522080_ameobi_shirt_bbc_203.jpg

 

We were so close to him being gone forever but the fucker found a way to fuck that up.

[Ghandis Flip-Flop]

To be fair it's the manager who should be aware after watching the lad for two years now that he can be effective for 20 minutes against tiring legs. However he cannot play 90 minutes of football. Shola doesn't pick himself the blame for the fact he's started our last two games has to lie with Pardew.

[Chris_R]

It's hard to actually dislike Shola because he comes across as a nice chap who is just playing for the club he supports, actually living the dream that all of us have.

 

The problem is, he's about as good as most of us would be. Fucking terrible footballer 95% of the time. Immobile, slow, ponderous.

 

That said, Pele would have looked crap today. The service, if you can even call it that, was non-existant and you can't expect anything of a striker if there's no balls being put into the box for him to attack. Shola's job today as the main striker was to convert chances, not create them from nothing. He wasn't given any chances to put away, so I find it hard to make him a scapegoat for today's gutless performance.

[Jordan]

It's hard to actually dislike Shola because he comes across as a nice chap who is just playing for the club he supports, actually living the dream that all of us have.

 

The problem is, he's about as good as most of us would be. Fucking terrible footballer 95% of the time. Immobile, slow, ponderous.

 

That said, Pele would have looked crap today. The service, if you can even call it that, was non-existant and you can't expect anything of a striker if there's no balls being put into the box for him to attack. Shola's job today as the main striker was to convert chances, not create them from nothing. He wasn't given any chances to put away, so I find it hard to make him a scapegoat for today's gutless performance.

Ba managed to do it for half a season never mind 60 minutes. Ranger showed more in 45 mins than Shola has in his last 3 or 4 games. He's lazy and just utter shit.

[Zach]

A real captains display, deserved the 20 minutes extra rest he gave himself.

[Chris_R]

It's hard to actually dislike Shola because he comes across as a nice chap who is just playing for the club he supports, actually living the dream that all of us have.

 

The problem is, he's about as good as most of us would be. f***ing terrible footballer 95% of the time. Immobile, slow, ponderous.

 

That said, Pele would have looked crap today. The service, if you can even call it that, was non-existant and you can't expect anything of a striker if there's no balls being put into the box for him to attack. Shola's job today as the main striker was to convert chances, not create them from nothing. He wasn't given any chances to put away, so I find it hard to make him a scapegoat for today's gutless performance.

Ba managed to do it for half a season never mind 60 minutes. Ranger showed more in 45 mins than Shola has in his last 3 or 4 games. He's lazy and just utter s***.

 

I don't dispute any of that. I just think it's fair to say that our problems run a lot deeper than Shola being at the apex of our frontline. Yes, Shola is sub-standard. There's no doubting that at all. But with a decent supply he could have caused some problems to Brighton today. However we ended up with Obertan and Sammy Ameobi on the wrong wings trying to create things, and a midfield where Abeid did virtually nothing at all. Williamson was terrible again, and our fullbacks never pushed up to support our attacks, perhaps at least in part because there weren't any attacks.

 

We were rotten from front to back today, Shola included, but he wasn't the sole reason we lost or even IMO the main reason.

[Minhosa]

Should be ashamed of himself for the way he lambasted Tavernier for their first goal.

[matta]

Blessing in disgiuse with his red card. Now Pardew has to make different first sub.

[mouldy_uk]

The fact that we still rely on this 3rd rate striker is really a sad indictment of this club, should have been moved on years ago.

[Stifler]

The fact that we still rely on this 3rd rate striker is really a sad indictment of this club, should have been moved on years ago.

Yeah, after all the strikers we have had and lost and Adam Campbell who is waiting for his chance and is showing more promise it's sad that he's been kept here.

[mouldy_uk]

The fact that we still rely on this 3rd rate striker is really a sad indictment of this club, should have been moved on years ago.

Yeah, after all the strikers we have had and lost and Adam Campbell who is waiting for his chance and is showing more promise it's sad that he's been kept here.

 

Pardew must really hate gingers to not give him a few mins over the Ameobi/Chuckle brothers

[James]

Regardless of the performance,  his sending off was a travesty because the referee was looking in the wrong direction for the first booking and guessed a yellow card.

 

The ref needs sacking for that

[Ronaldo]

Wish he'd go back to Stoke.

 

Too good a club for him.

[Guest bimpy474]

Lovely chap, good in the changing room, good example for the younger lads.

 

Crap player------this bit counts above all else if you want to be a top team.

[Ritchie]

Remember when he was so close to signing for Ipswich?

[Guest neesy111]

Remember when he was so close to signing for Ipswich?

 

I did, then on transfer deadline window saw him coming out of Blockbuster on Chillingham Road.

[LRD]

He was sent off? Get in! Made my day. Didn't watch it when I saw him and his equally useless brother on the team sheet.

 

2 yellows rather than violent conduct though sadly.

 

Would have been great if he had decked El-Abd and received a 3 match ban.

[Optimistic Nut]

Can we not appeal the decision and try and get the suspension extended?

[Guest frazernufc]

This man will be our hero again on the 13th April.

