Steady as she goes.
Posted on September 19th, 2010 | 112 Comments |
I’ve been out most of the day taking in some fresh air and walking the dog up and down some big hills, which has given me a fair bit of time to reflect on things.
Are we not getting just a little bit carried away?
As I said in the opening paragraph, there is no doubt beating Everton in their own back yard is a fantastic result. My concern now is that after the exceptional full debut performances of Hatem Ben Arfa and Cheik Tiote yesterday we get ourselves into the position where too much is expected of them. I mean they have started off pretty well in the black and white, but what if they don’t perform like that in every match?
Football fans are fickle as a general rule, and like it or not we are no different. I have read the opinions of a lot of fans on many websites regarding the peformances of the new lads from yesterday and I have seen many comparisons to players like David Ginola for Ben Arfa and Micheal Essien for Tiote. I mean seriously?
That is what I am talking about when I ask if people are getting a bit too carried away. Sure they played really well yesterday and improved our team no end, but to label them after just 90 minutes for us is a tad over the top in my opinion. What if they had played rubbish yesterday? Would they then be consigned to the scrapheap? Probably not, so surely it should work both ways.
For both players to prove their pedigree it will take more than just 90 minutes. A promising start from both of them could well turn out to be a promising career on Tyneside in the long term, but that can only be worked out over time.
Now to me they both look like quality players, but I will ask people to cast their minds back a few years to the debut of Jonas Gutierrez at Old Trafford. He was exceptional that day and looked for all the world as though he would become a special player for us. Now he isn’t bad at all, but his lack of both goals and end product have become apparent since then. I’m not saying that Jonas is a bad player, because he isn’t, but if an opinion of him was formed solely on his debut then I am sure many would be disappointed with what he has done after that.
The same applies to Tiote and Ben Arfa. Yes they looked good yesterday, but lets not treat them as if they are the second coming of jesus, not yet anyway. Give them time and they will prove their class. Judge them now and you could end up diappointed.
party pooper :P