Hatem Ben Arfa (now retired?)

[Lush Vlad]

32 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

That attack was outrageous man 

 

Personally don't think there's been a more gifted footballer ever than Ronaldinho though. Some of the stuff he did was perverted.

 

I was lucky enough to see him live back in the day in the CL vs Werder Bremen.  They rotated a lot of their team, as they had already qualified and I think it was when Xavi was out all season injured, achilles, maybe?.  But Ronaldinho still played luckily.  

 

What a player.

[SteV]

23 minutes ago, Yorkie said:

 

I get the logic but Hatem was a lot better than ASM and was absolutely made for the 4-3-3. I think there's a chance he has enduring success here under Howe. 

As RW? He’d have had to display a work ethic and positional awareness that he never came close to in his career.

 

Maybe there’s an argument to say he was never really asked to, but there was probably a reason for that.

[Hanshithispantz]

We went for Madison who's not a million miles of Hatem style wise.

 

ASM was far more creative than he gets credit for but Hatem was far more capable of slowing it down and picking a pass.

[LFEE]

23 minutes ago, Hanshithispantz said:

We went for Madison who's not a million miles of Hatem style wise.

 

ASM was far more creative than he gets credit for but Hatem was far more capable of slowing it down and picking a pass.

Did we go for him? Not so sure about that.

[Holloway]

I would love to have seen Hatem working with Eddie like, I'm fancying he could have squeezed a bit more out of him than we were privileged to witness 

[Abacus]

When I talk to non Newcastle fans about Ben Arfa they've barely heard of him, whereas I try to explain he was the definition of a player who got you off your seat.

 

Then I show them the clips. If my brain hasn't gone too AWOL, I think the first time I thought that was maybe his first game when he was spanked the ball and just stopped it dead with the most outrageous control I can ever remember seeing.

 

Then later, sitting in the gallowgate when he picked up the ball before halfway in the cup, with the bloke next to me just quietly saying "oh, here we go" and starting to stand up already. And then he just waltzed through half the pitch and stuck it away in the most beautiful goal I've ever witnessed live. A magician on his day.

[Holloway]

1 minute ago, Abacus said:

When I talk to non Newcastle fans about Ben Arfa they've barely heard of him, whereas I try to explain he was the definition of a player who got you off your seat.

 

Then I show them the clips. If my brain hasn't gone too AWOL, I think the first time I thought that was maybe his first game when he was spanked the ball and just stopped it dead with the most outrageous control I can ever remember seeing.

 

Then later, sitting in the gallowgate when he picked up the ball before halfway in the cup, with the bloke next to me just quietly saying "oh, here we go" and starting to stand up already. And then he just waltzed through half the pitch and stuck it away in the most beautiful goal I've ever witnessed live. A magician on his day.

Same, when I've told fans of other clubs how highly I rated him, some looked at me like I just drowned a bag full of kittens 

[gbandit]

Ronaldinho was just pure love for creativity and footballing expression mixed with outrageous talent. Every kid wanted to be him with the ball

[NEEJ]

2 hours ago, Hanshithispantz said:

 

Just watching a few clips from his time back in Brazil. Why would you even attempt to lob a keeper, 2 yards off his line, at his near post? 

 

The paunch on him at this point as well, man. 

[Kid Icarus]

Remember going to see Barcelona against Almeria when I was on holiday and being absolutely buzzing to watch the front 3 of Ronaldinho, Henry, and Gudjohnsen (although Giovani started) Turned out that all 3 of them were shite on the night 

 

 Yaya Toure was by far the best player on the pitch and then towards the end they brought on this kid we'd heard was going to be canny good but didn't know much about. He then started taking players on for fun and scored a pen. Wish I'd fully appreciated who I was watching at the time.

[Hanshithispantz]

49 minutes ago, gbandit said:

Ronaldinho was just pure love for creativity and footballing expression mixed with outrageous talent. Every kid wanted to be him with the ball

Best player in the world at one point playing the majority of his games trying to do something outrageous purely to take the piss 

[Playmaker]

 

[enthusiast]

1 hour ago, Abacus said:

he was spanked the ball and just stopped it dead with the most outrageous control

 

 

 

doesn't look real, like somert off a computer game ffs

[Hanshithispantz]

2 minutes ago, enthusiast said:

 

 

 

doesn't look real, like somert off a computer game ffs

This is the kind of thing we need a physical copy of so we can show it our grandkids.

[Abacus]

4 minutes ago, enthusiast said:

 

 

 

doesn't look real, like somert off a computer game ffs

That's the one! Cheers enthusiast, I've just watched it another 5 times.

[Holloway]

Aye, trapped the ball the moved it on 

[Jordan]

4 hours ago, Elliottman said:

Hatem man, what a bloke. One of the best memories of the Ashley era.

 

Used to go to the games buzzing to watch him. More often then not, just to find out Pardew had him on the bench 😫

Made even worse that he was dropped for Ryan Taylor or Obertan. 

[Holloway]

3 minutes ago, Jordan said:

Made even worse that he was dropped for Ryan Taylor or Obertan. 

Gouffran says ello 

[M4]

Happy birthday, King 

[Robbo2]

1 hour ago, enthusiast said:

 

 

 

doesn't look real, like somert off a computer game ffs

There was previously a version that had the crowd noise in. Collective  from the whole stadium

[CPL]

1 hour ago, Robbo2 said:

There was previously a version that had the crowd noise in. Collective  from the whole stadium

Remember being in the crowd and everyone was just like... wow. Funny how that touch gets talked more about than the Cabaye reverse pass to Cisse for one of the goals, which was just as canny. 

[kingxlnc]

Let me land - Ben Arfa raw talent wise was higher than even Isak

 

The perfect front 3 in terms of chaos and devastation for the opponents would have been:

Ginola Isak Ben Arfa

then imagine just behind 
Beardsley in the 10

Shearer on the bench, first reserve

Pity they all played in different decades! 

[Ronaldo]

Clearly Robert ahead of Ginola as a LW.

[Conjo]

10 hours ago, Hanshithispantz said:

We went for Madison who's not a million miles of Hatem style wise.

 

 

Jesus fucking christ. Take that back immediately.

[et tu brute]

It was a shame his overall attitude wasn't good enough. Should have been a name football was talking about for years to come. Unbelievable but unfortunately wasted talent