Newcastle bid revealed as Ben Arfa saga rolls on.

Posted on August 3rd, 2010 | 77 Comments |

Hatem tuned up for Toon?
Hatem tuned up for Toon?
Newcastle have actually bid for Marseille’s Hatem Ben Arfa, and the player is keen on joining us according to reports in the French press.

The French publication La Mercato is reporting that Newcastle have had a bid turned down for the player who was once dubbed as the future of French football, but talks will continue in the hope of reaching a deal.

It sounds like the player wants to come to Newcastle despite interest from Italian clubs AC Milan, Genoa and Parma and German outfit Hoffenheim. Deals including those four clubs are favoured by Marseille, but it is the player who is holding things up by waiting for Newcastle to make another move as he would prefer to come to Tyneside instead.

Ben Arfa’s apparent determination to move to Newcastle has forced Marseille into contacting The Magpies again to make a counter-offer that is presumably somewhere between our original offer and what Marseille value the player at as they need the cash to enable them to chase their own transfer targets, which sounds hopeful from our perspective.

A move to Newcastle doesn’t appear to sit too well with Ben Arfa’s advisors though as they seem to think that a move to the Premier League would not be in the best interest of the player. Or perhaps it’s not in the interest of the advisors wallet? Maybe that is just me being cynical?

Anyway, if you wish to read the original article you can do so here, but as a warning you will either need to be able to understand French or feed it into a translation programme such as Google Translate, although other good translators are available.

So it would appear that there is something in this rumour after all then, and it would also appear that the player wants to come here, which would be great if it actually came off. The French press isn’t like ours, it is regulated more tightly and as a consequence they can be trusted more, just slightly more.

I guess we’ll have to wait and see on this one!

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

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Comment on this post

77 Responses

  2. I wouldn’t get used to 4. I’m overextending myself :lol:

    There may be a 5th one yet ;) ;)

  3. Great talent, exciting player, dodgy track record off the pitch though. Nontheless, I would love to see him in a toon shirt and would be very impressed if we pulled it off!

  4. Come on!! sign this lad up please! he’ll keep wayne on the bench :), hes top quility, get him a striker, cover for LB and were done and dusted in my opinipon. mabye europe is on the cards ;)

  6. If we have made a bid I hope it is not a bid that is well below the valuation just so the board can say ‘we did bid for ….’ but it was rejected.
    Trying to appease the fans like this would just frustrate and disappoint us more!!

    Regarding Ben Arfa and his character and temperament, a lot of the top flair type players have a somewhat less than perfect attitude (e.g Ronaldo). I believe it is upto the staff to keep this in track and ensure the player is concentrating on making the headlines for his football and not other reasons.
    CH seems to have done a good job with keeping the clubs private affairs private and also seems to have a good grip of the players so far…

    I for one would love to see him sign as he is the sort of player that can make something happen from nothing to win a game, we seem to be running low on this sort of player currently.

  8. Having watched the old youtube I would say this is just the sort of quality we need to get in if we are to give ourselves any sort of chance this season. Would certainly be a player to challenge Jonas and Routledge.

  9. All I’m saying is, I’m not building my hopes up but if he ever did arrive here it would be a huge F-You to the fans and press who think we’re small time relegation fodder. I’d like to see him come purely for the media and fan reaction of others nevermind the fact he could be a fantastic player. I dunno, I’ve said from the start there was no chance of this happening but the French press seem like they know exactly what’s going on with te situation and are seemingly far more credible than our lot. The fact no british mainstream press are reporting this is actually encouraging. Who knows, I’m still gonna say I can’t see it happening but stuff like this will stupidly get my hopes up even though I know it should be ignored, lol.

  10. Howay Ashley, if you could spend £10M on a CH you can splash a bit on an exciting playmaker like this.

  11. Rich – Stop trying to goad me into saying something that’ll enrage the P.E.F.F :lol:

  16. CH has to do whatever it takes to bring him here…..he ll be a superstar for us once he s here

  17. any way lads just read on the blogg about newcastle under 15 in world cup of teams playing at man u with all the best teams in the world playing.their was 9,000 teams who took part and we are the only club from england to get their.united only playing becasue they are hosting it.that has got to be good news for are future.

  18. Dr Toonsy Harrison I take it you didn’t sleep much lastnight, As for Arfa Daly I guess if there was any truth in the rumours it will all end now as Fat Mike said if there was any breach in transfer talks that the plug would be pulled so I guess that is the end of that :(

  19. Dave – You say that, but the Gosling and Campbell ones broke before there was confirmation to be fair.

    I slept like a dream last night mate, and even had a lay in 8O

  21. I’m looking forward to being able to watch Newcastle tonight. Hopefully the streams work.

    *crosses fingers*

  22. not a single quote at all in whole article so this is prob just a load of pap!

