That's a redundant comparison. Neither of them had a player of Ben Arfa's type to leave on the bench.
ginola and robert spring to mind.
Both were simply too good to leave on the bench in any situation. Robert especially had the type of game that didn't rely on those around him.
Ginola = always played by Keegan. Dropped by Dalglish.
Robert = always played by Sir Bobby. Dropped by Souness.
Zog = told to fuck off by JFK.
IMO there's an obvious pattern here, irrespective of whether these players being dropped improved the team or not in the short term (in the long term it didn't). I.e. that s*** managers who focus too much on the defense will drop a quality but unpredictable flair player because it's the easy thing to do, especially as soon as there's a slight dip in form. They aren't concerned with what these players bring to the team, only what they don't bring. Hence, that's what makes them s*** managers, unlike the good managers who'll take the risk (and the bad along with the good) because they have the balls and the courage as managers to do so.
Pardew falls into the "s***" camp for me atm because he did the exact same thing with Tevez that he's seemingly doing with Ben Arfa. West Ham fans (much like ours) were regularly calling for Tevez to be played because Zamora/Harewood/Cole were all s*** and had them struggling badly. After Pardew was sacked for being a t***, Curbishley came in and did what the fans wanted, and whadayaknow? They immediately had one of the best playmaking forwards in the league playing for them, instead of the Championship standard stodge Pardew had put his faith in. If Pardew was smart enough he'd learn from that absolute and undeniable mistake, a mistake that would have had his team relegated and a world class star player wasting away for no reason on the bench (had he not been sacked), and apply it here with Ben Arfa. If he does, then good on him - if he doesn't then it'll only highlight why he had to resort to being a desperate, recently unemployed League One manager whoring himself in Casinos as a footballing f***-buddy for footballing philistines like Ashley and Llambias.
