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Hatem Ben Arfa (still a free agent)


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Guest firetotheworks

I mean obviously if you choose to ignore every other part of his career, choose the one year he was playing very well for us, then conclude that that's the real Ben Arfa and everything else is Pardew's fault... Well, there's really no arguing against that.

 

Well, what are you even arguing for man? You're basically suggesting that his personality or attitude has a lot to do with it as if that's in any way more important than what he does come the weekend. It's not, at the other end of the scale you have people like Shola Ameobi, zero talent, total commitment and attitude yet produces exactly fuck all and carves out a career for himself here because the coaches invest more in what players can do in training and what their attitude is than what they do on the pitch. It's utter nonsense.

 

Ben Arfa by most accounts might be a bit of a nutcase, but that's nowhere near as important as being a very good at your job.

 

Is it genuinely too much to ask that you be good at your job and also not be a nutcase?

 

Is it genuinely too much to ask that you be good at your job FULL STOP! We have had players for years and years that are shit at their jobs, yet that's less relevant than someone being a bit of a dick but being very good at their job? Howeh! He wouldn't have even been here if he wasn't a bit of a nutcase, we all knew that. People go on like we've consistently had better players over the years when we all know that we absolutely haven't.

 

So just because Shola Ameobi exists Ben Arfa is immune from any criticism about allowing his immense talent to go to waste? I just don't get it.

 

I agree that he wouldn't have been here in the first place if he wasn't a known troublemaker I suppose.

 

No, it's because Shola Ameobi, or Ryan Taylor, or Yoan Gouffran, or Gabriel Obertan, or Dan Gosling have ALL been chosen ahead of him. And yeah, it kind of does make him immune to criticism when he's been treated that way. If I was Ben Arfa and that set of utter shit was played ahead of me I'd be fucking livid. 

 

It's looking a gift horse in the mouth imo. Massively so. The last player that we had with that much talent was Beardsley and people are whinging about his unseen, perceived, non-footballing attitude, that we already knew he had, towards Alan fucking Pardew. It knocks me sick.

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Guest firetotheworks

I was thinking about this on the bus before. Surely you're no longer a manager if you're putting stats above your professional judgement?

 

That time he was going on about Santon's stats being good and everyone knew he'd had a poor game, even he said 'he might have looked poor, but...'

 

If you're doing that, you're no longer doing your job.

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I'm a huge believer and lover of performance stats but any statistician/mathematician knows they should only be used as guidelines. You can link rice cultivation to literacy in Greece if you wanted but it doesn't mean we should cultivate more rice. These guys are letting it trump their own brain which is very depressing :lol:

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oldtype has been broken by Ashley / Pardew. :-( Dude sounds so doom and gloom it's depressing. f*** off to the regime.

 

I'm a rational poster. I've just rationally decided that everything that can go wrong at NUFC will go wrong forever.

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Good bye sweet prince.

 

Biggest "what might have been" for as long as i can remember.

 

That last line could sum up his career tbh. The reason we signed him as a newly-promoted club was because he was a troubled genius, the reason he's leaving appears to be the same. I'd like to think that whoever comes in will makes us even better with Ayoze, Cabella, De Jong fit...

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Good bye sweet prince.

 

Biggest "what might have been" for as long as i can remember.

 

Aye, the excitement of him signing, photos in the airport etc, was just an unbelievable time. Knowing what a wonderful player he was on his day and to think he could play for us, it was just so incredibly exciting.

 

Then that goal against Everton, wow. The injury was heartbreaking but he seemed to come back from that strongly, his goals against Blackburn and Bolton will live seriously long in the memory but the one at West Brom, that lightning quick counter, was just exhilirating to watch. What a player.

 

I don't doubt that he was trouble, but if he was managed correctly he could have been so much more for us, we gave him the love he craved at OM and Lyon, it seemed like a perfect match. Heartbreaking seeing what's happened to him, the day he went to Hull was an embarrassment for the club. Like I said, I know he's had issues and perhaps we'll never know the full extent of them, but it seemed all he needed was to feel loved and wanted, I think the club let him down in that sense, Pardew in particular.

 

Attitude aside, deep down all football fans love players like Hatem and it's gutting to know he'll never play for us again.

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oldtype has been broken by Ashley / Pardew. :-( Dude sounds so doom and gloom it's depressing. f*** off to the regime.

 

I'm a rational poster. I've just rationally decided that everything that can go wrong at NUFC will go wrong forever.

 

Aye.  My first game was in the '70's.  We were shit and got beaten following defensive calamities.  Not much has changed really has it?  When I think of the time, money and emotion that I've wasted on this fucking club over the years man....  I accepted a long time ago that we'd never win anything but this isn't a football club any more, it's a plaything for our rotund owner who seems to have gotten bored of owning a football club and has now decided his lifelong ambition is to piss as many NUFC fans off as possible by lurching from one disaster to the next.  And there's very little we can do about it.  Stop going the games?  It may be the only answer.  The empty stands will provide more room for Sports Direct adverts.  Guess who wins again.  Sigh.

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Such a shame, was pinning my hopes on a last reprieve under a new manager,a clean slate. am more agitated at his mis-management than the perceived lack of application.As plenty have pointed out though,something in his make up is holding him back from becoming a great player,and he looks to be rapidly falling away now.

But if I read anymore `farewell my sweet prince quotes`, I`ll be needing boots with curly toes

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Oldtype is spot on, you'd have to have a massive set of blinkers or a serious obsession with Ben Arfa to think otherwise. Neither of which are in short supply on here must be said.

 

 

 

We should all have a serious obsession with Ben Arfa. We didn't fall in love with football for defensive wingers and hoof ball did we?

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Massive set of blinkers?  Yeah because Ben Arfa wasn't treated like shit and wasn't dropped for shite like Obertan for no reason.

 

Wake up and smell the shit man.

 

It's almost as if you haven't read what he posted. Or maybes its them blinkers.

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Oldtype is spot on, you'd have to have a massive set of blinkers or a serious obsession with Ben Arfa to think otherwise. Neither of which are in short supply on here must be said.

 

 

 

Bottom line is he was good enough to get in ahead of the players who started instead.

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Sadly managers will always use criteria other than ability to select a team. Happens at every level and at every club. Just gutting for us that Ben Arfa is exactly the type of player we love and need, and his ability is world class.

 

Frustrating not to know the full picture of how hard he really is to manage as well. From an outsiders point of view it seems obvious that you should just play him every game regardless of what's going on off the pitch.

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