Hatem Ben Arfa (now retired?)

[Wullie]

Ben Arfa wasn't as badly behaved as Dyer or Bellamy yet it is more talented than the both of them.

 

Bellamy was way more effective, for sure and for a period he was probably our most important player. Dyer had similar problems to HBA I guess. But then neither of them has/had the status Ben Arfa seem to have amongst Newcastle supporters, despite doing way more for the team (Bellamy).

 

That's simply not true. Ben Arfa is moreso because it's ongoing and not ten years ago. Bellamy was absolutely worshipped amongst those who could see what he was worth on the field and it upset me for years afterwards seeing him play for others.

 

I was very much in the Bellamy camp but there was a sizeable proportion of Newcastle fans who backed Souness 100%, and offered some of the exact same arguments - bad attitude, nobody likes him etc. Morons then and morons now.

[Guest firetotheworks]

Still think the Blackburn goal was better. Amazing to be there for both of them live.

 

From a technical standpoint that was much better but just the f***ing thrill of him doing that out of nothing in such a s***, depressing game meant the world.

 

 

Exactly my thoughts and exactly why I prefer the Bolton goal. A school playground goal if ever there was one. The Blackburn one was better, but I enjoy the Bolton one a lot more.

[Ash]

Still think the Blackburn goal was better. Amazing to be there for both of them live.

 

From a technical standpoint that was much better but just the f***ing thrill of him doing that out of nothing in such a s***, depressing game meant the world.

 

 

Exactly my thoughts and exactly why I prefer the Bolton goal. A school playground goal if ever there was one. The Blackburn one was better, but I enjoy the Bolton one a lot more.

 

Same here.

[Mole_Toonfan]

Knuckling down and prove the manager wrong? Bit hard when he's done everything asked of him and Pardew is still acting like the egomaniac c*** he is.

 

What has he done to let the fans down exactly?  He hasn't done anything wrong. As for his history, how about Pardew's history? Which includes verbally abusing Pellegrini and headbutting a player.

 

I'm sorry but you're talking out your arse.

 

We've tried to play everything through him at times, his decision making as been very poor at times, players around him stop making runs because they don't believe he'll make the pass. Whether people like it or not, even the most talented players do have some responsibility for getting back when the team needs it. If nothing else he should always be in tip top shape.

 

Saying he's not a Pardew type player doesn't wash. He'd have issues with even with the most expansive type manager. As an opposing manager you'd tell your team to double up on him when he's in possession and attack his position when you have the ball. That happens, Hull at home is the most obvious example. He has to become a more rounded player, not massively but enough to become less predictable. Yes, he is predictable, brilliant at times but still too predictable.

 

People need to stop making excuses for him, we're paying his wages and are expected to accept never mind, you take our money and don't worry 'cos Pardew's a t***. It's not your fault.

 

I genuinely feel he's let us down, teasing us with his moments of genius and taking a lend of us because he knows he's got what we want and we'll forgive his indiscretions. Femme Fatale.

 

So because he couldn't win games by himself he let us down.

 

Righto

[Guest firetotheworks]

Ben Arfa: Predictable.

 

 

 

Anyone blaming a player with well known self worth issues for letting us down after being dropped in the way that he was is either a contrarian or knows nothing about football tbh.

[Anderson]

Still think the Blackburn goal was better. Amazing to be there for both of them live.

 

From a technical standpoint that was much better but just the f***ing thrill of him doing that out of nothing in such a s***, depressing game meant the world.

 

 

Exactly my thoughts and exactly why I prefer the Bolton goal. A school playground goal if ever there was one. The Blackburn one was better, but I enjoy the Bolton one a lot more.

 

Eh? The Blackburn game was both shitter and more depressing than the Bolton game, we were a goal down to their reserves until he popped up with that out of nowhere.

[triggs]

I just looked back at that Bolton goal. The thing that struck me was how skinny he looks in that goal. Now, I'm not saying he's fat but he has definitely bulked up to his detriment I think

[Hughesy]

Just watched some of HBA's skills on youtube.  Don't know why I did it - feel a bit depressed now.

