It really depends on how you perceive value for money, on how you view Ben Arfa. Most stout people from the North East give it the big one about just wanting a team that cares (wtf does that look like?? I presume it's just another bullshit terminology for winning enough games to keep the local populace happy) and gives everything for the shirt. The same people are always moaning about the lack of signings and quality of the first team. Ben Arfa put in more memorable performances than anyone in the current first team bar Shelvey, and was definitely more entertaining and likely to worry defences. Can you imagine the look on the opposition when we bring on Gayle or Joselu? Every penny I spent on attending games in which Ben Arfa played was well worth it. Even the ones he didn't walk through everyone and score, because he ignited the crowd. We only have one player capable of doing that now, who's actually a pretty similar player. I can imagine you lot describing the best players you ever saw to your devoted Grandkids... "You should have seen Perez... he was average, but you should have seen him track back!". **** off.
T I like good defending; I like goalscorers; I like great saves but what I like most of all is someone who can excite. HBA was one of the few in the latter group. He may not have been as good as Ginola, Beardsley to name but two but boy could he excite. Yes he was overweight and lazy and had a lousy attitude but he could do things that no-one else on the pitch would even think about never mind try. If HBA didn’t have his flaws then he he would never have turned up at Newcastle he would have been playing for one of the best teams in the World so we should just be thankful he had the flaws and, therefore, played for us and whilst too rare did things on the pitch worth the admittance money by itself.
Spot on. I can't help but feel fans have been brainwashed by greedy financiers into buying into this culture. The game is 16 teams in a league playing defensively against the 4 decent teams, desperately trying to cling on to their position for the sake of TV money... and we have lost some of the key elements of enjoyment from what was once not-so-erroneuosly called the beautiful game. The point is entertainment and seeing players do great things with a football, not running 13km in 90 minutes. It doesn't matter what league you're in, that line remains true, and for far too long a lot of the entertainment has come from the opposition.
He’s a fat lazy **** who only turned up for a handful of games. We don’t have the luxury of a luxury player lads. We need grafters.
Sorry JPF but that’s borderline Mackem logic. We cannot use a handful of great performances to gloss over the majority of games where he strolled round the pitch like he was rambling with his Grandad. It’s like the inbreds using six in a row to gloss over the comical implosion of their ****ty little club. At best two games stick in my my memory tops for HBA. I remember two back heel goals from Perez which were world class too though.... My own genetic Mackem logic now has Perez as good as HBA on goals...but with a team and work ethic too. So Perez is far superior. I know who I’d rather have in the up and coming relegation battle.... #mackemlogic
That's because until I turned up and threw a spanner in the works, this was a room of everyone agreeing with each other, which is a dangerous state of play where you can eventually convince yourselves of anything... That is why Pouchy being a tit is a necessary evil
5 mins of pure skill that video. We’ll be lucky to put a video of that length together for the whole of next season from our whole squad the way things are going! HBA was something else like!
There have been far better than HBA since Pedro. Players who had flair but also had the temperament to go with it. Ginola for me was far more valuable to the team and just as skilled, if not more so. Ben Arfa has shown at numerous clubs that he can’t knuckle down and work and if he doesnt get picked he goes into a season long sulk. Glad its West Ham that has picked him up and not us.
As HBA hasn't actually signed for anyone yet, don't worry, there's time for us yet. Go on LC, get in their and make an offer he can't refuse.
Ben Arfa is likely a lunatic, but think of all the highly professional composers history has forgotten instead of the disgusting syphilis riddled genii... There's something about a flawed genius that is infinitely more watchable and entertaining, and that is what football is about if you're never going to win anything, but I doubt that it's coincidence that our best period in the last decade came with Ben Arfa at the club. I would love to see another Robert or Ben Arfa at the club, because I cannot see a kid beaming in their little Isaac Hayden kit saying they want to be just like their hero because he eats a balanced diet. Nobody can watch the video I posted without a smile on their face, surely? The Ginola thing is hilarious though because he had some very similar criticism to Ben Arfa... Maybe not at Newcastle, because I think he played for us before the modern media lens, but at Villa he got a lot of flack.
Maybe you're right, in our current state he has scored some inportant goals, but would we class him as an exciting player we'll remember? I'm not sure. For me we have one player at present who is capable of doing something worth the admission fee, and he's not actually our player!
I don’t know why people are talking all around it. For a short while Ben Arfa was a magnificent player for us. Yes he had poor games and went missing, yes he wouldn’t be someone to rely on, yes he wasn’t a team player and you prob wouldn’t want to be in the trenches with him. However he was laden with great talent and the excitement in a stadium was tangible. You don’t like football if you didn’t enjoy that. He had great relationships with Hughton and Pardew who seemed to be able to carefully negotiate his blatantly difficult persona. I am just not sure what the relevance is now. He’s been useless for years bar a short spell with Nice. Interesting Puel decided not to go back there despite losing Mahrez. Regardless the bloke has been a disaster since leaving us. ****ed off Bruce, ****ed Emery. Was ****e for PSG - 23 games 0 goals wasn’t it? He is done. Just be thankful we got the best of what little he brought to the game of football. It would be nice if we could find another flair player of similar ilk at their best. Only thing is Rafa doesn’t tend to go for those types though. He preferred the likes of Smicer or Garcia to say a Harry Kewell. Better pros who worked hard. He’d still keep a Kewell type about but he is pretty ruthless when it comes to mavericks and those who don’t mix well within a group. Understandable as no individual is bigger than a team. You can have Cristiano Ronaldo who scores so many goals and impacts games so much that he kind of flies in the face of that. Or Messi. They work hard too though and are ridiculous in their pursuit of personal improvement. A Ben Arfa or to a lesser extent Shaqiri like to present themselves as that but don’t give the same return, quite simply because they are lazy ****s who don’t have the same drive.