  24. big dave, thats not really true considering sol campbell was being linked with us in the press a few weeks before we signed him, so im still hoping on ben arfa :)

  25. marlon harewoood apparently being lined up by blackpool O_O , well to be honest i wouldnt mind having him back here.

  26. @richietoon: ya,same old story. I shall see which day is that of this week. hahahas.

    I was wondering will there be any surprise signing again? I do hope there is. :)

  27. Well it just shows that MA is all talk and ye cant believe a word he says,
    As for your stream I hope it works even though I have to work :( so I will miss it

  28. he will be revealed at a press confrence wait for it……………………………………………………………………………………on FRIDAY,wor donna is doing up the room as we speak.

  33. If they’re prepared to meet us in the middle then our bid couldn’t have been that far off.

    Hope it goes through and I think Hughton will give him a free role behind Carroll.

  34. Did Hughton not say that Barton and Routledge would start tonight:

    ———————–Harper————————-
    —Perch——-Williamson—Coloccini—-Enrique——
    —Routledge—–Barton——Guthrie——Taylor——
    —————–Carroll—Lovenkrands—————-

    IMO thats best case scenrio with who is fit, I know Raylors not everyones cup of tea but we have to see Barton and Guthrie in the middle together sometime and we dont them out wide.

  38. Toonsy I have cancelled him once before so it would be shit to let him down again. So just have to hope there will be some decent highlights on later ;)

  39. Rich – I either went in, or spent then first 3 days back sorting stuff out that had ballsed up, not got sorted, and carried on with along the wrong track ;)

  42. Hatem Ben Arfa chooses NEWCASTLE!!!!

    http://www.sport.it/calcio/calcio-estero/niente-milan-per-ben-arfa-il-francesce-sceglie-il-newcastle?

    TRANSLATED VERSION —

    14:13 – 03/08/2010
    Nothing Milan for Ben Arfa, French choose Newcastle

    The French newspaper ‘La Provence’ says Hatem Ben Arfa, leaving Olympique Marseille player, decided to move to Newcastle. “Newcastle is the worst solution for both the OM Hatem – said to surprise the player’s agent -. The English league is the best way to show his talent and the club can not even submit bank guarantees for the purchase option. Despite this, in spite of a number of interesting offers, some of them from Italy (Milan, Genoa and Parma), the young Frenchman seems to have made his decision.

  51. Was there someone on here last week sayin some reporter who knew ben arfa said he agreed to join newcastle sounds though there cud b sumthing in this hope we buy him on a permanent deal

  52. got a question for u lads!this 25 man squad has got to be named by the first of september.so what happens in between the 2 weeks when the season starts they can play any of the players.

  53. Toonsy

    Youve actually beaten Ed to the Ben Arfa bid story, Maybe you werent copying off him after all ;)…

  56. Asim – Yeah, anyone can play until Sep 1st.

    CC – I never was copying Ed, just some vindictive twats thought I was. P.E.F.F indeed ;)

  58. Loan with option to buy would be the ideal scenario in my opinion.

    What’s this not being able to secure “bank guarentees” business?

  59. No point of going to broad street before the match mate, it only comes alive at night.

  62. Sorry, got distracted. Matbe mentioned already, but I see ch is saying ranger is not going on loan.

  64. Spartan, yopu’re right. Shit site, shit opinions and only ever seems to post articles to cause strife.

    must be jizzing in his shorts that his one insult has caused so much overblown nonsense in the press.

  65. We need player who want to come and actually PLAY for NUFC! If this is true then Fatty should dip into his Billions and bring the lad to the Toon.

  69. toonsy,you get on nufc mad dont you?chris f,i know what your saying,that’s why i’ve never posted on there,there too extreme,they are also cliquey aswell.
    i often read their posts,just to see what they are going to come up with,i remember when keegangate happened they were wanting people to chip in for a hitman for ashley.

  74. Has anyone seen his “fight” with Diaby? If this is the kind of incident that has coloured perceptions of his personality it seems harsh considering he looks about 13 at the time.

  75. He had one with Cisse aswell, and refused to pas the ball to about 6 of his team-mates :lol:

  76. NUFC: Steve Harper, Ryan Taylor, Jose Enrique, James Perch, Fabricio Coloccini, Wayne Routledge, Danny Guthrie, Joey Barton, Xisco, Andy Carroll, Leon Best.

  77. @ Big Dave 18

    I assume that he only planned to pull the plug if the club themselves made declarations in the media (and so use it to try force Newcastles hand). In this case we should probably be grateful that there are no quotes in the article.

    The agents comments, though, attributing interest to Newcastle might hinder things, but surely if everything is okay with OM then they’ll proceed. And sure Ben can sack his agent to get rid of the problem and come home to to the sunny NE