[Robbo]

End up doing it at least once a month, so depressing

[TRon]

I don't even get to go to most Newcastle games these days, but I must have just hit lucky that the last three I've been to Ben Arfa has basically won them singlehandedly in the most exciting and spectacular way possible and when you are taking younger family members who don't live in Newcastle any more it leaves a magical impression.

[Matt]

Bellamy offered more to our them team than Ben Arfa does to ours today, but there is an obvious comparison between Souness and Pardew in the situations. Lazy, low-intelligence men incapable of adapting their management style to anyone who thinks differently than they do.

[loki679]

You don't pick your attackers based on their defensive contribution. 

 

Pardew, however, does exactly that and that's why we see strikers being played on the wing because they run a lot, Jonas being given more pitch time than he deserved despite zero attacking product, Ameobi starting games for his ability to defend set pieces, a plethora of full backs being (mis)used due to their versatility on the flanks and, yes, our most talented player being dropped and frozen out for being an attacker and not a defender.

 

It's going to be interesting to see how De Jong plays next season.  If he's in the midfield strata it'll be telling to see his position when the opposition have the ball.  I can see him being asked to drop and get behind the ball, much like our 'wingers' are asked to do and our striker will again remain isolated.  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it anyway.

[Collage]

Ben Arfa wasn't as badly behaved as Dyer or Bellamy yet it is more talented than the both of them.

 

Bellamy was way more effective, for sure and for a period he was probably our most important player. Dyer had similar problems to HBA I guess. But then neither of them has/had the status Ben Arfa seem to have amongst Newcastle supporters, despite doing way more for the team (Bellamy).

 

That's simply not true. Ben Arfa is moreso because it's ongoing and not ten years ago. Bellamy was absolutely worshipped amongst those who could see what he was worth on the field and it upset me for years afterwards seeing him play for others.

 

I was very much in the Bellamy camp but there was a sizeable proportion of Newcastle fans who backed Souness 100%, and offered some of the exact same arguments - bad attitude, nobody likes him etc. Morons then and morons now.

 

Wasn't it like 50/50 in the Bellamy-Souness feud though? I don't remember Bellamy chants game after game, maybe my memory is failing me.

[Begbie]

Ben Arfa wasn't as badly behaved as Dyer or Bellamy yet it is more talented than the both of them.

 

Bellamy was way more effective, for sure and for a period he was probably our most important player. Dyer had similar problems to HBA I guess. But then neither of them has/had the status Ben Arfa seem to have amongst Newcastle supporters, despite doing way more for the team (Bellamy).

 

That's simply not true. Ben Arfa is moreso because it's ongoing and not ten years ago. Bellamy was absolutely worshipped amongst those who could see what he was worth on the field and it upset me for years afterwards seeing him play for others.

 

I was very much in the Bellamy camp but there was a sizeable proportion of Newcastle fans who backed Souness 100%, and offered some of the exact same arguments - bad attitude, nobody likes him etc. Morons then and morons now.

 

Was there really fans who backed Souness 100% back then? I remember I was gutted when he left for Celtic, and I had a hope that Souness would get sacked before he got back so he would still have a future here. Still getting depressed thinking we went from Sir Bobby Robson to Greame Souness..

 

Back to the topic, I hope we keep Ben Arfa and that we get a good manager in.

[Crumpy Gunt]

Looks fit and raring to go ...oh hang on.

 

 

could be an old pic with No.10 on the kit.

[Spider Jerusalem]

You don't pick your attackers based on their defensive contribution.

 

And that is the crux of the problem of Pardew's mismanagement.

[Guest ElCid]

Decent article by Simon Bird covering a few points

http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/newcastle-united-5-things-watch-3993759#.U-c28mO9bBY

[Tsunami]

For some on here it seems that HBA can no wrong. I hope he doesn't feel the same way. I don't think anyone has laid all the blame for the current situation on him but many are prepared to lay it all at Pardew's door.

 

For all his short comings this isn't all down to Pardew, there has to be compromise and on the pitch the players must follow orders, no matter how bad they may be, the manager will get found out.

 

If the relationship has broken down beyond repair HBA needs to move himself on. I hope that's not the case if it is the manager almost always wins. The current state of affairs is no good for anyone, supporters included.

[Slim]

For some on here it seems that HBA can no wrong. I hope he doesn't feel the same way. I don't think anyone has laid all the blame for the current situation on him but many are prepared to lay it all at Pardew's door.