[LRD]

Future bright for the so-called super sub

January 8, 2013

 

By Richard Jolly

(Archive)

 

Some of the inhabitants of the Premier League's Hall of Fame are celebrated and decorated. There is Alan Shearer, for instance, with his record 260 goals in the division; there are Andy Cole, Robbie Fowler, Ruud van Nistelrooy and Robin van Persie, with various other goalscoring bests; there are Sir Alex Ferguson and Ryan Giggs, twinned on 12 titles and possessing many a managerial and playing record respectively.

 

Shola Ameobi celeb v QPR

PA PhotosShola Ameobi came off the bench to score the winner against QPR in December

 

But, bypassing the hall of shame where Richard Dunne, Duncan Ferguson and Patrick Vieira share the unfortunate distinction of being the most dismissed players in the division's history, there are other occupants whose presence might seem, at best, a dubious privilege. It rather escaped attention during the eight-goal second half between Arsenal and Newcastle but history was made. Or equalled, anyway. Shola Ameobi was introduced before the Gunners' final three goals for his 118th substitute appearance in the Premier League. It drew him level with Kanu, who was previously unrivalled in his propensity to come off the bench.

 

Ameobi may have to wait for outright possession of the record; he is suspended for United's Saturday game against Norwich and Demba Ba's sale to Chelsea may free up a place in the attack. Yet, sooner or later, there is an inevitability about Alan Pardew first leaving Ameobi out and then bringing him on. A combination of a sizeable physical presence and a hint of unpredictability explain why 118 of his top-flight games have not begun with the first blast of the referee's whistle. He is a multi-functional mid-match addition: Ameobi can be introduced to hold the ball up and protect a lead, to subject opponents to an aerial bombardment, to test tiring legs in the opposition ranks or to relieve exhausted figures in the Newcastle forward line.

 

Yet to talk of his longevity as a replacement, which stretches back over a decade, is part compliment, part criticism. Being deemed a super-sub can seem an unwanted accolade. It seems to involve being praised for an inability to get in the starting XI. In Ameobi's case, the fact he is an irregular scorer counts against him.

 

Nevertheless, he is part of a broader trend. A basic explanation of football is that it is a game played by teams of 11 players for 90 minutes. Now, however, that definition is outdated. It is sport for sides of 14, of whom a maximum of 11 are on the pitch at any one time.

 

If the working man or woman's week can encompass 40 hours at the metaphorical coal face, many a footballer's shift is shorter. Some are becoming specialists over smaller periods. Indeed, this is a second successive title race that could be decided by the semi-employed. Last season, Edin Dzeko scored Manchester City's final-day equaliser against QPR and another late arrival, Mario Balotelli, set up the winner.

 

This year, Javier Hernandez has four telling goals as a replacement; Dzeko five. Each has scored as a starter of late without shaking off the impression that his ability to make an immediate impact is his greatest strength. The capacity to exploit the gaps that appear as a game becomes more stretched and open is an invaluable skill.

 

It is a reason, Tony Pulis said, why the scorer of perhaps the goal of the season is another fixture on the bench. Cameron Jerome has a solitary league start to his name, the Stoke manager believing his power and pace equips him to make more of a mark in the second half.

 

Yet if that suggests physicality and sheer speed are the pre-requisites for the substitutes, there are the opposites who flourish in a few minutes. Paul Scholes changed Manchester United's game at Southampton by adding composure. Giggs' ability to pick a pass, too, was apparent in his brief outing against West Ham, his flighted 60-year ball setting up the equaliser for Robin van Persie.

 

Javier Hernandez

PA PhotosJavier Hernandez has made a habit of scoring vital goals for Manchester United

 

Giggs and Scholes are proof that it is not just sports science that extends careers. Like Twenty20 cricket and baseball's designated hitter rule, Premier League football can provide part-time work for the elderly. Some substitutes are charged with speeding a match up; the game's pensioners can slow it down.

 

Others are not 90-minute players either. Lukas Podolski's number is up at some stage of the second half in virtually every Arsenal game. West Bromwich Albion's gameplan involves the fit, fast Shane Long running himself into the ground for 70 minutes before Romelu Lukaku takes over. It is a ploy that, because central defenders are rarely replaced mid-match, gives the attacking side an advantage.

 

Cameos can be still more devastating when premier players are held in reserve, as last weekend's FA Cup ties showed: Podolski, Van Persie and Michu all had a bit of a break and still came on to score. While Sir Alex Ferguson has the strongest aversion to naming an unchanged side in league games, there are managers, such as Rafa Benitez and Andre Villas-Boas, to whom it borders on heresy not to use all three replacements every game.

 

While others hop on and off the carousel elsewhere, it becomes noteworthy that Steven Gerrard has played every minute of every league game this season. He is the exception not the rule, just as Liverpool, shorn of attacking options until Daniel Sturridge's recent arrival, are a rarity among the elite in only having one league goal from a substitute: scored by Joe Cole at West Ham.

 

While United and City changed plenty of games from the bench, the reality is that most of Ferguson and Roberto Mancini's counterparts are tinkering just as incessantly, but with lesser footballers and inferior results. The clock cannot be turned back to the 11-man game. It means that the Premier League's newest record holder may not have that distinction forever. Because football's future involves more Ameobis, and not just his younger brother Sammy.

 

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1293794/jolly:-the-so-called-super-sub?cc=4716

 

Legend. 

 

 

[Beren]

[LRD]

Thread title

[Fenham Mag]

I really hope he doesn't get the record.

[Ash]

Thread title

 

[JH]

I really hope he doesn't get the record.

 

I agree. Should be starting every week instead.