Hatem Ben Arfa

[Dave]

Don't have half the passion/excitement for International football that I do for Newcastle but it's sad seeing so many English people not giving a fuck/wanting us to do badly.

 

I can understand why with the modern footballer but it still feels very, very wrong.

 

Dunno if I'd go so far as to say I want England to do badly, but I just don't care. Wish it wasn't the case.

[GoranBadlund]

I can really understand you guys if it's hard support a team with the likes of Terry, Cole,  Gerrard, Young, Downing, Carroll etc... It's sad in one way...to not be able to get behind your national team to 100% but well yeah, the team is full of c***s that we all love to hate in the Premier League.

 

 

[TRon]

I don't see the issue with preferring our players to do well, England is my country but the side is full of the same horrible pricks it has for years and they play boring, insipid football. The media are detestable and the coverage and hype nauseating. Couldn't give a fuck if we go out at the earliest stage, I'd rather just watch some good football. The last World Cup was fucking disgraceful IMO and for me it was the final straw, particularly given the net result of the FA's 'root and branch investigation' was that Emile Heskey retired.

 

It's a pity I feel this way about our national team but I do. Fuck them.

 

Tbh, when I see talentless lunks like Carroll being selected as our no 9 and the national press lap it up like it's the second coming I just give up basically. This is the same gormless prick who was being laughed at up and down the country when he struggled to hold down a starting place in the Liverpool team. With this attitude to football we don't deserve success.

 

WE don't deserve success because of the press.

 

If WE deserved anything because of the press it would be aids, we shouldn't be tarred with the same brush.

 

It's not the press who pick the team though. Carroll just smacks of desperation and our head in the sand attitude towards the modern game.

[JH]

Don't have half the passion/excitement for International football that I do for Newcastle but it's sad seeing so many English people not giving a f***/wanting us to do badly.

 

I can understand why with the modern footballer but it still feels very, very wrong.

 

Dunno if I'd go so far as to say I want England to do badly, but I just don't care. Wish it wasn't the case.

 

Yup. Same old players serving up the same old shit. Why bother?

[Cajun]

Again OUR?

 

As fans we have different opinions to the media and management, we don't deserve to fail.

 

Tbh Newcastle are my team, I want Newcastle to do well above all else. England are that other team I have a soft spot for, would love them to win something, will support them and be gutted when they lose.

[JH]

I'd like a young, ambitious England side full of hungry players who I can really get behind.

 

If I get that, I'll support England more I mean I watch them and want them to do well, but winning/losing doesn't affect me like it does with NUFC.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Personally i don't like the players combined with the fact i haven't felt attached to the national team since Shearer retired means i just couldn't really give a toss.

 

I feel that just because iam English don't mean i should have to support or care about a team which is feel of players i don't like professionally and personally.

 

The whole not feeling attached to the team emotionally since Shearer retired is just second nature but its still a reason none the less.

 

I would love to support them but i dont feel any reason to do so, its been the same since 2002 i just support NUFC players on international duty ( although a lot of the time the representation is scarce)

[TRC]

It's really hard to like any of the starting 11. I like Hart and thats about it, I'd probably like Parker as well if his time here wasn't so shit. Unlike the Euro 96 squad, Pearce, Adams, Ince, Gazza, Shearer, Sheringham were all admired.

[Cajun]

It's really hard to like any of the starting 11. I like Hart and thats about it, I'd probably like Parker as well if his time here wasn't so shit. Unlike the Euro 96 squad, Pearce, Adams, Ince, Gazza, Shearer, Sheringham were all admired.

 

I like Ashley Cole in an England shirt, somehow he is so good I forget all the other shit, plus he sings the national anthem

 

 

[TRC]

He is class for England, but he's such a twat.

[Mick]

I don't see the issue with preferring our players to do well, England is my country but the side is full of the same horrible pricks it has for years and they play boring, insipid football. The media are detestable and the coverage and hype nauseating. Couldn't give a f*** if we go out at the earliest stage, I'd rather just watch some good football. The last World Cup was f***ing disgraceful IMO and for me it was the final straw, particularly given the net result of the FA's 'root and branch investigation' was that Emile Heskey retired.

 

It's a pity I feel this way about our national team but I do. f*** them.

 

I feel the same way and have done apart from when Bobby was manager and Waddle, Gazza and Beardsley were playing.  For most of my time as a football supporter England have mainly been a team full of players who play for teams I can't stand during the season so why change once the season is over?