 

For all his short comings this isn't all down to Pardew, there has to be compromise and on the pitch the players must follow orders, no matter how bad they may be, the manager will get found out.

 

If the relationship has broken down beyond repair HBA needs to move himself on. I hope that's not the case if it is the manager almost always wins. The current state of affairs is no good for anyone, supporters included.

 

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/trlrky.gif

[TRon]

For some on here it seems that HBA can no wrong. I hope he doesn't feel the same way. I don't think anyone has laid all the blame for the current situation on him but many are prepared to lay it all at Pardew's door.

 

For all his short comings this isn't all down to Pardew, there has to be compromise and on the pitch the players must follow orders, no matter how bad they may be, the manager will get found out.

 

If the relationship has broken down beyond repair HBA needs to move himself on. I hope that's not the case if it is the manager almost always wins. The current state of affairs is no good for anyone, supporters included.

 

Actually I am more than willing to accept that Hatem's not an easy player to manage, not only that he doesn't make the best decisions on the ball consistently enough either. But then if you want a player with his sort of ability without those faults then we need to start spending £50m on a player not £5m. But if we aren't going to do that then it's a case of playing Obertwat or Ben Arfa, and Pardew has clearly favoured the former.

[Jordan]

Everyone go and watch his goal against Bolton again and remember how fucking fun it was. One of the best things I've ever seen at SJP and it's the absolute personification of football to me, much like HBA is himself.

 

Wasn't as good as some as Gouffran's passes back to Coloccini last season. Wow. That boy can play.

[Tachikoma]

You dont need to support Hatem just for the sake of proving Pardew is s***.  The point is, no matter how s*** the manager is, you should do what he asked you to do on the pitch.  He is asking you to do A, you think it is bullshit and do B instead, then why would you get picked the next match? This applies not only to football, but any job in this world: follow the instructions.  The result would prove that he is wrong anyway since the manager is s*** and you are right, isnt it? It makes no sense to ignore the instructions on the pitch.

 

This is especially important in a team game. If Hatem is allowed to ignore the instructions, why would the others listen to the manager then? Dun throw out s***s like Pardew is c*** s*** idiot retard etc, this happened EVERY TIME  when Hatem fell out with the managers. 

 

In the end, he is the one who suffer most. But that is down to him, not Pardew.

 

By the way, the only one who publicly support Hatem is Cabaye (after joining PSG).  None of the others do so.

 

This is all well and good in theory, but it's based on a very lazy portrayal of Hatem being lazy (which is itself exceptionally ironic). For example, we have all this criticism of Hatem being selfish, lazy, not willing to put a shift in, not a team player, etc etc, yet quite recently when thrown back into the team randomly, Ben Arfa spent the entire first half against Southampton in his own half defending at every opportunity and ensuring Shaw barely got a sniff in the 45 minutes he was on the pitch. Yet he still got taken off at half time because Southampton had ripped us apart with their superior coached football (albeit with a 1-0 scoreline only irrc), and the criticisms of Hatem's "laziness" were still bandied about. He did everything Pardew wanted him to do, everything Ben Arfa supposedly doesn't do (according to his critics), and it still wasn't enough to stop him being the fall guy as Southampton showed exactly how football should be played and coached (something Pardew can't do).

 

Not only that, but Hatem in that Southampton first half was about as extreme a defensive winger as you can get. The point here shouldn't be lost - wingers should not be playing like that. I feel like we're living in an insane world where everything is twisted and we have wingers being scolded for not running all the way to the fullback slots when the team loses the ball.

 

Furthermore, this "lazy, doesn't track back" argument is utter nonsense imo, and based on sheer exaggeration of something all players (especially talented ones) do. David Silva, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, even Adam Llalana - Ben Arfa tracks back far more than they do (the big difference with them I would argue isn't that they're better players, but that when they don't track back it doesn't frequently result in a goal for the opposition because their teams aren't as utterly s*** at defending as we are). If anything, under Pardew Hatem has spent far too much pitch time defending near his fullback when he should have been further up the pitch trying to cause damage. Maybe the correct criticism should be that Hatem is really weak in the tackle and so he sometimes lets his man go past him whilst he's easily brushed aside, but then that's an obviously harsh criticism to make given that he's an attacking winger.

