Alan Pardew: “Hatem gives us that X factor.”

Benny is looking good according to Pardew.
Alan Pardew has moved to calm fears amongst fans about the fitness of Hatem Ben Arfa and insists that the talented Frenchman looks in fine form as we head into the new season.

After such a long time out it’s perhaps natural that fans will question just what impact the horrific double leg break injury and subsequent lay-off will have had on Ben Arfa.

All in all it’s been just about 10 months since we last saw Hatem kick a ball for us which is a shame as we’ve seen exactly what he is capable of. Have another quick reminder by watching his superb display against Everton below. I know he wouldn’t have produced that week in and week out, but I’m also confident that we’d have got more points on the board with him in the team.

If he can produce that kind of performance on a fairly regular basis then we’ll have some player on our hands. This is why Pardew’s words today are nice to hear! The manager took time to talk about the general fitness of the players before moving on to Hatem Ben Arfa, but as this article is mainly about him I’ll start there.

Pardew told The Journal: “I’ve been delighted to see Hatem Ben Arfa out there running – he looks in excellent condition. I’m really pleased in him so far. Hatem gives us that X factor that we need. I said at the end of last season we would need one or two people to step up and provide us with that, and I hope Hatem can do that.”

“He is a player capable of that special pass or that special bit of skill that gets Newcastle fans off their feet. I can’t wait to work with him, he can be a very important player for us next season.”

He does indeed have the potential to get us off our feet, but I’m not getting carried away and won’t be expecting him to do it every game. To me Ben Arfa is like our modern day Pedro when on form. Both players have superb ball control, technical ability, and have a fair few tricks to boot and I’m looking forward to seeing what Ben Arfa can conjure up in the new season.

Moving onto the rest of the squad, Pardew revealed that in the main they are all fitter than expected. There are exceptions to that of course, which Pardew goes on to explain:

“We’re delighted to be back and I’m excited about the new season,” said Pardew. “I want to get the new season underway, I’m looking forward to it. The players all look in good shape.”

“One or two of them are below the level of the rest but everyone else is above the level we would expect from them and we’re just gearing up for the new season now.”

“Generally, everyone is above where I want them to be. Sylvain Marveaux hasn’t played for a while so he’s just slightly behind where we want him to be, and Xisco is a little bit behind. But the main guys are looking good.”

It sounds as though all is going well so far with regard to fitness and training. I’ll not be counting any chickens just yet as we do have a habit of picking up a lot of injuries, but it seems to be a case of ‘so far so good’ with regard to our training and fitness work.

As for Ben Arfa, I can’t wait to see the lad back in action!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

65 thoughts on “Alan Pardew: “Hatem gives us that X factor.”

  1. Great news. Cant wait to see him in the #10 pulling the strings.

    Toonsy – seems we may have to go back to base and get a second bus for me to drive eh!? 😎

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  2. Toonsy 👿 (you know why)

    Still having my say! 😛

    It’s simple,

    Routeledge should be gone by that stage, and Perch won’t be played. So no use giving him a squad number.

    That leaves room for three more.

    The point about the 35mil is also valid.
    What about the January budget that wasn’t spent? Or the budget we would have set had we not sold Carroll this season.
    Would it still be no capital outlay.
    What about the wages of players who have left?

    This bullshit of wages is also ****. You don’t pay for wages up front. Does Liverpool include wages in the 85mil they’ve spent on Carroll, Downing, Adam, and Henderson?.
    If that’s the case we should have a further 15mil to add to our kitty from the wages saved from Carroll, Nolan and Campbell. So that 50mil.

    Compulsive liars, this bunch… And they think we’re idiots.

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  3. Love that video!

    Can’t wait to see him back now, its reassuring to see Ramsey back for Arsenal and doing well who suffered an injury even worse than Benny.

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  4. Problem is we can’t believe Pardew. Maybe he’s just trying to raise HBA’s spirits.

    Looking forward to see how he goes though.

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  5. 35 million is the next phrase going in the ban filter. ****** off with it. And yes I did just bust the swear filter to post that….. 😡

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  6. Batty – They don’t on their own, but when it’s all people go on about it starts to get a bit boring. For a bit read extremely, undescribably boring.

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  7. Toonarmyelite – Swansea have offered him a £12,000 a week wage rise apparently. Money talks. Hard to be annoyed by it as I was never bothered about him in the first place. If we get him ‘meh’, if we didn’t then ‘meh’ 🙂

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  8. Agree with Pardew , Ben Arfa can make the differenc for us next season, If we get him playing to his best and Tiote cuts down on his yellow cards we will be top 10 next season. Really looking forward to next season

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  9. I’m rich 😯

    Good day!

