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World Cup Star Raises The Question Of What To Do With Hatem Ben Arfa?

10 years ago
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The 2007/08 season saw Karim Benzema and Hatem Ben Arfa combine to win the League and Cup double in France with Lyon, only for them to take ‘slightly’ different routes.

The end of that double winning season saw Ben Arfa join Marseille in a £10m deal, then a year later Benzema moved on to Real Madrid for a whopping £30m.

To say their careers haven’t then moved in tandem is understatement of the year/decade, while the Real Madrid striker has a treasured Champions League medal and scored twice as France opened their World Cup account in Brazil last night…Hatem has his very own reserved place on the Newcastle United bench and is watching the World Cup on TV along with the rest of us.

So Karim Benzema, where did it all go wrong?!!

When interviewed, the Real Madrid striker was asked about the position Hatem Ben Arfa now finds himself in;

“If Hatem had followed the path that was promised to him, he would be playing in Barcelona with Messi today.

“Technically they are identical but Hatem has other problems, he needs to work inside his head not to drop off.”

We have all seen that Ben Arfa is capable of moments of genius that are comparable with any player, including Lionel Messi.

The difficult bit is getting Hatem to produce them on a consistent basis.

It is a disaster for Ben Arfa, Pardew, Newcastle United and especially the fans, that not only is HBA not producing the goods, he isn’t even on the pitch!

A solution must be found and hopefully one that doesn’t involve offloading the tortured genius to whoever will take him off our hands.

Mike Ashley will definitely not want Ben Arfa going into the last year of his contract with no solution, though it would look an impossibility that the Newcastle owner would offer any kind of contract extension to a player who currently is only a liability in his eyes.

Maybe the best hope is that Hatem’s obvious stubborn trait will come into play, and his unwillingness to go with the normal flow can mean he sticks it out at St.James’ Park, then somehow ends up getting his chance in the first team and produces the goods.

That is an awful lot of maybes and somehows, but the alternative of pushing him out of the door when there is currently zero other creativity, is surely just too depressing for words.

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