Hatem Ben Arfa (now retired?)

[Colos Short and Curlies]

Love the way he would just needlessly do a thunderbastard of a shot from a few yards out.

 

Never played the nee blasties rule did wor Hatem

[Gola]

Probably my favourite player of all time. Obviously there's Shearer and Beardsley, but HBA was just so exciting.

[andyman]

At work I'm known as the guy who loves Ben Arfa. A few years back we always ended our Monday team meetings with a Ben Arfa video. Yes, I am the only Newcastle fan at work. Ben Arfa forever 

[Infinitely Content]

I will never be moved from the opinion that in his era, he was second only to Lionel Messi in terms of talent and beauty on a football pitch. Watching Ben Arfa clips on YouTube is life-affirming.

[TRon]

1 minute ago, Infinitely Content said:

I will never be moved from the opinion that in his era, he was second only to Lionel Messi in terms of talent and beauty on a football pitch. Watching Ben Arfa clips on YouTube is life-affirming.

 

 

Took one touch too many instead of squaring it or actually just ramming it into the net when he got a clear sight of it. Typical. 

[Infinitely Content]

Wash your mouth out.

[andyman]

Ben Arfa > Messi

 

Nothing can change my mind.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

1 hour ago, andyman said:

Ben Arfa > Messi

 

Nothing can change my mind.

That’s because you’re absolutely right. 

[TaylorJ_01]

There's better footballers in terms of function and tactical output, but pure talent and excitement no-one comes close in the modern era. 

[Abacus]

I have this debate many times with my non NUFC mates as being one of the best I've ever seen, beautiful but flawed.

 

I don't compare him to Messi or anything but they just don't see what a special talent he was or understand why a lot of Newcastle fans keep banging on about him.

 

So maybe you had to see it live. But Ben Arfa was something else, just the thrill of watching it, even from his first touch.

[Checko]

Technically world class, physically probably as well - incredible balance, agility, acceleration and good pace.

 

Just really the mental side of his game that held him back.

[wormy]

Obviously for different reasons, but in decades to come will Ben Arfa be our era's Tony Green in the 'you had to be there' sense? 

[NSG]

I think the fact that he was a proper heed the ball made him even more special.

 

He loved the club and the fans, and was willing to call out the likes of Pardew and Bruce for being dicks.

[TaylorJ_01]

I’ve made peace with it all now, because if he didn’t have some flaws, he wouldn’t have been playing for us in the first place. He'd have ended up at Man City being Pep'd or similar.

 

I just wish he didn't play for us under Pardew (though I'm not sure there were good options before and after him).

 

I also wish he didn't go to PSG. He isn't really an Emery player and was never going to be appreciated there with the options and setup they had. That wasted the end of his peak I'd say. He actually did OK when given the chance but imagine there was some stuff behind the scenes going on.

 

Rennes was strange too. He was still unbelievable at points, played 40+ games across the season, but then no-one wanted him and he ended up on a 6 month contract at Real Valladolid

 

 

Edited September 8, 2025 by TaylorJ_01

[kingxlnc]

HBA's story reads like a Lauryn Hill or something - insanely talented with initial success but fell out with the higher ups so essentially black listed from the bigger platform and wider coverage their talent deserved 

[Coffee_Johnny]

30 minutes ago, wormy said:

Obviously for different reasons, but in decades to come will Ben Arfa be our era's Tony Green in the 'you had to be there' sense? 

Feel like I missed out on Ben Arfa. Stopped going to games after what they did to Keegan (2008 ish) and didn’t really fully check back in until McClaren (timing eh?). Only to chuck the dummy after they failed to support Benitez (who I really admired). Couldn’t help looking out for results but living elsewhere it was relatively easy to block out all things Ashley-NUFC—which as others have said, often more vehemently, didn’t feel like ‘my’ club anymore. 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

4 minutes ago, kingxlnc said:

HBA's story reads like a Lauryn Hill or something - insanely talented with initial success but fell out with the higher ups so essentially black listed from the bigger platform and wider coverage their talent deserved 

 

Great comparison

[The College Dropout]

Lauryn Hill actually got all of her flowers in her pomp though. It would be more apt for HBA had a Ballon D'Or.

[Mike]

On 18/08/2025 at 09:23, AyeDubbleYoo said:

Should’ve been Messi, Ronaldo and HBA for the best players of that generation really, the guy had no limits to his ability. 

 

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

[madras]

5 minutes ago, Mike said:

 

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

Maybe there's a reason why he ended up playing for the fraud managers?

[Mike]

Because most of them are frauds?

[TRon]

13 minutes ago, Mike said:

Because most of them are frauds?

 

 

 

[madras]

14 minutes ago, Mike said:

Because most of them are frauds?

Yip. That's the reason the better managers and more successful clubs never worked for him. It was all their fault.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

I mean, football doesn't admit mavericks, we know and accept this. Probably Cantona with Ferguson is the best example of a manager who was prepared to grant exceptions and special treatment to a player who needed it - but it's extremely rare.

 

I actually think if HBA came through now he might find the football environment a bit easier to operate in. Of course he would have issues with instructions from managers in some circumstances but it would be OK if he wanted to read a book or whatever. 

 

Who knows, I would like to read his autobiography one day and find out what he was really thinking about his career. 

[Mike]

1 hour ago, madras said:

Yip. That's the reason the better managers and more successful clubs never worked for him. It was all their fault.

 

Well his reputation was in the gutter via fraud managers that lacked the man management to accommodate his idiosyncrasies because they were protecting their own reputations in order to hide the fact that they were frauds.