Hatem Ben Arfa (now retired?)

[Cronky]

18 hours ago, NEEJ said:

It's worth noting that Cronky lists Hatem, ASM (easier to understand), and Keegan in his thumbs down column.

 

Sammy Ameobi gets a huge thumbs up. 

 

Okay, I'll rise to the bait. 

 

What has always irked me is the way in which HBA and Keegan have been put on such pedestals that any criticism gets treated as blasphemy, however mild the criticism, and however much one may couch the criticism within an acknowledgement of the positive things they brought to the club. The anger and emotion is so often disproportionate.

 

I'll test it out. HBA was an absolutely brilliant player. In terms of raw talent, the only one who could compare with him at our club is Gazza. There was no limit to what he could have achieved in his career. Those goals against Everton and Bolton brought me to my feet.

 

The problem wasn't that he was one of those individualists who couldn't contribute overall to a team effort. Rather, he had this compulsion to bring about conflict with coaches and team-mates alike. In a strange but not unique way, he was more comfortable with failure and victimhood than success.

 

As for which manager could have brought out the best in him, I can think of only one. That's Eddie.

[Jaqen]

13 hours ago, kingxlnc said:

He would have loved it under McClaren - no discipline, can do whatever he wants etc

Wouldn't have minded it personally - he was way better than Cabella and Thauvin and all the other wasters we signed to try and replace his magic

Agree he's levels above Taraabt, annoys me they're both considered 'streets wouldn't forget' players in equal measure and that's all

 

Taraabt is such an odd one. Ended up becoming a quality defensive midfielder for a few seasons out of nowhere 

[NEEJ]

7 minutes ago, Cronky said:

 

Okay, I'll rise to the bait. 

 

What has always irked me is the way in which HBA and Keegan have been put on such pedestals that any criticism gets treated as blasphemy, however mild the criticism, and however much one may couch the criticism within an acknowledgement of the positive things they brought to the club. The anger and emotion is so often disproportionate.

 

I'll test it out. HBA was an absolutely brilliant player. In terms of raw talent, the only one who could compare with him at our club is Gazza. There was no limit to what he could have achieved in his career. Those goals against Everton and Bolton brought me to my feet.

 

The problem wasn't that he was one of those individualists who couldn't contribute overall to a team effort. Rather, he had this compulsion to bring about conflict with coaches and team-mates alike. In a strange but not unique way, he was more comfortable with failure and victimhood than success.

 

As for which manager could have brought out the best in him, I can think of only one. That's Eddie.

Fair play. 

[TheBrownBottle]

6 hours ago, Fak said:

But Robert is the greatest player to have ever played for Newcastle though

Beardsley has all our French wingers on toast

[Fak]

3 minutes ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Beardsley has all our French wingers on toast

 

Did he ever score a twisting somersault backheel over Edwin van der Saar?

[TheBrownBottle]

1 minute ago, Fak said:

 

Did he ever score a twisting somersault backheel over Edwin van der Saar?

He didn’t, as he wouldn’t have allowed such poor forward positional play to have to do that in the first place  

[Kaizero]

 

I'm on the fence when it comes to deciding if my memories of Robert are genuine proper memories, or if they're more flight of fancy "dreameries" from a version of me that was just about too young to genuinely appreciate what was on show. Plus, back then even us filthy foreigners were lucky if we got to watch us live on telly at least once every six to eight weeks – so regardless of where I'd end up landing on my "are my childhood memories genuine or are they a mix of genuine ones and random made-up bullshit ones?" – it'd still feel a bit shit of me to write off Robert in one fell swoop just because I can't remember him ever being close to energising and enthralling me with his skills on the pitch, which Ben Arfa did.

 

For me, of all the players I've seen play football in my lifetime that I can remember – Ben Arfa, by far, is the most gifted technical player I've seen. I'd even put him ahead of Messi, CRonaldo and Ronaldinho. The sad part of Ben Arfa's story will always be the fact that even if I'm genuinely correct in my belief about my ranking of top player's in my lifetime's technical ability on the pitch, Ben Arfa only showed his abilities when Ben Arfa felt like doing it, whilst the other top players one would compare him to even played near the peak of their abilities even on their off days. 

 

TL;DR if Ben Arfa had even just a fractional work ethic installed in him, he'd easily have won at least one Ballon d'Or in his career – probably nicking the 2018 off Modrić playing for PSG as even if we for argument's sake don't speculate on "what if's" for clubs he theoretically could've represented and just stick with those he genuinely played for, in 2017/18 he should've been at his physical peak playing for PSG in the CL and be leading the line for France at the 2018 World Cup. 

