Newcastle United have always loved a maverick player.
From Paul Gascoigne to Allan Saint-Maximin, some of the best players to ever pull on a black and white shirt have done things a bit differently.
However, perhaps the biggest maverick the Magpies have ever had is Hatem Ben Arfa.
The French winger was arguably one of the best players in the Premier League on his day, but getting that level of performance out of him was like pulling teeth at times.
Speaking on the BBC Match of the Day Top 10 Podcast, Alan Shearer has been discussing Ben Arfa and his time at Newcastle, and he says that while he was incredibly talented, he was also fairly lazy.
Hatem Ben Arfa was quite lazy
Shearer spoke about the £6m winger and his time at Newcastle.
“He was supposed to be a superstar wasn’t he?” Shearer was asked.,
“Oh, he had some ability, when he went to Newcastle he was a favourite. He was a long time after me. He was one of those, he had the ability, but in terms of workrate and all those things, you always want more with the workrate side of things. Sometimes, particularly away from home, it was like playing with 10 men here,” Shearer said.
Hatem Ben Arfa was frustrating
Shearer is spot on, Ben Arfa had so much ability, but he was so frustrating.
It really felt as though the winger’s performances depended completely on which side of the bed he woke up on.
If Ben Arfa was feeling fit, happy and confident, he was unplayable, but, sadly, you only got a performance like that out of him 20 per cent of the time.
If Ben Arfa had a different sort of mentality, he could’ve been an all-time great for Newcastle.
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