[Disco]

Best beer ive had is Hofbrau...unbelievable brew. Coronas are lovely on a 40 degree summers day here in oz though. Nothing beats it.

 

Always have it at home. That and Becks Gold.

 

 

Did really my one sentence make this into a beer debate? Decent.

 

Are you living in Germany David, if so whereabouts? Easily my favourite country to visit in Europe.

 

In Bavaria. Near Augsburg / Munich.

 

My favourite beer anywhere in the world is a draught Aventinus at the Weisse Bräuhaus in Munich.

 

Assuming it has a beer garden in the summer that place is heaven on earth.

[Disco]

Don't have half the passion/excitement for International football that I do for Newcastle but it's sad seeing so many English people not giving a f***/wanting us to do badly.

 

I can understand why with the modern footballer but it still feels very, very wrong.

 

Dunno if I'd go so far as to say I want England to do badly, but I just don't care. Wish it wasn't the case.

 

Yup. Same old players serving up the same old shit. Why bother?

 

Can understand more people not caring, despite my previous comment (not the beer one above) I'm nowhere near England as I am Newcastle but people actively cheering on other teams against them? Don't get it.

[Tiresias]

It's almost less about the players, though their attitude on the pitch for last few tournaments has been pathetic, as much as the media, the hype, the awful analysis, the dreadful puffing up of Stewart Downing etc etc, it's an awful circus that turns a blind eye to the failures of the country in producing great players, and the attitude of the players themselves, and the only way that'll change is if the media stops being able to sell that story to disaffected fans like us.

 

It's especially bad because the england team seems so bereft of a footballing identity, they do not represent all that is good about the premier league, they represent all the bad, the over paid idiots, the aggression without an end and a suspicion of tactics.

 

If the England team could represent all that is good about the english game, the swashbucking attack, the physicality and hard work of it and the never say die attitude, but i suspect that all lies more in the foreign players in our league now than anyone in the England squad.

 

So I'll support France, I'll enjoy watching the games, and I'll feel genuine attachment to Ben Arfa and Cabaye. I'll probably still kind of hope we do ok with England, but on the other hand also feel the worse our band of idiots do hopefully someone somewhere will sort out the catastrophe of our youth system etc etc etc

[madras]

I don't see the issue with preferring our players to do well, England is my country but the side is full of the same horrible pricks it has for years and they play boring, insipid football. The media are detestable and the coverage and hype nauseating. Couldn't give a f*** if we go out at the earliest stage, I'd rather just watch some good football. The last World Cup was f***ing disgraceful IMO and for me it was the final straw, particularly given the net result of the FA's 'root and branch investigation' was that Emile Heskey retired.

 

It's a pity I feel this way about our national team but I do. f*** them.

 

I feel the same way and have done apart from when Bobby was manager and Waddle, Gazza and Beardsley were playing.  For most of my time as a football supporter England have mainly been a team full of players who play for teams I can't stand during the season so why change once the season is over?

thirded.

[Jimburst]

Personally i don't like the players combined with the fact i haven't felt attached to the national team since Shearer retired means i just couldn't really give a toss.

 

I feel that just because iam English don't mean i should have to support or care about a team which is feel of players i don't like professionally and personally.

 

 

 

I thought you were foreign

[JH]

I think it would help if all of players on the pitch deserved to be there.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Personally i don't like the players combined with the fact i haven't felt attached to the national team since Shearer retired means i just couldn't really give a toss.

 

I feel that just because iam English don't mean i should have to support or care about a team which is feel of players i don't like professionally and personally.

 

 

 

I thought you were foreign

 

Well iam from London so i suppose you could say that

[QBG]

I don't see the issue with preferring our players to do well, England is my country but the side is full of the same horrible pricks it has for years and they play boring, insipid football. The media are detestable and the coverage and hype nauseating. Couldn't give a f*** if we go out at the earliest stage, I'd rather just watch some good football. The last World Cup was f***ing disgraceful IMO and for me it was the final straw, particularly given the net result of the FA's 'root and branch investigation' was that Emile Heskey retired.

 

It's a pity I feel this way about our national team but I do. f*** them.