 

Alas, it was not to be. I'll forever be cherishing the fact he at least bothered to show up enough times for us to have a collection of spectacular memories to appreciate, though!  

 

 

 

Edited September 13, 2025 by Kaizero

[Infinitely Content]

21 hours ago, TheBrownBottle said:

Beardsley has all our French wingers on toast

Not for me, both Ben Arfa and Beardsley share the art of subtlety and elegance, the feints, slaloms etc, but there was a fire and thunder to Ben Arfa's game too, and, I don't know, just an added something. In any given match, he could do whatever he wanted to whomever he wanted. When I watch Beardsley clips it's as though every one is playing in slow motion. Ben Arfa would have dismantled those defences with ease.

Hatem is King.

[Infinitely Content]

I love him. That piece of skill on the touchline against Man City in the 11-12 season is so beautiful.

[patrone]

RIP

[Infinitely Content]

Ban this pizza nonce, my heart sank reading that reply.

Hatem is eternal.

[Miercoles]

On 08/09/2025 at 03:20, Mike said:

 

People act like I'm mental when I say this. So many fraud managers in the game.

 

It's wild how they just seem to keep hiring the same four or five guys who have all fucked up their last three jobs too. It's the same in NFL and MLB too so maybe that's just sports. 

 

Then I look at the managers in my office and I think maybe that's just executive decision making.

[Ikon]

God I miss watching him. The most enjoyable player I’ve ever seen. The elegance, balance, awareness, close control and acceleration combined with his agility. Wow, what a talent. 

[NSG]

Bring a 25 year old Hatem into our team now under Eddie and he becomes a £150m player.

 

The most naturally talented player I’ve ever seen at NUFC.

[Holloway]

7 hours ago, Infinitely Content said:

I love him. That piece of skill on the touchline against Man City in the 11-12 season is so beautiful.

Absolutely fucking breathtaking, nobody could get near him. Thanks for the memories, Hatem 

[Keegans Export]

Like many on here I love the idea of an Eddie-Howe-inspired HBA but how would that actually play out in real life?

 

Eddie has all the tools to coach but what if the player isn't really bothered about being coached? It ends the same as ASM ultimately - although HBA is clearly on a different planet ability wise - he gets moved on and replaced by someone less skilled but more reliable.

 

I say this as someone who both loves Eddie and has HBA as the best and most exciting player I've ever seen live.

[Guybrush]

Ah it's the weekly Hatem appreciation thread. Long may this tradition continue.

 

 

[Mole]

I know it's nice to think about, but from what I've seen this season I have an extremely hard time believing he would work with Howe tbh.

 

 

[Groundhog63]

I kind of have a notion that Ben Arfa, sitting in retirement, will not give a flying **** about "what could've been" 

Fans and pundits can all query "what if" or "if only" but I doubt he does. 

Imperious 

[James]

Lookng back, the way Pardew handled him was the best almost any other manager did.

[SteV]

1 hour ago, NSG said:

Bring a 25 year old Hatem into our team now under Eddie and he becomes a £150m player.

 

The most naturally talented player I’ve ever seen at NUFC.

Fully agree on the second part. Not so much the first part. 
 

Some players just haven’t got it in them to be non-stop intensity for 90 mins, which is pretty much what the modern game demands at elite level. 
 

I’d be more than happy to give Eddie a go at getting him to it, but just like ASM, I very much doubt it he could manage it, even if he genuinely wanted to.

 

It’s a shame in many ways that nowadays you’re rewarded more for physical attributes, rather than skill-based ones, but here we are.

[NSG]

Eddie would find a way, imo. That’s what he does. 

[SteV]

17 minutes ago, NSG said:

Eddie would find a way, imo. That’s what he does. 

Apart from with ASM.

[Yorkie]

14 minutes ago, SteV said:

Apart from with ASM.

 

I think he got a pretty decent tune out of ASM, didn't he, despite him clearly not really fitting into his vision? 

 

They're different players anyway. HBA had four or five times the talent that Maxi did.

[Groundhog63]

1 minute ago, Yorkie said:

 

I think he got a pretty decent tune out of ASM, didn't he, despite him clearly not really fitting into his vision? 

 

They're different players anyway. HBA had four or five times the talent that Maxi did.

 

He did indded

 

They are, vastly different