Hanshithispantz

The world just finds new ways in which to annoy me every day.

Colomeanie

Fair play to Coral

That's because he was still injured when we brought him back, not because he was lacking match sharpness. There's a pretty massive difference. He's clearly one of the first names on Pardew's team sheet now anyway so I doubt he'd be out of the squad - never mind the starting XI - if he was fit.

He'll come back a better player I'm sure of it. Even if it takes 6 months.

Wew

If it's a case of him just not being match fit then not even having him the bench is the the wrong decision, simple as that. He mustn't be physically fit, not even Pardew in ultra-caution mode is that numb.

If he's fit enough to play he should be in the squad at least, regardless of training. If we're worried about him picking up a strain then it's fair enough.

What has been seen cannot be unseen

The Tiote v Tevez picture is brilliant

Much needed rest probably.

Maybe over thinking things but I'd prefer he made his return at home than away to Ukrain in the freezing cold. If I had to choose 1 game to win though it would definitely be the Metalist game, we've definitely got enough about us to stay up.

Southampton raped us like I'd expect him to be on the bench and come on for Gouffran or Jonas. Probably Gouffran.

Could probably do 2 versions for the website if there was demand. Drop down box with a choice of the simplistic version or a one with the scoreline and such on.

Both are cunts.

I know it's cliche as fuck but I would say Jonas is a plaery who falls rather than dives. Stevie G style. I cannot imagine him being the kind of player who would full on Andy Carroll dive in the box, and I don't think his actions outside of the box would win him a penalty (if it was in the box of course).

Are you for real

His recent comments suggest that he didn't feel physically ready and Pardew allowed him more time out to recover to me, which are a stark contradiction to what he was saying at the time, I wouldn't take any of them at face value personally. Type "hatem ben arfa come back" into Youtube and it has a little bit of his Man City from MOTD (I think there might be a better video but I cannot find it), physically he looked brilliant in that game, that was over a month before he made those comments.

I'd managed to blank that out of my memory. What a complete f***ing arsehole Funnily enough that's not how Hatem sees it. But if you went on like a child every prematch/match/post match thread It's best to ignore Ben Arfa praising the way he was eased in or you'll realise how stupid you looked at the time. You're talking absolute shite Cajun, sorry like He never played because of his defensive work rate combined with his tendency to lose the ball more than other players, Pardew said this pretty much every week at the time, that Ben Arfa needed to "learn how to play in the team" and bollocks like that. You can see the effects of it now as Ben Arfa, to the detriment of his own game, has spent large portions of matches this season in his own 1/3. Honestly man, not playing Ben Arfa for about 3 months was not a master-stroke in man-management from Pardew, it was fucking idiotic and arguably cost us a 3rd place finish. Can you remember when the excuse was that he's not a wide player? Aye I'm not saying Pardew has dealt with Ben Arfa poorly, I think he's been brilliant with him on the whole and pretty much everything we see and read points to that. That period of time though, it was ridiculous.

It suggests that Ben Arfa was not being selected whilst he was fit and ready to play, I cannot possibly see how it could support what I'm saying more

Yet during that time he said this:

I'd managed to blank that out of my memory. What a complete f***ing arsehole Funnily enough that's not how Hatem sees it. But if you went on like a child every prematch/match/post match thread It's best to ignore Ben Arfa praising the way he was eased in or you'll realise how stupid you looked at the time. You're talking absolute shite Cajun, sorry like He never played because of his defensive work rate combined with his tendency to lose the ball more than other players, Pardew said this pretty much every week at the time, that Ben Arfa needed to "learn how to play in the team" and bollocks like that. You can see the effects of it now as Ben Arfa, to the detriment of his own game, has spent large portions of matches this season in his own 1/3. Honestly man, not playing Ben Arfa for about 3 months was not a master-stroke in man-management from Pardew, it was fucking idiotic and arguably cost us a 3rd place finish. Yep, I'm sure you know more than Ben Arfa himself christ The way Pardew treated him was also mentioned in France about why we have such a good reputation over there but carry on. Also bit of a strange dig at the manager who got us our best finish and points total in years costing us a higher position by being fucking idiotic. Players say stuff all the time, you don't take it as gospel. And what exactly did Ben Arfa say anyway? Did he say that Pardew was right and he couldn't have have played football to the level he is now had he been given games earlier? That it was this treatment that finally allowed him to become the player he always was destined to be? Personally I think the whole thing was a load of nonesense and he could and should have been starting games far earlier than he did.

Player in not coming out and slamming his manager shocker. I have no doubt that Ben Arfa likes Pardew, or that most of our players do. I don't think that quite translates to mean literally every decision Pardew makes is the best for the player like.

Yeah, that's what I mean. He made his return on the 24/09/11 and didn't start a game until Man City (19/11/11) & Man Utd and was dropped again after that until Fulham (21/01/12) after he was forced to come on early in the QPR game before it and ran the game. 2 starts in 3½ months and 16 games since he was declared fit enough to play. I just think that with actual "good man management" we would have seen the apparent improvements in him that we are now & had him playing to the level he was in the latter half of the season a little earlier than the 3½ months it took. I'm not saying Pardew hasn't treat him well on the whole, I just don't think that particular period was too clever.

Surely there was more ways to go about it that dropping him though? And it wasn't just 1 or 2 games either. I doubt Bobby Robson would have had to have dropped Ben Arfa put it that way.