Ben Arfa deal edging closer.

Posted on August 16th, 2010 | 70 Comments |

Ben Arfa - Soon to be in Toon?
Ben Arfa - Soon to be in Toon?
It looks like the protracted Hatem Ben Arfa saga could finally be reaching a solution that will please most Newcastle fans.

The story has been well publiscised, but it hasn’t been Newcastle doing all the shouting. That has been left to Marseille and the player himself, but after a few days of entertaining dialogue between the two parties it would now appear that the Marseille boss, Didier Deschamps, is prepared to let the player leave Stade Velodrome.

The last little update on the saga came late last night when the Marseille president admitted that he wouldn’t want to be the person to ruin the career of Ben Arfa by keeping him at a club he has publically declared never to to return to. That in itself fuelled the speculation that he could be prepared to let Ben Arfa finally get his wish and join Newcastle, and these new words from Deschamps will have added weight to the specualtion that something is about to happen.

“I never said I did not want him. But it is very difficult given his radical position and his attitude,” Deschamps told L’Equpie.

“I think I did a lot of him. He has talent, but still some weaknesses. I wish him the best for his career. I have spent a lot of time talking to Hatem, and told him many things. Some of it he has remembered, some of it not. Last Thursday he refused to speak to me, so it may be for the best.”

The way I read it is that Deschamps is prepared to let him go and is almost saying goodbye to him, especially with the “I wish him all the best for his career” comment.

It’s about time it was sorted one way or the other in fairness as it is doing no party and good being dragged out for so long. Perhaps Ben Arfa could be signing number four of the summer?

If he is looking for a place where he will be loved and adored by fans then there is no better place for him than Newcastle. He stated he wants to come here and play for Chris Hughton, and for Newcastle, so what are we hanging about for?

Get him signed up!

NUFCBlog Author: toonsy toonsy has written 643 articles on this blog.

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70 Responses

  1. Morning Toonsy. This blog has become a right royal pain in the ass this last week or so – and I don’t mean cos of Stu’s incessant dribble ;)

    Pages are taking minutes to load and sometimes I cannit get on at all. I use Firefox but it aint much better on Safari. :(

    Would you mind mentioning it to Worky? Ta.

  2. anyone else see sky sports news transfer watch dude darmachef, he says newcastle are after craig bellamy along with s’land, fulham, tottenham.. but city wont let him sign for tottenham.. never no lads we could be have bellers and arfa for villa game :]

  3. TC – I have been having the same problem mate, and Bowburn, and we are both on Firefox. I’m back on IE at the minute and it is working fine. Bowburn says it is something to do with the latest Firefox update?

  4. I would love Bellers back, but I wonder if his hearts set on Cardiff. I think it would prob be a couple of years too early for him to go there but hey ho. But Cardiff dont have money, but maybe they can just mortgage the club on a wing and a prayer eh Stu ;-)

  5. bellamy arfa that lad from uragury and a lb (heard van aanholt is going on on loan) and i think wede be sorted for the season.

  6. Bellers would know better than to move to the scum. If those teams ever turned out to be true he’d be picking between us and fulham. I heard everton were also interested.

  7. I know he’s only one player but does anyone else think Bellamy will get Cardiff promoted despite their financial problems – and then keep them in the prem first year. He was pretty outstanding last season.

    I still think Whittingham would be a good signing from them.

  8. Two or three players, starting with Ben Arfa, and we could have a really really good squad IMO.

  9. Ok – cheers toonsy. I’ll just have to sit tight until firefox release another update then as I refuse to install IE.

  10. Toon Chicken says:
    August 16, 2010 at 11:17 am

    Pages are taking minutes to load and sometimes I cannit get on at all. I use Firefox but it aint much better on Safari.

    Every cloud, and all that….

  11. I hope this bloke can play a bit after the longest protracted deal in transfer history.Also I see N’zogbia as gone on strike (as well as BenArfa).What is it with the french if it’s no the air traffic controllers it’s the footballers going on strike.

  12. TC – Try IE8, even if it is only temporary. I have lost about 6 blogs now because of Firefox and whatever is wrong with it, which is a pain in the arse!

