HBA Contract Terminated.........

Crying shame - The lad has bags of talent, but not the application to go with it. He'll look back on his career in 15 years and realize how he's ****ed it up.

 

THat's quite ironic Jim as Pardew blames you for him stubbing his toe last night.

 

I think that because of a lack of flair players in our squad over recent years it became easy to over hype Ben Arfa's ability and skills. He can be a very skillful player at times, but I've seen people refer to him as 'the most exciting player ever seen in black and white.' He is definitely not that. He's not even the most exciting French player we've had.

Ben Arfa is a poor man's Laurent Robert, who was himself a poor man's David Ginola.

We've had plenty of players over the years who were probably more skillful and exciting than Ben Arfa, and certainly more committed. We've watched players like a young Gascoigne, Beardsley, Waddle, and Asprilla who could all excite at least as much as Ben Arfa did and who all showed far more commitment and professionalism during their time with us.

 

Have to say, I might not be his biggest supporter, but if Ben Arfa had applied himself, he could have been anything ability wise. I think he was far more talented than Robert. Ginola is a different story because that guy was laden with ridiculous talent. Two footed, strong, skillful - Ginola basically had everything. Both Robert and Ginola applied themselves, and were professional. Both were lazy but they never turned up fat. I think Ben Arfa had pretty much everything too but Ginola actually did it on a regular basis. Sadly HBA didn't have the application and he is very immature. The guy is 27 and is still playing schoolyard rather than professional football. That again goes back to application. If he had applied himself and learnt about the game, he would have learnt how to harness his incredible talent.

I'd liken his game to say someone like Kinkladze. Never developed to fully be incorporated into the professional game. Had a brief spell of brilliance which got everyone raving, but then believed the hype and stopped developing. I think these types all think they are the next Maradona. Its getting harder to run a game on your own and win games just through sheer talent. The general level of talent is a lot higher as is the fitness. Look at the likes of Messi and Ronaldo. They work incredibly hard despite having far more talent than Ben Arfa. They know talent is not enough.