Hi, I'm a Newcastle United fan who comes in peace. I feel strongly enough about the Ben Arfa situation and have already seen enough wishy washy mistruths thrown around that I felt compelled to come on here and give a bit of insight onto the player and what has happened. Hopefully this might be interesting to some of you. To clarify, I had a season ticket at Newcastle for 20 years and still get to games when I can (difficult as I now live in London). I travelled to Brugge and Lisbon for the Europa league games against Club Brugge and Benfica respectively the season before last and thought it was a shame you couldn't squeeze past your Europa opponents (Lokeren?) as the Euro trips cannot be beaten. If there a way to watch an NUFC game then I will 95% of the time be watching it, and I've seen just about every game HBA has played for us. Just as with Newcastle United in general (We feel we are entitled to be fighting for the CL spots, we want a triple management team of Shearer, Keegan and Jimmy Nail, we feel we should be competing to sign Falcao and Ronaldo, we become hostile towards the boss if we draw a game etc etc), Ben Arfa draws a tremendous amount of Mistruths, inaccuracies and downright bulls**t from both the mainstream media and other supposed fans who have not be close enough to the situation to actually see the realities both of the player and of the situation he finds himself. Many would have you believe that Hatem Ben Arfa strolls around with his hands in his pockets whistling whilst the rest of the team busts a gut, only to occasionally show a flash of brilliance. This is not true. He is not one of 'those' types of players. He is actually very unique. He's not Lionel Messi either (as some would have to believe) however he is closer to the latter than the former. The epitome of a flawed diamond, Ben Arfa is (was) Newcastles most talented player (I hesitate to use the word 'best' as the definition becomes much more subjective although I personally would agree with that suggestion also) and the overwhelming majority of fans love him. There is real anger over what has happened with him and Pardew and what can only be aptly described as sadness that we will probably not get to see him play in an NUFC shirt again. To debunk a few things: - "He's good but he's not great" Ben Arfa is an incredibly gifted player, whose raw technical ability is absolutely on the same level as the greatest players in the world. People on the outside looking in will equate this 'type' of player to the likes of Adel Taraabt, Dimitar Berbatov etc hugely talented players who are inconsistent and 'difficult to manage'. He is a better than that. A full notch above in terms of technical footballing ability and in this sense he really should be playing for a top, top side; A Munich, Arsenal, Madrid, Juventus etc. Karim Benzema recently stated that technically he was every bit as good as Messi, bit he lacks in other areas which has meant his career going down a comparitively undesirable path. Yohan Cabaye recently pointed out that HBA was the best player to this day that he had played with. You have signed a seriously talented footballer. He is the best player in your squad. - "He's lazy" This is one of the biggest misconceptions about the player. Yes, he's not Claude Makelele and at times he will leave his full back exposed. If your full back isnt the greatest defender you might have problems against better sides. However, the idea that he doesnt track back at all is a myth; he is a reasonably hard working player and if he loses the ball (which he will) he does tend to run after it and try and make amends. Pardew is a defensive coach who sets the team up not to concede as opposed to hurt the opposition and he treats the forward wide players like the first layer of defense whos primary objective is to protect their full back before counter attacking. Ben Arfa is ineffective in this role, and it was never going to work whilst Pardew insists he plays it. He is at his best if he stays in the opposition half, runs at defenders and cuts inside. If you can get him doing this he will crack them in the top corner on more than one occasion. See here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuJn3fQ3XYQ - "He loses posession a lot" He doeslose the ball a fair bit, as his primary mindset is to dribble and beat opposition players. That said, the better the players around him and the more forward thinking the ethos the less this will happen. What happened last year on the rare occasions our snake of a manager gave him a start was that he would have no decent pass on as there was no movement in forward areas, especially once cabaye was gone, so he would try wildly ambitious runs at 5 players much to the frustration of everyone. That said, sometimes he pulls it off- see his blackburn FA cup goal. - "He's difficult to manage" Indisputable to a degree but again exaggerated. The problem is that Hatem has previous at Marseille and Lyon of falling out with managers which means he doesnt do himself any favours when it comes to defending himself in the current debacle. Looking straight at the facts though, this current incident is Pardews fault and not HBA's so you musnt think the fall out is another chapter in a longer book. Of course, if we had a different manager he may have fallen out with them as well- he might fall out with Bruce, but certainly this whole episode is Alan Pardews fault predominantly. - "He only has an impact against smaller teams" Not true. Is he more likely to beat 3 players against Wycombe in the league cup than at the Etihad? Of course, and certainly his runs can often be over ambitious, but he has had excellent performances against many top sides, being the lynchpin of quality wins over the likes of Everton (where he debuted and scored his first goal, the winner), Spurs (scored the winner), and Liverpool (Assisted the second and was instrumental to all of our attacking play along with cabaye and cisse) What happend with Pardew? This whole post is longer than I imagine so I'll summarise instead of going into another essay on how we got into the mess we did last year but ultimately Pardew would get frustrated with HBA for what he considered/considers a lack of work ethic and failure to follow his instructions i.e. track back, cover the full back etc. When we were on our particularly horrendous run last season (which to be frank we are still on- 1 win in 11 games, 4 in 25) We played Man U at home. 2-0 down, HBA was brought off the bench to 'save the day'- thrown into an impossible situation as he often was particularly last year. We went on to lose 4-0. HBA called Pardew out in the dressing room, criticised his long ball tactics bypassing the midfield and blamed him for the regression of several our our more technical players (mentioning mbiwa who has now gone to Roma to play in the CL and fight for the Serie A title and Sylvain Marveux). Pardew obviously took exception to this, and with his authority questioned in front of the whole group, banished him to the reserves. Unfortunately after the summer Pardew decided he would still not back down hence our attempts to offload him resulting in the depressing (for us) transfer that took place yesterday. I hope that gives a bit more insight on the player and what has gone on. Any questions and I'll be more than happy to answer. Best of luck for the season, and I hope HBA turns it on.