    I am Mr Dan Maha director auditing and accounting department” bank of Africa (boa) Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso .I discovered the sum of seven million, two hundred thousand dollars (usd7.2) belonging to a deceased customer of this bank the fund has been lying in a suspense account without anybody coming to put claim over the money since the account owner late, Mr Salla khat from Lebanese who was involved in the December 28th 2006 Benin car crash.

    it is therefore, upon this discovery that i decided to take this ultimatum and make this business proposal to you as the fund will be release to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it and i don’t want this money to go into the bank treasury as unclaimed bill the banking rules here stipulates that if such money remained unclaimed after five years, the money will be transferred into the bank treasury as unclaimed fund. The request of foreigner as next of kin in this business is occasioned by the fact that the deceased customer was a foreigner and a Burkina be cannot stand as next of kin to a foreigner.

    Therefore, I am soliciting for your assistance to come forward as the next of kin. I have agreed that 40% of this money will be for you as the beneficiary respect of the provision of your account and service rendered, 60% will be for me. Then immediately the money transferred to your account from this bank, I will proceed to your country for the sharing of the fund. Call me through my telephone number: +226 75376152.

    Yours faithful,
    Mr Dan Maha.

    🙄 🙄 🙄

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  10. Batty – Just checked the ‘blog e-mails and found that. We’re rich mate. Do us a favour? You sort it from here on though yeah? 😆

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  11. Why is everyone so obsessed with us having to spend £35million in transfer fees?

    And we arent spending money on up front wages, its called a budget man

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  12. It was a tongue in cheek comment, I wasn’t actually trying to open the debate, more poking fun at those who do and those that would respond…..(step up MDS and Raffo 😆 )

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  13. So was it Lee Ryder who reported this 4 million bid then decided to send it up in flames a bit later?

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  14. Raffo,

    For me its got nothing to do with the 35%0#
    It’s got everything to do with the bullsh1t lying and misleading to say that those funds are nearly gone. (and thus we don’t don’t where the money goes).
    It’s got to do with trusting the board. Rather be honest, even if the fans don’t like what your saying… Than bullsh1t to appease,fans shortterm then be exposed later.

    We’ll never have a relationship that way.

    Anyway, Sorry Toonsy. No more 3%m&l…

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  15. Toonsy…maybe you could forward that onto Ashley/Llambias who could in turn use the money for upgrading the bogs or something?!? 😆

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  16. i know for a fact that they have spent £100 on paint to tidy the changing room up ,they are realy splashing out 😉

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  17. Moreno- I know you were joking- I was referring to the same lot you were. Just drives me nuts. We have more to look forward to this season than we’ve had in quite awhile (IMO) yet people need to focus on the clubs finances as if we can do a thing about it.

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  18. Batty,

    F%ck Bobby’s train… It’s my train now…
    I used my South African blood and stole it from under his nose…
    He’s sitting on the track, holding fresh air wondering why its so quiet..

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  19. Moreno – Yep I did have a little nibble. Just totally jacked off at work and really this just gets on my thrupnies.

    Batty – you say bollocks but I dont.

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  20. Batty,

    £100 on paint… You’re forgetting, the painters wages… And his transport and apparently he has a promotional agent…
    We’re talking closer to the £20 000 mark to paint one bog mate! It’s called a buyer! 😉

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  21. I personally ain’t seen enough of HBA to get too excited just yet. ‘That goal’ was a cracker definitely, but I thought he looked a little lightweight on other occasions. Just hoping he gets a good run of games, and proves to be the valuable, influential signing that everyone and their dog have been praising him out to be.

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  22. Who else could we sell to raise the money we owe him?

    Does the loan stand at £125 million?

    Tiote – £30 million
    Jose – £15 million
    Vuckic – £20 million – based on potential esp if Hendersons worth that.
    Airey – £20 million – based on potential esp if Whickams worth that.
    Ameobi – £40 million – based on potential and his goals against the scum

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  23. Batty,
    I actually don’t think we’ll sell Tiote.

    But f@cl it… While I got Bobby’s fishing rod…
    We can net 25mil for Tiote and use the.money to give Smith, Ameobi new deals, then have a 12mil offer for Essien rejected, then we’ll get new installed icebaths for the players. And after that we’ll have spent the money… Haha 😉 :mrgreen:

    Just pulling your legs guys… I hope 🙁 😯

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  24. Oh HBA would be worth £25 million too.

    Then his loans paid off and he could sell the club. Do we think thats his plan?

