Hatem "Number 26" Ben Arfa

[adios 717]

 

He also regularly touts his best players out in public too.

 

Plus how often as that actually happened? Carroll and Cabaye perhaps?

Ba, Debuchy, Enrique off the top of my head.

[Tooj 17]

We replaced Debuchy with Janmaat, Enrique with Santon and Ba had a release clause and we ended up buying about six players in other positions that window as well to improve the team.

[Happy Face 29]

Ba, Debuchy, Enrique off the top of my head.

 

So we lost just 2 important players from the season we finished 5th.

[Happy Face 29]

Put it this way - I think the club haven't backed him properly at times - probably most of the time but that doesn't mean he isn't responsible for his own under performance. Particularly the second half of last season where everybody was on holiday.

 

He's only not been backed properly if the target is champions league/Europa.

 

As the target is the positions below that, imo he's had ample backing enough not to lose 14 games from 20 scoring 14 and conceding 36.

[Tom 14011]

I don't think he was backed coming into last season or the season before tbh. It's no good selling your best player and not replacing him - which seems to happen every January...

[trooper 940]

“We need to get the win for us all to go on holiday in the summer and be able to say to a Newcastle fan: ‘All right mate, how you doing?’”

 

Remember this classic from before the Swansea game.

[Happy Face 29]

In January 13 he got 5 new players. this was the table in the 9 games subsequent to that...

 

 

Yet we conspired to get trounced embarrassingly off the Mackems 3 nowt in the next game and go on a downward spiral.

 

We never bought anyone that summer, but we added Remy and never sold anyone either.

[Tom 14011]

I'm not defending his performance - but I am criticising the boards recruitment policy. They've been fucking awful and the lack of ambition comes from the top.

 

We only needed players in the January because they couldn't get their fingers out of their arses in the summer.

[trooper 940]

Well we've got a few in this window it now remains to be seen were he plays them.

[The Fish 10681]

This is bullshit btw, I don't think it's entirely the player's fault, but there are genuinely people on here that think it's entirely the manager's which, as just explained by Chez, is moronic.

Just to be clear I've repeatedly agreed that Ben Arfa shoulders some of the blame. It's my assertion that he's worth the arseache he's given Pardew (and his other managers too). Trouble is, we don't have a manager with the requisite skills to get the best out of him.

 

I reckon both Keegan and Robson could have. Rodgers and Martinez too.

[Gemmill 44242]

Easy to say that though when you don't know the extent of the hassle they're dealing with, and you're not the one having to deal with it. He's left behind him a trail of managers that have concluded the opposite, so maybe you're wrong.

Edited August 6, 2014 by Gemmill

[Gemmill 44242]

And when I say maybe, I think we both know what I really mean, DAVID.

[Happy Face 29]

I'm not defending his performance - but I am criticising the boards recruitment policy. They've been fucking awful and the lack of ambition comes from the top.

 

We only needed players in the January because they couldn't get their fingers out of their arses in the summer.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't like that our recruitment only shows the same level of ambition as (say) Everton, Villa, Southampton and that, but given that it does, I think our ambition managerially should be up there with them too, rather than championship level as it stands.

[Tom 14011]

I think the recruitment this preseason has been spot on - I'm referring to times where we've needlessly suffered in the past & there's perhaps some ambition there that wasn't there before - who knows? Mark Douglas said a while back the attitude to the cups this year would be different - Cabella talks of winning one, De Jong talks about the top four.

 

I wouldn't say Pardew is a championship manager - given that a lot of managers in the premier league are of similar ability or less.

[adios 717]

We replaced Debuchy with Janmaat, Enrique with Santon and Ba had a release clause and we ended up buying about six players in other positions that window as well to improve the team.

I wasn't making a point, just answering your question.

 

I am surprised people seem to be implying that Pardew has had an adequate squad/1st team since he's been at Newcastle.

[adios 717]

I think the recruitment this preseason has been spot on - I'm referring to times where we've needlessly suffered in the past & there's perhaps some ambition there that wasn't there before - who knows? Mark Douglas said a while back the attitude to the cups this year would be different - Cabella talks of winning one, De Jong talks about the top four.

 

I wouldn't say Pardew is a championship manager - given that a lot of managers in the premier league are of similar ability or less.

I've been afraid to say that I thought the Cups stance and Europe stance were part of a phase of a plan.

