Life for Hatem Ben Arfa is pretty cushty right now as he earns a lot of money to pretty much sit on his arse doing nothing. The PSG midfielder is the new Winston Bogarde and he's even celebrating his anniversary of not playing.
Winston Bogarde is one of those wonderful Premier League stories of a bygone day before social media and 24 hour rolling news. The Dutchman refused to leave Stamford Bridge but the club didn't want him so he sat at home earning his wages and watching football on tv, a true hero.
For the modern age we have Hatem ben Arfa and his unfortunate, but by no means necessarily his fault, waste of a brilliant talent.
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The transfers that never were XI:
Ben Arfa was an exciting talent at Lyon and Marseille early in his career before moving to Newcastle and being far too good for them. He soon fell out with Alan Pardew and was loaned to Hull where he disappeared.
When his career seemed to be falling apart he rebuilt it at Nice where he impressed under Claude Puel, earning a move to PSG in July 2016. He played 32 games in all competitions last season but then seemed to fall out with Unai Emery.
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It's now been a year since he last stepped on the pitch for the Ligue 1 leaders and he took to Instagram to celebrate his unwanted anniversary:
Ben Arfa knows he might as well enjoy life as he's not getting back in the team anytime soon and his contract runs out at the end of the season so he'll be free to go and rebuild his career once again, at still just 31 he'd be an exciting prospect for many teams.
And the Frenchman isn't going to go quietly. According to reports the former Newcastle man is considering p*ssing off club officials by bringing pizza into the dressing room for his teammates on his birthday:
Ben Arfa is far too talented, and apparently funny, to be stuck not playing football for over a year. Hopefully someone picks him up in the summer and he gets back to his best.
Featured Image Credit:Topics:Β Football News, Ligue 1, PSG, France
