Happy Face

Yet I've never seen cheering for Smith being dragged off.

Are the group stages on UK telly anywhere? BBC coverage seems paltry... The final will be shown live on BBC Two, while the two semi-finals will be available on red button and BBC Three. The BBC website will have team news, statistics and match reports for every game and live text commentary from the opening match, semi-finals and final. Piers Edwards will be blogging from Angola, while Richard Connelly will be sending regular Twitter updates.

Why then did he never try anything more adventurous whilst at Man United--after joining them his confidence must have been soaring. He was widely regarded as shit by their fans. He's scored 3 goals in his career, I've seen one of them, it was a header from 5 yards--I could have scored it. The fact is he's shit. He has poor, inconsistent technique, and often gets the basics wrong. As for off-the-ball stuff, his movement is horrendous and at times he appears to hide. His decision making is appalling and he consistently makes the wrong one. I say this to everyone: if you can't see that his technique is poor, you're a bad judge of player imo. I said he was shite long before Parky's thread...long before the season started....and exactly why he was shite.... http://www.toontastic.net/board/topic/31174-obertan-signs-five-year-deal/page__st__120__p__948177#entry948177 It's a question of getting the best out of that shit....which cheering his substitution ain't gonna do.

http://blogs.thescore.com/footyblog/2012/01/09/heads-up-martin/

Waterproof smartphones, diet-aiding armbands, a social network that warns drivers of the latest police speed-traps, a tablet computer for the kitchen.50 new tablets, between 30 to 50 new ultrabooks, 3D printing... http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-16469003 Plenty of ideas

...and Obertan has set up a few goals too. HBA played almost the entire game against Blackburn in the Carling Cup and walked off the pitch after 80 minutes with us 2 nil down and heading out. By the final whistle we'd drawn level and given ourselves a chance. That doesn't mean HBA is crap or that it was his fault, but it means the team can do a job without him that it doesn't always do with him, he's not the be all and end all, the team and the result is.

He got 90 minutes on Saturday. This is what's so perplexing about the HBA fanboy. Still complaining he doesn't get 90 minutes after he got 90 minutes. Only happy when it rains tbh

You ought to revisit Hatems background a bit, prior to him coming here, to say the least. Happy to be corrected as my knowledge of French football is worse than CT, but from what I've read he's only ever played on the outside of a 3 man midfield/attack, never 4 or 5 as an out and out winger. Have you seen him do that?

Don't know what impression the radio gave of his contribution, but I tweeted from the game just before his goal that he looked totally disinterested in playing on the right. Having seen the full 90, whenever he got the ball he was a proper Ketsbaia with skills. Head down and go for it. He got disposessed over and over again all day long, having beaten a few men with pure class......and it must piss off his team-mates who are making runs...but then it paid off big style. His insistence on doing it all himself might be a desire to make a starting place his own, but it will piss off team mates and coaching staff. I just wanted to get Glen Foy to give him the Santiago Munez training, to paraphrase "the ball is faster than you pal, pass it".

got number not recognised on an attempt at 0191 this morning...but no problems with 0844

Cars 2 Shit

To be fair I've seen him go past plenty of players, but when he does it he goes back to try and do it again rather than put a cross/shot in, dithering on the ball until there's an easy pass open or posession is lost. Looks like he won't try anything more adventurous for fear of the lashback...so he gets a lashback. Vicious circle.

I think everyone wants him to get that. But that doesn't mean Pardew's dilemma is as inconceivable as the fanboys are suggesting. Irrespective of what he brings to the team compared to other players, you could say Pardew is handling Ben Arfa perfectly. He's eager to produce something with the ball when he does get a chance, and he's not being dropped into high paced game after game following 18+ months on the sidelines. As keen as we all are to see him regularly produce, we don't want to see another injury. Even if he would win us games single handedly, if it's the difference between finishing 10th or 8th, it's not worth it in the scheme of things. Kid Gloves is common sense for a young lad with his injury record.

Blackburn won a couple of throw ins in a row in line with our 18 yard box and over the minute or 2 of play where they took them and we intercepted HBA didn't move off his spot watching play go by. A couple of Blackburn players sauntered past him and he didn't pick one of them up or close down any angles whatsoever. It was easily as infuriating as Obertan going past 2 men and then passing back to Simpson. Can't complain when he's done this... But he'll need to do it again against QPR and regularly to avoid this argument going on.

Christ, invest in a tripod or prop your phone on a book

Cos City won't get the 1 I dunno mate, i get the feeling that they'll pull at least one back, aguero is busting a lung to keep them in it and despite the scoreline city don't seem like they are going under easily. Gonna be interesting to see where this match goes though! Spot on

Cos City won't get the 1

Aye, pretty much over as a contest for me. Shame too as it was shaping up to be a decent watch, ITV coverage aside. It'll be a fun thrashing imo

There should really be an NUFC channel on iTunes where you can buy any of our games you want. Costs nowt to do. But that would involve using iTunes. One of the highest grossing apps on the web. Not sure that's something for the club to avoid.

Well his longest run in the team was his starts against the best three teams in the league. Basically, against the teams where you can't accommodate 'luxury' attacking players. In those games he set Ba up for a chance he should have scored, hit the post, and won a penalty which earned us our only point in these games. Despite that he was dropped. His performance will never improve without a run of games, but he's too stubborn to admit that he's pissed away half of his tiny summer budget on one of the shittest players around, so persists with him instead. And we got 1 point from 9 in those games. Yet we convincingly beat man u in the week without him. I want to see him play too. But Pardew has a dilemma over his energy level. He doesn't hate him.

Couldn't do more than play him for the full 90. A 90 which exemplified the best and the worst of the bloke. It's clear what pardews concerns are from that. And its not personality, its performance.

Assault. But starting to think its a lone wum than widespread speculation.

I'm sure he doesn't. He took overran off yesterday and left hba on. So? Obertan will still play more minutes in the next 5 games than HBA. Both will play more than Sammy too. He doesn't hate Sammy.

Twitterati saying downing arrested now. Dalglolsh

I'm sure he doesn't. He took overran off yesterday and left hba on.