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Hatem Ben Arfa (still a free agent)


Dave

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Anyone from here who is moaning about HBA not playing and his number but could make the effort to support him tomorrow need to stop posting in this thread.

 

Obv some people cant make it but the lack of effort to try is the worst part

 

Be places in the car if anyone wants a lift.

 

Think Rocker is in now

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I'd go but got a broken ankle and no way of getting there sadly. I like what you're doing though, love Ben Arfa and absolutely gutted at the lack of respect that cunt Pardew has shown him.

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I could be wrong but I just think Pardew would keep him away from public friendlies and use the behind closed doors ones to play him in. Pardew knows keeping Ben Arfa out of the first team is an unpopular decision and playing him in local friendlies will just get him more stick off the press and supporters.

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Guest Roger Kint

I could be wrong but I just think Pardew would keep him away from public friendlies and use the behind closed doors ones to play him in. Pardew knows keeping Ben Arfa out of the first team is an unpopular decision and playing him in local friendlies will just get him more stick off the press and supporters.

 

He has only appeared at Barnsley & QOTS hasnt he? Doubt he will be in the squad for that

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I could be wrong but I just think Pardew would keep him away from public friendlies and use the behind closed doors ones to play him in. Pardew knows keeping Ben Arfa out of the first team is an unpopular decision and playing him in local friendlies will just get him more stick off the press and supporters.

 

He has only appeared at Barnsley & QOTS hasnt he? Doubt he will be in the squad for that

 

Yeah and both of those were at the training ground I think.

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Guest Roger Kint

I could be wrong but I just think Pardew would keep him away from public friendlies and use the behind closed doors ones to play him in. Pardew knows keeping Ben Arfa out of the first team is an unpopular decision and playing him in local friendlies will just get him more stick off the press and supporters.

 

He has only appeared at Barnsley & QOTS hasnt he? Doubt he will be in the squad for that

 

Yeah and both of those were at the training ground I think.

 

Both at their training grounds yeah

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Ryder. Man, I'd love to sit with him and rip this shit to pieces

 

 

There was a conversation on the Metro last night about Hatem Ben Arfa possibly playing at Croft Park against Blyth Spartans.

 

The French playmaker was in contention for the game against the EvoStik League side as they host Newcastle’s reserves in a pre-season friendly.

 

It went a little something like: “Aye, Ben Arfa might get a run out against Blyth.”

 

Now, let’s just think about that statement for just a minute.

 

He MIGHT get a run out against BLYTH SPARTANS.

 

Now, no disrespect to Blyth as a place (they have a cracking beach and a great café next to the beach huts) and Croft Park is a ground I’ve attended now and again as a punter since 1991, they do great food and there’s a superb club house with friendly people in there who love to talk football.

 

But surely the fact that Ben Arfa is even in contention for the Croft Park fixture should be the loudest wake-up call of his career to date?

 

This is, of course, a player that has had fanciful ideas about playing for the elite clubs in Europe like Real Madrid and Barcelona, or Manchester United, or even Liverpool, who looked at him last summer very closely before deciding against it.

 

And this is the player that has been spoken about in the same conversation as global stars as Ronaldo or Lionel Messi at one stage while being described as THE best play of his generation in France.

 

Only in the last three years, he has tumbled way down the pecking order, if he was regarded as one of the best talents in world football, and that all seems like a pipe dream now.

 

Hatem Ben Arfa of Newcastle United looks on from the bench Hatem Ben Arfa of Newcastle United looks on from the bench

 

 

Only 11 months ago, Ben Arfa had said: “I know some will think that I’m mad, but I still dream of the Ballon d’Or.

 

“I’m convinced it’s still possible.”

 

As he struggles to regain match fitness, and last season’s leaked dressing room bust-ups demonstrate he can’t seem to get on with people, that statement seems nothing short of crazy right now.

 

Don’t get me wrong, Ben Arfa has the ability, but sometimes attitude is just as important.

 

That often comes down to how ability is managed.

 

Bobby Robson and Terry Venables had a special way with Gazza and it resulted in his best performances at Italia 90 and Euro 96.

 

Walter Smith did similar at Rangers with the Geordie boy.

 

Brian Clough managed it with a young Roy Keane before Sir Alex Ferguson picked up the baton at Manchester United.

 

Fergie managed to get the best out of a “lost cause” called Eric Cantona as well. So good performances can be lured out of talents who are victims to red mist.

 

Newcastle have tried that with Ben Arfa – to the point of exhaustion it seems.

 

Alan Pardew did it by putting an arm around Ben Arfa at first and giving him special treatment.

 

He’s a different character to say a James Perch, or a Yoan Gouffran, who go out and do the job without a fuss.

 

Of course, he can bring that match-winning X-Factor to a game, so it’s worth it – until a player becomes so disruptive and unruly that there has to be a line drawn under them.

 

That would appear to be the case for Ben Arfa.

 

On meeting him in his first big interview in England, at the Jesmond Dene House, you wouldn’t have thought butter would melt in his mouth.

 

He ordered the clutch of journalists present a pot of tea, then a “cola” for himself, before insisting to the waitress: “I must have Diet Coke please, thank you.”

 

Then he charmed the life out of the media and it felt like Newcastle had a player on his hands.

 

In fairness, they did, as we found out at Everton when his first goal proved to be a blockbuster to win the game 1-0.

 

For journalists, he can make golden copy.

 

Any football writer worth their salt should be able to walk out of a room with at least a dozen back-page leads from Ben Arfa.

 

Ian Horrocks/Getty Images Hatem Ben Arfa of Newcastle United

Hatem Ben Arfa of Newcastle United

 

 

In the last couple of years, he’s churned out how he’d like to be like Peter Beardsley after playing with him in training, he’s told us he would have worn the number 9 shirt if given the chance at United and even two years ago, he told me at Hartlepool, after a pre-season friendly, he wanted to win the Premier League title in the 2012/2013 season.

 

In the end, Newcastle finished 16th. Ben Arfa was never fully fit. In short, he was dreaming.

 

In fact, he was in a deep sleep if the truth were told.

 

After falling out with Laurent Blanc at Euro 2012, he’d zone out and was late back for training at Newcastle.

 

Pardew had optimistically said: “France’s loss is our gain.”But while he was backed by Pardew, he didn’t repay him.

 

It is understood that Ben Arfa has never agreed with Pardew’s tactics.

 

He sees Pardew as a manager who prefers to play a direct style of football, and that often leaves him out of the loop.

 

Pardew will argue that he has involved Ben Ara and deployed him to good effect.

 

He did so in 2012, as part of a 4-3-3 formation the Geordie public loved to bits.

 

It resulted in a six-game winning streak which Ben Arfa excelled in.

 

Sadly, that run aside, and the odd wonder goal here and there, Bolton and Blackburn the most notable, the French playmaker has been nothing but a player oozing with potential.

 

At 27, that potential MUST come to the table now.

 

If Pardew is around, it is unlikely to be hear. And so a player dubbed one of the best of his generation, has reached a major crossroads.

 

It really is now or never for Ben Arfa.

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It's not at all that unusual to have a couple of first team / fringe players in for games like this, it used to happen a lot under SBR who knew that just sending out a couple of familiar faces and getting word around would put a few hundred on the gate. A few times NUFC sent out two XIs to different games.

 

SPL side St Mirren played a good chunk of their first team squad at Blyth a couple of weeks ago- NUFC have played foreign amateur teams on tour in the recent past- not sure why it always seems so terribly beneath first-teamers to turn out against a local team.

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