Newcastle still interested in Cleverley and Ben Arfa.

Posted on August 2nd, 2010 | 50 Comments |

Tom to Toon to be confhttps://nufcblog.org/wp-admin/post.php?action=edit&post=12572irmed soon?
Tom to Toon to be confirmed soon?
Newcastle manager Chris Hughton is hopeful of clinching the loan signing of Tom Cleverley this week, and he hasn’t given up hope of signing Hatem Ben Arfa either, according to The Daily Mail.

The paper suggests that Cleverley could be next through the door at St James’ Park, and that the deal will be decided one way or the other by the end of the week.

Cleverley has impressed on Manchester United’s tour of the USA and whilst loan signings aren’t necessarily my cup of tea, sometimes needs must. If we do get Cleverley then we will end up with a player who has pace, can play right the way across midfield, including the wide positions that looked so unimpressive against PSV, and score goals like this to boot.

The one problem is that Cleverley is likely to come with strings attached as Alex Ferguson won’t want to let one of his youngsters go out on loan and sit on the bench, much like Giuseppe Rossi did the last time we had a loan player from Manchester United. Cleverley will more than lilely required to play a set amount of games for Newcastle should he arrive here, although given the versatility of the player that shouldn’t really be a problem. It may keep other players on their toes aswell!

As for the Ben Arfa rumour, and as sceptical as I am of it, it continues to rumble on. My own personal view is that we have no chance of signing the talented Frenchman and are just being used as a namedrop by an agent to angle a move to a bigger European club somewhere. If Ben Arfa keeps scoring goals, like he did last night against Valencia, then he won’t need the agent to talk up a move as it will just happen, somebody will take a punt on him.

Granted, there has been no denial by Chris Hughton, even a modest amount of praise for the player was offered at one point, but I still see it as an unlikely move for both us and the player. I would love it if he did turn up at Newcastle as it would be a signing that would get bums on seats at St James’ Park, someone who can excite the crowd and compliment the workhorse type approach our squad has adopted.

Nowt wrong with dreaming eh?

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

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50 Responses

  1. just got my wolves tickets … whoop whoop … would be good to see these names in the squad …

  3. Remember that Hughton did say that Ben Arfer’s signing would be ‘unlikely’.

    That translates to a no and fully supports the gist of the article – that we are being used as a ‘name drop’ by his agent.

    ‘Twas ever thus.

  6. Cleverly well defo happen, don’t ben arfa will wud love to be proved wrong, if cleverly comes in that’s one winger n after sat I honestly think xisco cud do a job on the wing to he worked hard tracked bk worth punt

  7. Shrews – It’s 50 mins for me, depending on M6 traffic, then again, West Brom should have only been 35-40 minuts and took 2 hours :)

  8. Also what do ppl fink of colocini playing a defensive midfield role instead of smith jus my view but I fink he wud b great in that position, jus after that debate yesterday whether we need one, id rather bought someone ike ashley williams n moved colo forward into that position n sold smith

  9. Just a small nitpick, Rossi wasn’t the last loan player we had from Manchester United, Simpson was. :-p

    I think Cleverley would see allot of game time in all honety. maybe not starts, but as he can play on either wing and through the middle then, like you say, his versatility would give him plenty of options.

    Plus, if it means we don’t have to play Guthrie on the wing, or Raylor at all, then I’m all for it!

  10. at a minimum we need without fail….

    a proper centre foward

    a midfielder who can play a bit of football

    a left back (cover)

    a new owner

    will we get them ? – will we bollox like.

  11. Tom – Good call ;)

    We ended up signing him though and not sending him back like we will do with Cleverley :D

  14. “Tonight, I’m still a Marseillais. At the moment, I am there. But after, we will see…Newcastle? There’s been contact with a few clubs, but for the time being I am still a Marseille player. I’m training hard, and when they make the call, I’m there. There’s still a fair way to go in the transfer window, and there’ll be arrivals as well as people leaving. We’re only at August 1st.”

    http://www.mercato365.com/infos-clubs/marseille/article_439702_Marseille-Ben-Arfa-reste-vague.shtml

  16. rumour has it e may make move for klasnic, who was at bolton on loan last year, apparantly he has cancelled his contract in france and is now free agent?! rumour only mind

  17. If we were to get Ben Arfa in then would we really need to loan Cleverly as well ? we would then have Arfa , Jonas , Routledge and rtaylor to go wide and Barton , Guthrie ,Nolan , Vukic and Smith through the middle . Would then rather see a good DM come in than cleverly because i do not think Smith is premiership standard ant more .

  18. he will end up at somewhere else! we should have moved by now.dont let other teams get him,they are all talking newcastle apart from us so if it is true.give him the caLL.we cant lose on this kid!unless he does a barton.lads lets face it if he goes elsewhere i see him coming a player worth 25mil plus.ashley likes a gamble this would make him real money .

  19. Morning all!

    First day back in the office since the 29th of June! I had a great july but nice to be back,

    I cant see ben arfa signing but id be happy with cleverly to add some competion for our wingers

  20. Agreed, as long as we get one of them then great. I do actually think it’s a winger or two and a decent cdm we need

  24. It would appear Liverpool are to be sold in the next few days. Their in a complete mess financially, yet still able to be sold…

    Amazing what can be achived when the vendor is serious….

