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Hatem Ben Arfa (still a free agent)


Dave

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So boring this, like. He's got a gut, it's unprofessional. He's clearly gained a lot of weight in the past 2 years which has coincided with a massive career slump. I love his talent and will miss him playing for us but there's blatantly something wrong. Let's move on.

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His upper body is not that fat, no. But that's only because the fat accumulating process starts at the hips/arse area and then makes its way around the rest of the body. (Which is less noticeable to the naked eye than lower body fat.)

 

He needs to sort himself out, but I don't think he's gives a damn.

 

 

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So boring this, like. He's got a gut, it's unprofessional. He's clearly gained a lot of weight in the past 2 years which has coincided with a massive career slump. I love his talent and will miss him playing for us but there's blatantly something wrong. Let's move on.

 

Agree.

 

But I don't particularly want to move on.... there's no dull moment with HBA. :lol:

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Guest firetotheworks

So boring this, like. He's got a gut, it's unprofessional. He's clearly gained a lot of weight in the past 2 years which has coincided with a massive career slump. I love his talent and will miss him playing for us but there's blatantly something wrong. Let's move on.

 

 

or let everyone talk about what they want to on a forum and just don't get involved in the discussion if you don't want to. It'll go the way that it works with everything else on here, it'll die out naturally of its own accord.

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Guest firetotheworks

Most stuff on here is pretty undebatable until the season starts. Everything's pretty much reminiscing or predicting any way.

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Incredible how extreme/black & white the opinions on HBA are on here. It's literally either 'he's fat, lazy and the sole engineer of his downfall' or 'he's been horribly mismanaged and it's everyone else's fault.' The truth lies somewhere in the middle does it not?

 

Hatem is probably the most talented player I've ever seen pull on an NUFC shirt (I am only 26 though). The way he can beat a man is incredible. That being said, he can be incredibly frustrating on the pitch too. I'd love to have a fit, motivated HBA still here though. The excitement he brings on the pitch is difficult to replicate, that's why people are still talking about him.

 

Pardew mismanaged him to an extent but his attitude (and from all accounts in training) didn't help. His weight problems are surely an indicator of that-

 

http://s16.postimg.org/ou29hye4l/image.jpg

 

I really hope he makes a good fist of it at Nice. He's still got a few years in him if he can dedicate himself to the cause. I certainly hope I get to watch him fly past a few players one more time.

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It goes all the way back to Pardew saying HBA didn't want to play out wide, a few weeks after he signed. This was Pardew's first excuse for not playing him, after HBA had done an interview with the chronicle saying that he wanted to supply the crosses for Carroll.

 

 

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Or maybe because his fitness want up to scratch.

No. He played well - albeit sparodically due to Pardew dropping him all the time - for over 6 months after returing from his injury in pre season training until he was finally allowed to start regularly over Pardew's Obertan. I specifically remember him looking sharp against Man City on his 1st or 2nd game back from that injury (I think he might have hit the post actually).
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Or maybe because his fitness want up to scratch.

No. He played well - albeit sparodically due to Pardew dropping him all the time - for over 6 months after returing from his injury in pre season training until he was finally allowed to start regularly over Pardew's Obertan. I specifically remember him looking sharp against Man City on his 1st or 2nd game back from that injury (I think he might have hit the post actually).

 

You still didnt know what his fitness levels were like to last the 90 odds minutes, though? Did you?

 

Because looking 'sharp' for the odd 20 minute here and there is not something to go on. That could be anything, like short term energy.

 

Nobody can tell whether his condition, cardiovsuclar or otherwise, was ready for regular football. (Unless you have access to his fitness stats, of course?)

 

 

 

 

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Guest firetotheworks

Neither did you, neither did anyone, because we never got to see. THAT IS THE POINT.

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Guest neesy111

Or maybe because his fitness want up to scratch.

No. He played well - albeit sparodically due to Pardew dropping him all the time - for over 6 months after returing from his injury in pre season training until he was finally allowed to start regularly over Pardew's Obertan. I specifically remember him looking sharp against Man City on his 1st or 2nd game back from that injury (I think he might have hit the post actually).

 

You still didnt know what his fitness levels were like to last the 90 odds minutes, though? Did you?

 

Because looking 'sharp' for the odd 20 minute here and there is not something to go on. That could be anything, like short term energy.

 

Nobody can tell whether his condition, cardiovsuclar or otherwise, was ready for regular football. (Unless you have access to his fitness stats, of course?)

 

 

 

 

 

That'll be the reason where we kept bringing back players before they were ready, under pardew's tenure.

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You still didnt know what his fitness levels were like to last the 90 odds minutes, though? Did you?

 

Because looking 'sharp' for the odd 20 minute here and there is not something to go on. That could be anything, like short term energy.

 

Nobody can tell whether his condition, cardiovsuclar or otherwise, was ready for regular football. (Unless you have access to his fitness stats, of course?)

 

 

:lol:

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I think he played like 60 minutes+ 2 or 3 weeks in a row after returning from injury. If it took him 6 months further to go from that to playing 90 minutes without 3 week break periods I'd be very suprised.

 

Plus he said he was fit during that time and Pardew was telling us he wasn't playing because 'his stats weren't right'.

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We might still have had Ben Arfa if we'd binned Pardew when we should have.  Ben Arfa wasn't perfect but that's the only reason we were able to get him and I think his imperfactions are part of who he is.  We rarely get players as good as he was so it's a pity we got him at a time when we had an abortion of a manager.

 

Anybody who didn't appreciate what he could do on the pitch should follow another sport because they know nothing about how football should be played.

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http://www.soccerbase.com/players/player.sd?player_id=39573&season_id=141

 

Here's his appearances from that season. He actually played 70 minutes against Forrest in the cup on the 20th September, then was coming off from the bench for a few games until October 23rd (again in the cup against Blackburn), on the bench the next game, started the next 2 league games (70 minutes against Man City where I thought he looked really sharp, and then 80 against Man Utd where I don't think he was in the game much). All that seems pretty standard practice for easing a player back into the side.

 

It continued (worse than that I think) for a further 3 1/2 months or so, during which time he scored 3 goals (including THAT goal against Blackburn).

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if that picture is real seems like he balloons up pretty quick if not looking after himself, but on the other hand he also looks like he can get in shape when he gets going

 

i love him and i miss him - gutted we'll never see him in our shirt again, desperately hope he just turns up to a home game next season and sits for a bit crack with the fans

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