OPINION
Hatem Ben Arfa was some player when he could be bothered. The Frenchman possessed more talent in his little finger than most footballers have in their entire bodies, and yet he only seemed interested in wheeling it out once in a blue moon. There are few players who had has much potential as he did, and even fewer who then let it slip through their fingers solely because of an attitude problem. The playmaker could have had it all, but instead, through a combination of arrogance and blatant stubbornness, ended up falling some way short of where he should have ended up. Just ask Newcastle United fans. On his day, Ben Arfa would rip sides limb from limb, but it just wasn’t his day often enough. Now 32, it is bittersweet to see that he can still run rings around defenders at will, as he did for Rennes in Ligue 1 the other night. Picking the ball up a million miles away from goal, he literally runs round in circles for what feels like an eternity before finally pulling his finger out and driving forward, playing a tidy give and go with a teammate and scoring a tap in. It was breathtaking without a doubt, and timely, slightly sad reminder of what might have been.
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