Hatem Ben Arfa Ukraine Bid accepted/Fat Fine

Done what, got overweight? He's fallen out with players/managers in the past, so has Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Sometimes ability is worth the baggage

 

Quite simply on his day he is a genious. But the days are few and far between.

We stuck by him when he was injured, we bought him for good money. It was up to him to show his professionalism and loyalty and repay the faith.

By not working hard, keeping fit and fighting with Pards he has let us all down.

He had the opportunity to be an absolute legend with us and he blew it!

GG

 

The difference is you can cope with the baggage when the baggage delivers week in week out!

 

He does deliver when he's given a run of games. Not 15-20 minutes here and there

 

He cant do a run of games because he is not fit enough!

 

It's a real shame about HBA. All the natural talent to be one of the most exciting players in the game, but mentally lacking ever since his leg-break.

If he can't get his mind right then he has to go. With any luck he'll get a game in a Cup match and dazzle so that someone snaps him up cheap in January

 

Ability is never worth the baggage. Performances are sometimes worth the baggage though, provided the baggage doesn't bring down the rest of the team. Sadly HBA has not performed for us in a long long time. He is nowhere near being a Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Why do you think no other clubs want him? Great players get away with a lack of discipline because they perform despite it and other big teams will still fight each other to sign him when he falls foul of a clubs hierarchy. The lack of any decent team wanting HBA should be a wake up call to the lad - but it wont be.

Why are you fixating on his fine for being overweight? If that was all he had done then this wouldn't be an issue and he wouldn't be an outcast. His whole attitude is the problem, and has resulted in him being disruptive in the dressing room, hosting his own press conferences to slag off the club, not performing on the pitch due to a lack of fitness, not following team instructions due to a lack of discipline, sulking when things don't go his own way - all things he has been accused of at previous clubs too.

 

HBA is a luxury player, with our squad and the way Pardew set us up last season, we can't afford him. He's not enough of a team player.

 

A mature, professional football player might have ensured he was ready for pre season, not HBA's way though, I think the word petulant is more towards HBA's way of doing things I am quite sure that if Pard's wanted to make his point he would have stuck one on him by now.

 

I just don't get the excuse "ah its only quarter of a stone". To me that is worse in some ways, its either lazy or a deliberate two fingers at the manager in another show of petulance. The point is if every player is given a target and the punishment for being overweigt is a fine, then why not accept the fine and any other punishment the manager decides is applicable? It begs the question, does he care about the club, does he really want to be here?

The weight thing is only the tip of the iceberg anyway. His performance whether starting for 60mins or 20mins at the end of games has been shocking. No excuses, he has been piss poor. This "if he got a run of games" bollocks is utter bullcrap. If my aunite had balls she'd be my uncle. This is not a chicken and egg scenario, its very very simple. Managers pick players who perform and carry out the function they've asked of them. HBA's form and perfromance has been shocking, he doesn't perform the role the manager wants, therefore he should not play.

Part of it is down to fitness, a small portion (very small portion!) is down to not being used correctly at times, but by and large a lot is down to him not being very good! The talent is in him, no one disputes that. The application is not. He refuses to learn how to fit into a team, he refuses to learn from the manager/coaches how to become better, he is like a child who thinks they know best. The only difference being he doesn't have the humility to say "look I've been an absolute arse, please give me another chance, I'll listen and work hard". Its either fall in his lap or we get the big sulk.

I got bored of this routine yonks ago. I have a feeling Cabella and De Jong are going to show him up big time. They have talent but by all accounts have the mental side etc too. Its not like flair players can't operate within the confines of Pardews system, Cabaye flourished. Remy did. HBA himself did.

The lad has so much talent that by rights he should be playing for a top European club by now. I am talking about the Reals, Barcas, Bayern etc. He really could have. He is just too much of a mentally weak waster.

 

Or, in a nutshell, HBA is giving Ranger a run for the most talent sacrificed to **** for brains ego award.

 

Worse fella. Ranger may be a much bigger ****er but HBA has infinitely more talent (though I do think Ranger had some)

 

He was a fat sod last season, he's just a little bit fatter this season.

 

You hear players talking about not wanting to leave anything in the dressing room, not wanting to leave anything in the locker and not wanting to leave anything on the training pitch. I get the impression that Hatem is not wanting to leave anything in the fridge!