  28. First match ticket of the season booked :) not many tickets for the wolves game left, act fast people.

  29. If we get both Cleverly and a Ben Arfa type player in, as im not to sure we will get him in, I dont think we would need a striker, the guys we have will score goals if given the chances, thats been our problem for the past couple of seasons.
    Ben Arfa (type)- wing/attack
    Cleverly – midfield/wing
    Left back cover
    Thats what I think we need, in that order of importance.

  30. Just been looking through Newsnow and there are lots of links to where CH is saying that he has lots of attacking options and Xisco will have to fight to fit in. Looks like we won’t be signing a striker no 10 type player then.

  33. It would appear Liverpool are to be sold in the next few days. Their in a complete mess financially, yet still able to be sold…

    Amazing what can be achived when the vendor is serious….

    ……

    Nothing to do with Liverpool being a far more marketable brand World wide?

    Were Everton not serious about selling either then since they didn’t get bought out when they went on the market?

  34. If liverpool(one of the biggest names in world football) had been in anywhere near reasonable financial state they woulda been bought out ages ago. So it just goes to show what a mess they are in.

  35. Rangerman says:
    August 2, 2010 at 1:27 pm

    Debts of £250-300m
    Cost of new stadium – £300-400m

    We’re at £700m without even looking at the purchase price! Tell me how that is a sound financial purchase regardless of the brand…

    Everton are a totally different proposition. They will never be the biggest club in their city, let alone the world. But lets not forget they have debts and need a whopping great cheque to build a new stadium too.

    If we cannot be sold with all we have going for us, there is definitely something amiss.

  36. There again,
    if liverpool weren’t in a financial mess they wouldn’t be for sale in the first place.

    A money pit, with years to wait for a return.

    The brand of liverpool fc is what they’ll be buying + loads of debt for the foreseeable future.

  37. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    August 2, 2010 at 1:40 pm

    Exactly CLiNT. Surley we were a better proposition? Ok, we had debt but not as much as Liverpool and we have the stadium.

    I will never understand. Mystery to me..

  38. Rangerman says:
    August 2, 2010 at 1:27 pm

    “Nothing to do with Liverpool being a far more marketable brand World wide?”

    Writing as someone who has travelled a bit in the past, you’d be surprised how much impact the melodramatic soap opera, ‘Newcastle United’ have worldwide, Rangerman.

  40. Ostensibly,
    we’re top 20.

    But, we were just going into the ‘banking crisis’ then.
    So maybe there’s a bit more stability now, with regards ‘big money business’?
    Weird all the same.

  41. CLINT i think the bottom line is ashley does not want to sell,canny money maker when things are right,past chairman have made a few quid like

  42. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    August 2, 2010 at 1:59 pm

    “Ostensibly,
    we’re top 20.”

    Top twenty as a club which has never reached it’s potential due to poor ownership generally.

  43. ice,
    i tend to agree with you mate, & said as much at the time.
    I don’t think he wants to sell, he likes it here.
    :)

    Worky,
    i’m pretty sure we made the top 12 whence in the champs league back there a bit.
    We need to invest in some Asian etc players to do the big shirt sell.
    Whatever happened to Dalian Shide?

  46. Campbell never blames Newcastle fans for the fat comments! I read the ESPN link someone put up; he is blasting the “critics,” probably a journalist who asked him about being fat.

    Notice how the allegations that Newcastle supporters were the ones calling Sol fat came from UK rags that love to hate on Newcastle. Luckily us international fans don’t get exposed to such negativity.

    Let’s get a couple players in (get Cleverly in till Christmas – Routledge is a good player but injury prone) and finish top half. That will shut up the fookin media.

  48. Free Scoring Smudge says:
    August 2, 2010 at 4:02 pm
    Campbell never blames Newcastle fans for the fat comments! I read the ESPN link someone put up; he is blasting the “critics,” probably a journalist who asked him about being fat.

    Notice how the allegations that Newcastle supporters were the ones calling Sol fat came from UK rags that love to hate on Newcastle. Luckily us international fans don’t get exposed to such negativity.

    Let’s get a couple players in (get Cleverly in till Christmas – Routledge is a good player but injury prone) and finish top half. That will shut up the fookin media.
    <<<< aye top half of the bottom 4

  49. Teams who will certainly finish ahead of NUFC:
    Man City
    Arsenal
    Man United
    Chelsea
    Tottenham
    Liverpool
    Everton
    Villa

    ….
    We are not significantly worse than any other team in this league. For all the rest, it comes down to TAKING CHANCES and defending set pieces. Playing pretty football is all well and good, but it’s not necessary to score goals and most clubs finishing mid table surely do not.

    People misinterpret the meaning of Spain’s world cup triumph; they won because they didn’t concede any goals!

  50. Id much rather Cleverley then the over-rated Ben Arfa, only 2yrs ago every1 wanted Arfa and yet now no body wants him, Tom is a rare talent, we should open our arms and welcome him like we did Sol. We should accept any conditions in the agreement asked by Sir Alex cause the boy have’s a wonderful career ahead of him and we could get to see the start of it this season at St James Park.