  13. Mick G – The Frenchies do it a lot. To us ut’s strange but to them it’s how they act, norma if you will. saying that, they don’t get shat on by their government so perhaps lessons can be learned ;) ;)

  14. sorry to p**s on the fire … but is everyone really wanting BA to come ??

    I expressed my doubts a few days ago but everyone is all out in favour of him coming.

    Do we want a kid who takes his ball home if he doesn’t get what he wants ??

    If he id edged out of the team and has a couple of matches on the bench wouldn’t he go home and not want to play anymore.

    His attitude towards his club is shocking … and he got to his current club because he wouldn’t play for his last one …

    There may be trouble ahead (que music)

  15. shrews mag. At this point I just want to see if he’s been worth the hassle. If he can be th missing creative link in our team for just one season and keep us up it will be worth it in my opinion.

  16. Shrews – franly I think he is alot better than what we have and so he should be a permenant fixture in the team and should be kept happy for a while. If he helps us to stay up and secure ourselves a bit more then great. I am under no illusions that if he comes to us and does really well, then he will be off fairly sharpish unless we appeal to his heartstrings. Look at Ginola. I think those footballers who stay at clubs for more than 3 years or so are dying out now, and if things continue to go as predicted with the wages decreasing for the mid range players, youl probably find them moving on more regularly in a a bid to get a better contract

  17. Just reading and he didnt exactly say all the best for the future it was “so it may be for the best.” Not trying to be picky because you have a very good blog going here. One word could mean the difference in football. “Toon Till Death”

  18. everyone makes mistakes and deserves a chance to prove themselves, yes hes had one chance in the same country with new team but this is a whole new country coming over to newcastle wher he will feel loved from the fans and he himself will love playin infront of 52000 people at st james, this could be the career move he needs to make so he can find himself and get on a steady footing in his career, all in all he deserves another chance

  19. Arfa Daley would quite clearly be the best player in the team – For that reason we need him.

  20. im going to pre-empt some people on here pissing and moaning about players if we get beat tonight, this is what happened when were an ‘established’ Premier league club!

  21. yes! u are missing the point! yes he may be trouble.but he can change a game or score goals.we havnt got any1 who can do that coming of the bench or in are team.these players are gold dust.they never play for 90 minutes but 10 minutes could be the difference.

  22. lesh says:
    August 16, 2010 at 11:48 am

    “Newcastle are going to bid higher for the Algerian defender”

    They obviously don’t know Mike Ashley’s business plan.

  23. Shrews Mag – yep, I’m concerned at that too. Interview with Harps in the press over the weekend confirmed how badly hit the team was by ‘some characters in the dressing room’ and you do have to worry about another firy frog turning up to piss on the team spirit.

    But we now have CH and co who seem to be very aware of that aspect, so on balance, if CH wants him, I want him.

    Not so sure with Bellend, if that one’s true. He’s a tool, but also just what we need in terms of ability. And I’m pretty sure he still loves the Toon and we’d be top of his list.

    As for Van Arnie, no qualms at all. Love to see him back.

    If we got all 3, I’d be utterly astounded. Not least ‘cos the press have linked them, which is usually the kiss of death…

  24. Opps, didn’t see Stu’s post at 24, instead of Ben Arfa, mine at 26 should have read as well as Ben Arfa! LOL?

  25. i tried copying the quotes but when i pasted it in here it came out in french somehow :s so ther is the link to the website

  26. shrews,he’ll be using us as a stepping stone no doubt about it if he’s on loan and we get one good season out of him then its worth it.If it’s a permanent deal and we get one good season then he wants to move to a bigger club and we get our money back or make money then its worth it.imo
    To be fair his club are at least equally to blame for the goings on now……..it seems to be an acceptable way og going about things over there…………of course he could come here and be a total flop………that’s football and that’s the gamble.

  27. that leroy fer would be an awesome signing defensive midifelder in the mould of nigel de jong will take no prisioners type player..only 20 year old and the fact feynoord are massively in debt could help

  28. Stuart79 says:
    August 16, 2010 at 11:50 am
    lesh says:
    August 16, 2010 at 11:48 am

    “Newcastle are going to bid higher for the Algerian defender”

    They obviously don’t know Mike Ashley’s business plan.