 

Ok, I get it, I do. But when we went on our 14 game un-winning streak, or whatever, who was performing, consistently? Who was always there putting in a shift? Point being Ben Arfa wasn't a starter for THAT team, right? Sissoko was. Coloccini was. Gouffran was. None of them performed, at all. Is it ALL laziness? Did we happen to just have the laziest XI in the league? Or was it all Cabaye?

I get the points your making, but I also don't think you are right in lumping it all at Ben Arfa's door. Something was deeply wrong in those last few months at that club, and it wasn't all HBA.

 

I agree. I am an absolute fan of HBA. He can be a genius on the pitch.

I readily accept that a share of the problems are down to HBA. Beardsley had as much natural talent as HBA but had the right mental approach to combine talent with application which HBA doesn't seem to have. That being said I would hate to watch a team of 100% ers with no flair and in some games HBA has been worth the admittance money for one moment of magic. Again I accept that has been the case on too few occassions.

But,and this is a big but, he can play. He may appear a prima donna but that was what he was like when we got him, so why do people expect him to change? If he was the perfect personality with his level of skill, he would be playing for Real Madrid or Bayern Munich or the ilk, not us.

Therefore, IMO, to have someone of his skill level playing for us nowadays you have to take the rough with the smooth,the good with the bad etc. Pardew has man managed him badly, playing him out of position, ridiculous save the lost game substitutions being just two examples.

The fact is that in the modern game of overpaid prima donnas part of a managers job is to get the best out of every player. HBA appears to need molly coddling and pampering and positive support. It doesn't matter that he's mid 20's or other players don't need what he needs, it's a question as to what gets the best out of HBA. It's been achieved before and it can be done again. I don't know what occurred between Pardew and HBA but for a manager to apparently make it clear to a player he has no future at a club is in almost all cases a sign of a bad manager. Some players you shout and harangue and some you do the opposite to motivate them and get the best out of them, it's clear HBA is not a player who responds to the shouting and haranguing and so as a manager why are those the tactics which seem to be being used on HBA.

Pardew should sit down with HBA and tell him the slate is wiped clean, that HBA could be a star in the team being built but that HBA needs to apply himself and commit to being the best. He should play him in a role that suits him and not on the wing or as a defender. Then give him a cuddle, tell him he loves him and that he's first on the list to look after JPF's g'friend/partner/wife when JPF is keeping the prediction league up to date. Then we might see on a regular basis the player HBA can be.

 

He's a lazy ****. We play with ten men when he is in the team. This can't be done in the premier league.

 

So you believe that when Ben spits his dummy Pardew should suck it and stick it back in ?

 

What has HBA's inability to perform, stay fit, keep the weight off and respect the club/fans/managers/teammates got to do with Colo and Gouffran etc? Their form is their problems but it ain't for the lack of trying. The only time I've used the word lazy above was to describe him turning up above the agreed target (if indeed he has). I'd say the same about any player, whether it was Colo or whoever. They are PROFESSIONAL athletes! They are very well paid to be professional. I am lumping the majority of HBA's (not the clubs) problems at his door because that is undoubtedly where the majority of them belong. He has had the kid glove treatment, Pardew bigging him up in the press etc, it did not work. He has had the hard line treatment, it doesn't work. We have tried every which way with him and it is telling that his teammates past and present have found his ways difficult to accept. They all respect his talent (Benzema and Cabaye both mentioned it). However they all get fed up with s**te. I for one have had my fill of him and this obsession with pandering to him because that is what you get with top talents. No it isn't. Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, Robben etc have loads more talent than him and don't need this treatment. We waste more time trying to manage his ego than any other player in the squad and we don't get enough back.

The lad is now 27 and has never done it for any consistent period of time since breaking through at 18. 9 years! He has had loads of opportunities too. There is a myth about 20 mins here and there. He has been absolutely atrocious the majority of the time when starting over the last two years. Plus he doesn't earn the starting spot. I cannot remember a time in the last years where he has said "right I'm going to get myself super fit and prove the manager/coaches/players wrong and make him pick me" He wants it on a plate. f** that, he can work for it.

 

No.

And as you will note I don't say HBA is not part to blame as he clearly is but to say it is entirely his fault is IMO somewhat blinkered.