I really appreciate the information. You can tell how good he is based on how many Newcastle fans have created accounts on here just to tell us and our radio phone in show had mainly Newcastle fans ringing in. The only fault in his game is his consistency .
Thank you so much that was wonderful to read, thanks for taking the time and telling us your side of the story
As pointed out, he can't be expected to win games alone. You can't have 9 outfield players sit defensively, throw on a 'flair' player and expect them to single-handedly score 3 goals. It was similar for us before with Geovanni, they need other players around in support to bring the best out of them. Hopefully Bruce adapts tactics a bit with our new additions to the squad and sends us out there to attack teams, rather than doing a Pardew and using players like Ben Arfa defensively while expecting magic to happen.
It's good to get a balanced view but you should be aware that AKCJ says different & he knows everything. I'm looking forward to seeing him in a City shirt. Hopefully you can soon rid of the nooses holding back your club.
Pardew's headbutt on Meyler says a lot about the man...I was at the game v Charlton when he was in charge there, not much has changed.
It's all subjective of course, but that was well written, considered and genuine, so for that, heartfelt thanks. Yesterday still feels like a dream. Usually we have holes all over the squad that need patching up, and we get 1 sticking plaster if we're lucky. Yesterday we got a full service.
Superb post, many thanks, and if you weren't already aware AKCJ is a WUM from the Leicester board with an embarrassingly huge inferiority complex. Good luck for the season, and I wish you well with ridding the obvious cancer from your club.
I think the key for him will be having the likes of Ramirez, Ince, Aluko, Brady and Hernandez in the squad/side, he won't be asking to do it all on his own their are others who are on a similar wavelength.
Very well out together post, well thought out, and well written, I add my thanks for your views, he is as Steve Bruce has illuded to a maverick on the football field, he'll mess up on occasion byt he'll no doubt produce some memorable moments for us to savour, I for one think Bruce style of man management will more suit him, fingers crossed anyway
That assessment pretty much accords with what the distraught Geordies have been telling me ( at great length) today. One told me that apparently pardew likes to referred to as 'the king' and frequently rubs up against the more expressive players, yes HBA loses the ball often , yes there is often no end product but what there always is , is a sense of excitement when he gets the ball. I think far too many people underestimate Bruce, unlike pardew he isn't a vain peacock type ( obviously ! ) but then pardew never captained Man U , Bruce has nothing to prove to any of his players hence he commands respect. It's clear HBA feels he has a point to make and he has the ability to make it he's the type of player we all wished we could be and the type every fan wants in their team. With jake tom and Mohamed for company and two quality strikers to supplement and feed off his magic I think we'll be a transformed team not just in terms of personnel but in terms of style. Can't wait
can anyone confirm if he can be recalled at any time? , cos If Pardew gets sacked ( very likely ) a new Manager is going to want him back asap
I work in Newcastle, the Toon fans say that Ben Arfa can and will win games single handedly with a flash of brilliance. We need nine more wins this season. If Ben Arfa gives us three of them, that'll do for me.
The OP's made an effort to set us up for an interesting thread. If you want to laugh at AKCJ, can you do it on the other threads? Ta. Who-did-you-actually-sign-yesterday Trolls-and-wummers-on-here
Like I said earlier knowing how much hatred there is between them I can't see Pardew caring if he ever comes bask so I can't see a recall clause being in place.
King Arfa am I right? Thanks for the insight, I have always admired Ben Arfa ever since he arrived at Newcastle, never thought I would get to see him play in a City shirt.