 

 

planning

 

[The Fish 10681]

Easy to say that though when you don't know the extent of the hassle they're dealing with, and you're not the one having to deal with it. He's left behind him a trail of managers that have concluded the opposite, so maybe you're wrong.

Pardew had him playing well at the start of last season and when fit, he's been at the very least worthy of a start. Especially after Cabaye left and we were bereft of creativity. Sissoko "did a job" on the right, but I guess I prefer my creative players to be an inventive precision tool, rather than a bludgeon. I don't doubt, nor have I ever claimed, that he's not difficult to work with, but the biggest talents often are. Bellamy was a nightmare by all accounts, yet the difference his absence made to that squad was massive. I don't remember you calling for his head, nor taking Souness' side when the tv interview nonsense happened.

 

Ben Arfa made more assists and scored more goals despite starting fewer games and being on the pitch fewer minutes than all but Cabaye.

 

I wasn't making a point, just answering your question.

 

I am surprised people seem to be implying that Pardew has had an adequate squad/1st team since he's been at Newcastle.

 

Adequate for what?

 

I'd say the following was adequate to win a cup or finish in European spots:

Krul

Simpson Colo Willo Santon

Ben Arfa Tiote Cabaye Jonas

Ameobi Ba

[Happy Face 29]

I wouldn't say Pardew is a championship manager - given that a lot of managers in the premier league are of similar ability or less.

 

 

He was on the scrap heap every bit as much as Kinnear when he arrived as far as I'm concerned.

 

I've done my best to be patient with the fella. Got to the stage that I was just winding people up moaning about him while we chased champions league, I had to give credit where it was due when he finished 5th, but in the last 2 years he's spent way more than the credit he earned from finishing above Villas Boas' Chelsea and Kenny Dalglish's Liverpool.

[trooper 940]

Looks like the club are trying to loan Ben Arfur out to Lyon as a sweetner to buy Lacazette for £15 million

[Gemmill 44242]

That one's a troo-ooper scoo-ooper, ho-ot off the presses, no one could have known.

[Dr Gloom 21790]

Pardew had him playing well at the start of last season and when fit, he's been at the very least worthy of a start. Especially after Cabaye left and we were bereft of creativity. Sissoko "did a job" on the right, but I guess I prefer my creative players to be an inventive precision tool, rather than a bludgeon. I don't doubt, nor have I ever claimed, that he's not difficult to work with, but the biggest talents often are. Bellamy was a nightmare by all accounts, yet the difference his absence made to that squad was massive. I don't remember you calling for his head, nor taking Souness' side when the tv interview nonsense happened.

 

Ben Arfa made more assists and scored more goals despite starting fewer games and being on the pitch fewer minutes than all but Cabaye.

 

 

 

Adequate for what?

 

I'd say the following was adequate to win a cup or finish in European spots:

 

Krul

Simpson Colo Willo Santon

Ben Arfa Tiote Cabaye Jonas

Ameobi Ba

Nailed it in the top bit of that post Fish

[Gemmill 44242]

Smashed it.

[adios 717]

Pardew had him playing well at the start of last season and when fit, he's been at the very least worthy of a start. Especially after Cabaye left and we were bereft of creativity. Sissoko "did a job" on the right, but I guess I prefer my creative players to be an inventive precision tool, rather than a bludgeon. I don't doubt, nor have I ever claimed, that he's not difficult to work with, but the biggest talents often are. Bellamy was a nightmare by all accounts, yet the difference his absence made to that squad was massive. I don't remember you calling for his head, nor taking Souness' side when the tv interview nonsense happened.

 

Ben Arfa made more assists and scored more goals despite starting fewer games and being on the pitch fewer minutes than all but Cabaye.

 

 

Adequate for what?

 

I'd say the following was adequate to win a cup or finish in European spots:

Krul

Simpson Colo Willo Santon

Ben Arfa Tiote Cabaye Jonas

Ameobi Ba

A team with Simpson, Williamson, Jonas and Ameobi as first choice good enough for top 5/6, are you serious? Not to mention getting a maximum of half a season out of Ben Arfa (even in his best spell).

 

Adequate to stay up for plenty off here at the start of each season. Adequate for anything other than what was achieved for the rest.

 

You were quite pro Pardew for a lot of that, probably too much. Now you seem to have swung too far in the other direction.

[beatty 24]

#26

[Dr Gloom 21790]

ffs. oh well, that's him gone.

 

and wtf is ryan taylor doing getting first dibs on the #4 shirt?