    Ouch, that hurt Stu!

  29. Mixed response … some worried some not …

    I understand that he’s potentially a great player … but I am still worried … time will tell …

  30. I suspect every team has at least one difficult player in the squad and there’s no way all our 25 will all be good mates,it just doesn’t happen.As long as any differences don’t go onto the pitch who cares.If we have any players who can’t seperate that then we shouldnt be keeping them.Sheringham and Cole didnt speak to each other at all of the pitch but they didnt play too badly together on it did they?

  31. CH personality can calm down any difficult personalties footballer.

    Look what happen to Barton. :lol:

    Just take a recent example,if a footballer who ish talented yet bad temper,and no clubs want him just because of that,ain’t that a waste.

    Compare Ben arfa and mario balotelli,you will know the differences. ;)

  32. toonsy says:
    August 16, 2010 at 12:40 pm
    Wolves tickets just arrived. Nice! Can’t wait

    Nice to see you going to a match… :)

    Low blow no 3!

  33. aye a decent article Stu.

    “Where’s the chaos? Where are the rage-inducing decisions? Where’s the conflict, the splits, the leaks and the bitching?”

    He obviously doesn’t read this blog tho ;-)

  34. I remember Reading about leroy fer during the world cup when there was a article about the future of Dutch football and fer was mentioned of one of the brightest talents in holland and seen as the successor to van bommel.if we can get him for £4 then that would be a steal.doubt it though

  35. So many lads have been very generous so far with donations and support. Just hoping I can drum up some more support so apologies for pestering again if you’ve already helped out.

    Website is launched now –

    http://www.tourdethink.com/

    and for those who are really bored…

    If you press the arrow buttons Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, b, a

    then you’ll see some funky animation. Although I never seem to win the race…

  36. malchick – great find …

    “He has already fallen out with Gerard Houllier, Paul Le Guen, Alain Perrin and Eric Gerets, had a notorious bust-up with Arsenal’s Abou Diaby at Clairefontaine, caused dressing room unrest while at Lyon, told his Marseille team-mate Mathieu Valbuena to change position during a League Cup match against Sochaux and was rumoured to have been the precocious young pipsqueak who told William Gallas to “f*** off and worry about your own game.”

    I rest my case ….!!!

  37. Shrews – Look at his medal cabinet, then say he is a disruptive influence.

    At the end of the day he is a player that has abilities the team are desperately lacking. Even if we have one season out of him and he helps up stop up it is a case of job done.

    I couldn’t bear watching the plodders we have currently and want someone who could do something a bit special. It’s a football match, not a personality contest, and Ben Arfa is far far better at football than what we have currently.

  38. told William Gallas to “f*** off and worry about your own game.”

    sounds totally reasonable to me

  39. I understand that he has been in some great teams which have won things … but he didn’t win the medals on his own !!!

    I understand that he possesses talent and that he would add something (flair etc) to the team … but at what cost to the team ???

    I understand the pros and the cons … I am just a little nervous thats all ..!!!

  40. Shrws – I can see your point, but not everyone has to get on. Shearer and Bellamy didn’t, Cole and Sheringham didn’t, yet they kept it off the pitch.

    The team ethic is well and good, but keeping that logic we are never going to improve unless they fit in ith the team. Now if this current team were Premier League champions then I could agree about the team thing, but they aren’t and they still need improving. HBA would do that.

  41. ben arfa will be a star here,the fans will love him,he will have his own song pretty quickly too.so if he is a bit tempremental? cantona? ginola? tino? roy keane? robert?

  42. I’d be surprised if he didn’t come to toon now – we just need to be ready in 18 months when he’s on strike because spurs, arsenal manure or whoever are after him
    still if he produces on the pitch and we make a pile of cash when we sell him I’ll still buy shirt with his name on it for my son :)

  43. I understand toonsy … but I am still worried …

    ‘Arfa world away’ to the REM tune … opening line “this could be the saddest thing …” ;)

  44. knowing me knowing you ARFAA!!!

    there is nothing he cant do

    knowing me knowing you ARFAA!!!