“My mind was made up in 10 minutes. Even if Real Madrid had come forward, I’d have said yes to Nice.”
Within minutes of his conference at the Allianz Riviera he was already mixing his boldness with his barely believable, both can occur on and off the pitch with Hatem. Grinning whilst saying the aforementioned quote, you could see he was delighted to have arrived in the South East corner of his home country. Given the number 4, to the bemusement of me and probably others, he was ready to ‘tear up’ Ligue 1.
Many people had already made their minds up about Ben Arfa before he departed Newcastle and moved to France but maybe the OGC Nice fans may become fond of him because of his incredible talent and excitement. Straight after his press conference at his new club, he was flooded by fans at a signing session. At Newcastle, he was special. At times, inconsistent but special. He could change the game and bring it to life in one move. The talent he has is superb but you have to question why he hasn’t become a major talent and is now known more as an ‘unfulfilled talent’? Various factors come into fruition when thinking of this; his attitude, Alan Pardew and his work rate. All 3 of them have possibly hindered his career development. I say Alan Pardew because as a fan of his former club, Newcastle, I believed that he was arrogant. He was an idiot, to put it straight. He showed that with the David Meyler head butt and the push on the linesman. You could say that maybe the alleged fall out between Ben Arfa and Pardew could have actually been because of Pardew’s arrogance. Many will disagree, I know. His work rate was a definite possibility because he wasn’t a strong worker on the pitch. He is more of a player who creates and lets the others do the dirty work. After the double leg break he suffered in 2010 vs Manchester City, when he returned in 2011, Yohan Cabaye said, “When he came back, his attitude had changed; he’d become a hard worker. He started doing extra sessions in front of goal, work without the ball, weights. He put on muscle. Now he knows what he wants.” This shows he did work hard at times at Newcastle and maybe, just maybe, it was actually Alan Pardew’s arrogance which came in between the two. However, many have different interpretations and if I was to be bias about it, I’d blame Pardew. He moved to Newcastle United from Marseille in 2010 and suffered a horrific leg break after Nigel De Jong threw in a wild challenge, only four games into his career in the black and white. He burst onto scene vs Everton when he cut inside and blasted a screamer into the goal. I instantly knew I was going to like him. Newcastle fans loved him, also. Support flooded in for him when the Pardew vs Ben Arfa saga came about. The timing was superb because it was the time protests were occurring against Pardew and Ben Arfa was represented as a saviour of our club. “Hope” (pictured below) was used as the caption for Ben Arfa’s support. Left out of match day squads and even frozen out of the reserve squads, you could predict Ben Arfa wouldn’t be at Newcastle any longer. Even when Newcastle organised an open day and Ben Arfa organised his own individual signing session, the club stopped him doing that also. Isolated.
I have praised Hatem to the hills here but at times, he has been incredibly frustrating. As a Newcastle fan, we want to see our players giving passion and fight for the black and white stripes and we didn’t see that often enough with HBA. If I was to critique him, I’d say he had to work harder and improve his attitude. As big of a fan as I am of his, I have to criticise him because of these things. I said maybe it was Pardew’s fault they fell out earlier but then again, it could have been Hatem’s. I guess we will never know. It’s an interesting tale, one only an insider will know for sure.
Hatem Ben Arfa, during his time at Newcastle and former clubs, brought the fans to their feet with excitement. His two highlights, amongst many, at Newcastle were the two extraordinary, Messi-esque goals vs Blackburn and Bolton. Hypnotic. Many will argue that he was inconsistent during his time at United and he probably was but maybe he was managed incorrectly. Pardew has an inability of including high level talented individuals into a direct style of play and you can just look at Remy Cabella this season for even more evidence.
A Ligue 1 and Coupe de la Ligue double at Marseille and even more piping hot form at Lyon when linked up with fellow youth project Karim Benzema are two things which are including in his highlights. The connection between these two on the pitch was phenomenal, so good that it was hard to believe they weren’t close off the pitch. Benzema said, “What I don’t like is that we’re systematically linked, that when you talk about one of us you have to talk about the other. We’re different. I don’t see the point in wanting to believe that we’re best friends in the world. It’s not true; I have respect for Hatem though.”