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  25. Raffo,

    According to an article Toonsy did a while back. We should owe him no more than 110mil by August and our bank overdraft should be paid off… I think, Toonsy can correct me.

    Which is great. But then just be honest and say you taking money back. Then most fans willbsay, fair enough. It’s yours to take. And makes the club more independent.

    But Limpdick insists nothing has been paid back to Ashley… Which isn’t true…

    If we got our debts under 100mil is really isn’t much for a club this size. With the asset value and all.

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  26. Toonsy–congrats on your new-found wealth! I trust that Mr. Dan Maha will come through with that 2.6 Million for you.

    Happily, I also have come into money from a mysterious accident in Africa and am waiting for approximately 4.6 million to be transferred into my account.

    It’s been a while since I sent them my info, but I’m sure everything is fine and the money is on the way.

    Hooray!

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  27. The reason folks keep banging on about the ‘X’ amount is that the board and Pardew have had 6 months to make firm transfer plans and unlike most other clubs, they know the amount they have to spend which could also be supplemented by outgoing sales.
    The annoying thing for me is that apart from Cabaye, the 3 other signings we made were off the cuff, so, did they have the list of firm targets that they said they had been working on, were they realistic and had any real work been put into having the deals ready to go by having the bid price right and the players terms sorted before hand ?.
    I make this point as this window has a familiar feel about it with targets falling by the wayside left right and centre.
    JJ@48, We ( the fans) owe Ashley **** all, he owes himself.

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  28. @toonsy

    Unfortunately, the £35m topic is the most crucial aspect of Ashleys judgement period.

    We all said that Ashley would be judged on whether he reinvested the cash.

    It may bore you but for me and many others it’s very interesting and a relevant point to discuss over and over again.

    I equally find speculation of who we might buy as utter drivel but I appreciate that some find it interesting to take themselves off from reality for a while. No doubt they love coronation street, eastenders and Emmerdale. 😆 😆

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  29. “DAILY MAIL: Lee Westwood, one of the strong favourites for the Open, will receive £2m from Newcastle United owner Mike Ashley if he clinches his first major. ALSO: Luka Modric has submitted a written transfer request in a desperate bid to secure his move from Tottenham to Chelsea.”

    Can’t fork out the money for a player but he can’t give a multi millionaire like Westwood a couple million for ***** and giggles…

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  30. Bobby, I see you found us…

    Feel free to take over a while, I’m off to chill in the carriage for a bit…

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  31. JJ
    July 14, 2011 at 12:44

    “Can’t fork out the money for a player but he can’t give a multi millionaire like Westwood a couple million for ***** and giggles…”

    It’s to do with sponsorship for his non-Newcastle United business that is in no way, shape, or form financially linked with us, so why shouldn’t he? 🙂

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  32. Are you sure Toonsy? I mean sports direct makes a bit of money so he should just plough that into NUFC. Doesnt matter that they are seperate companies and has shareholders etc to pay dividends to 🙄

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  33. @ BOBBY yaaaaaaaaaawn .. we goin to have another rumble Bob? 😉 … i am very nervous that Villa are going to go all out for Zog

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  34. @51. I don’t think it’s fair to say the club didn’t have a plan this summer. The had cabeye lined up for awhile and got him quickly. Ii think Pardew made it clear that the club always had Ba in its plans for one of the two strikers positions. they obviously went after Gameiro quickly for the other. When gamerio didn’t work out, they moved on the Erdinc. To me its the best plan they’ve had in awhile.

    I’m not sure I agree that all clubs have a set amount they can spend. i think a lot them do it like Newcastle: identify a need and then find a player.

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  35. MDS – i agree with you .. they said that Carr had been following Marveux for 2 years .. to take from Liverpool shows great tenacity in my humble opinion – tho no doubt Bobby will tell you i’m mistaken

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  36. @61. I forgot about Marveaux. You are right, even he said that Newcastle had been watching him for awhile. Whether they turn out to be the right buys I guess we’ll see, but they clearly got 3 of the 4-5 players they had targeted.

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  37. toonsy isnt sports direct profit directly linked to us by all the FREE saturation advertising at NUFC

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  38. @toonpipes

    What are you bringing to the table this time? A thick juicy steak, a luscious lobster or as per usual 3 bags of Monster Munch? 😆

    Uh dear! Still dreaming of Zoggy?
    Wake up, smell the coffee, we wouldn’t match his wage demands . 🙄

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  39. look you muppets i’ve just cleared £200million think i am going to blow it on something i am trying to get rid of answers no because i know you lot would be happy

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