 

This

[Jayson]

I don't see the issue with preferring our players to do well, England is my country but the side is full of the same horrible pricks it has for years and they play boring, insipid football. The media are detestable and the coverage and hype nauseating. Couldn't give a f*** if we go out at the earliest stage, I'd rather just watch some good football. The last World Cup was f***ing disgraceful IMO and for me it was the final straw, particularly given the net result of the FA's 'root and branch investigation' was that Emile Heskey retired.

 

It's a pity I feel this way about our national team but I do. f*** them.

 

I feel the same way and have done apart from when Bobby was manager and Waddle, Gazza and Beardsley were playing.  For most of my time as a football supporter England have mainly been a team full of players who play for teams I can't stand during the season so why change once the season is over?

thirded.

 

Couldnt understand that less tbh. If any of these players everyone has random bitterness towards represented Newcastle impressively the majority of our fanbase would forgive their flaws within seconds aslong as they did well. So its a bit farcical for me not to do the same with England. They are representing the country you were born in directly, far moreso than these French lads are representing Newcastle in these tournaments. No idea how any English person could support France over people representing your own country.

[Guest]

Quote in an interview with some French paper.

 

"Ever since I was a child I have dreamed about winning the Ballon D'Or. Now, I am ready".

 

[aussiemag]

Quote in an interview with some French paper.

 

"Ever since I was a child I have dreamed about winning the Ballon D'Or. Now, I am ready".

 

 

For Hatem to win the Ballon D'Or hes going to have to single handedly win us the premier league and get us deep into the Champions league. Hell need to score around 30 premier league goals and assist around 20 to get anywhere near Messi and Ronaldo.

[Punk77]

http://www.nufcfans.co.uk/i-feel-happy-and-comfortable-with-my-surroundings-hatem/?

 

http://a6.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/578306_213342885452906_1514310970_n.jpg

 

 

Where would Hatem Ben Arfa be if it wasn’t for Newcastle securing him on a season long loan deal from Marseille back in 2010?

 

The answer? “I was ready to stay until the end of my contract and not play for a year.“

 

And so it transpires that if it hadn’t been for NUFC’s rescue act, the world would have missed out on seeing a genius bless us with his trickery on the pitch. Today, just under two years later, Ben Arfa has fought his way back into the France Euro 2012 squad with a series of impressive performances on Tyneside.

 

Hatem has been speaking to French culture magazine Les Inrocks, about his revival in the North East. At 25, the world is at his feet and he has been given another chance to capture the moment by Laurent Blanc.

 

“I feel happy and comfortable with my surroundings. It does not surprise me that he [blanc] has selected me. I deserved it.

 

“My ambition is to win [Euro 2012].”

 

Ben Arfa admits he’s always carried an angry streak, but one which he is now using to benefit him on the pitch.

 

Speaking about his battle to move to Newcastle after burning his bridges at Marseille, he adds:

 

“We had agreed to something with the club [Newcastle]. I was within my right and okay with it.

 

“I waited quietly in my apartment in Paris. If the situation had not moved forward, I would have stayed like that.”

 

Despite failing to make the France squad for Euro 2008 and World Cup 2010, Ben Arfa has a lot of respect for his teacher Raymond Domenech:

 

“His words touched me, he took time to talk to me, saying stuff like ‘Your passion should serve you on the ground, not run against you.’

 

“I felt a real affection, he was protective and sincere.”

 

“At times, due to the pressures, constraints and obligations, I doubted my love for football. When I returned from injury at Newcastle last year, my passion had left me. I thought football didn’t resemble what I had once fallen in love with.

 

“Then, slowly, I rediscovered my passion and enjoyment of the game.”

 

Does Ben Arfa still want to become the best player in the world? Too right, he does:

 

“Since I was a little boy, I’ve dreamt of lifting the world cup. Today I am ready for it.”

 

“I lost some time during my career, but the difficulties I have overcome have made me stronger.”

 

On the evidence of the last six month, Ben Arfa seems to be better than ever before. Watch out England, King Hatem is flying.

 

King Hatem, I kind of liked that....    :smitten: :smitten: :smitten:

[Guest NobbyOhNobby]

France and Holland (and Catts) for me, like. I support Newcastle and Newcastle players, and feel absolutely no affinity to the England team unless they have some Newcastle players in the team/squad. For that reason I'll be supporting Cabaye and Ben Arfa and hope they both do brilliantly, and will also support Krul if he gets any game time.

 

Genuinely couldn't care less how England do

[Guest]

He doesn't say World Cup though, says Ballon D'Or.