 

That half-time substitution when we were 1-0 down still makes my head hurt, and somehow Ben Arfa gets blamed for that shitshow when it finishes 3-0.

 

Agreed that he barely ventured out of our half that game, what more can you ask from him defensively?

[Newintoon]

You dont need to support Hatem just for the sake of proving Pardew is s***.  The point is, no matter how s*** the manager is, you should do what he asked you to do on the pitch.  He is asking you to do A, you think it is bullshit and do B instead, then why would you get picked the next match? This applies not only to football, but any job in this world: follow the instructions.  The result would prove that he is wrong anyway since the manager is s*** and you are right, isnt it? It makes no sense to ignore the instructions on the pitch.

 

This is especially important in a team game. If Hatem is allowed to ignore the instructions, why would the others listen to the manager then? Dun throw out s***s like Pardew is c*** s*** idiot retard etc, this happened EVERY TIME  when Hatem fell out with the managers. 

 

In the end, he is the one who suffer most. But that is down to him, not Pardew.

 

By the way, the only one who publicly support Hatem is Cabaye (after joining PSG).  None of the others do so.

 

This is all well and good in theory, but it's based on a very lazy portrayal of Hatem being lazy (which is itself exceptionally ironic). For example, we have all this criticism of Hatem being selfish, lazy, not willing to put a shift in, not a team player, etc etc, yet quite recently when thrown back into the team randomly, Ben Arfa spent the entire first half against Southampton in his own half defending at every opportunity and ensuring Shaw barely got a sniff in the 45 minutes he was on the pitch. Yet he still got taken off at half time because Southampton had ripped us apart with their superior coached football (albeit with a 1-0 scoreline only irrc), and the criticisms of Hatem's "laziness" were still bandied about. He did everything Pardew wanted him to do, everything Ben Arfa supposedly doesn't do (according to his critics), and it still wasn't enough to stop him being the fall guy as Southampton showed exactly how football should be played and coached (something Pardew can't do).

 

Not only that, but Hatem in that Southampton first half was about as extreme a defensive winger as you can get. The point here shouldn't be lost - wingers should not be playing like that. I feel like we're living in an insane world where everything is twisted and we have wingers being scolded for not running all the way to the fullback slots when the team loses the ball.

 

Furthermore, this "lazy, doesn't track back" argument is utter nonsense imo, and based on sheer exaggeration of something all players (especially talented ones) do. David Silva, Juan Mata, Eden Hazard, even Adam Llalana - Ben Arfa tracks back far more than they do (the big difference with them I would argue isn't that they're better players, but that when they don't track back it doesn't frequently result in a goal for the opposition because their teams aren't as utterly s*** at defending as we are). If anything, under Pardew Hatem has spent far too much pitch time defending near his fullback when he should have been further up the pitch trying to cause damage. Maybe the correct criticism should be that Hatem is really weak in the tackle and so he sometimes lets his man go past him whilst he's easily brushed aside, but then that's an obviously harsh criticism to make given that he's an attacking winger.

 

That half-time substitution when we were 1-0 down still makes my head hurt, and somehow Ben Arfa gets blamed for that shitshow when it finishes 3-0.

 

Agreed that he barely ventured out of our half that game, what more can you ask from him defensively?

 

I was at that game it finished 4-0,was when my patience finally snapped with Pardew he was tracking back as much as possible mbiwa was having a bit of a mare behind him but he was being played out of position and not Hatems fault, we were 1-0 down and needed a goal and he took him off. It was a perfect example of Pardew thinking we playing fucking shite here if I take hba off they will think it was because of him, im a genius ( your not your a cunt) 

 

 

[Slim]

LAST CHANCE!!!!

 

Can someone take the banner? Seems a waste if not.

I can make it for about 10 min then I have to leave but I am gutted,

 

 

Special Event. Meet Hatem Ben Arfa at The Back Page on Tuesday 12th August at 6pm.

( This is not a signing session. Hatem would just like to do a meet a greet with Newcastle fans )

Please share as we know it is short notice so we can get as many fans as possible here to meet him.

Thanks ....

[loki679]

Hatem Ben Arfa is going to be meeting fans at the back page on tuesday?