Missing piece?Newcastle United’s Hatem Ben Arfa is keen to get started with Premier League football after his appearance against Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup on Tuesday. Alan Pardew won’t be rushing him back but could it be that the eventual return of Ben Arfa will signal a shift in the way the whole team plays?
Hatem Ben Arfa has played very few minutes of first team football for Newcastle since joining the club, yet an awful lot of expectation seems to surround the lad. It’s as if he’s the missing piece to some puzzle.
After playing against Nottingham Forest in the Carling Cup on Tuesday, Ben Arfa is now keen to get his first Premier League start of the season. Benny said:
“All the year I worked so hard to come back and I’m very happy to be on the pitch now. I’m very happy to see the supporters again and I thank them for all the encouragement last year. I feel very good. I have confidence and I feel I will do very good things now.
“I feel ready to play in every match now, in fact I’m dying to play.” (more…)
Building up expectationsAlan Pardew puts paid to the idea of bringing in any free agents to plug any gaps in the Newcastle United squad, and he looks forward to the return of Hatem Ben Arfa.
You are probably not surprised to find out that this is ‘it’ now in terms of the squad until January. Pardew has previously told us that the loan market isn’t the way the club wants to go to plug any gaps – such as the striker we missed out on in the transfer window – and he has today confirmed that we won’t be pursuing free agents either. Pardew said:
“I’ve no intention of bringing a free agent in. I’ll go with the group.
“I think you have to remember I’ve got Hatem Ben Arfa training now. His imagination and flair on that pitch would have been a big asset for us – hopefully, fingers crossed, in two weeks’ time he’ll be on that pitch for us.” (more…)
French flair or English doggedness?How important is an English spine to a Football Club?
The thought crossed my mind the other day, after pondering the comings and goings from this transfer window:
“Just how important is an English spine to NUFC?”
Many sports pundits have criticized Arsenal over the years for a weak English showing in their teams, and cite this reason for the failure over recent years. On the same sort of note how will our recent shift to cheap foreign imports play out in the long run?
I have to admit, last year looking at the group of Carroll, Barton, Nolan and Harper (to name a few) I always felt that we would stay up. The guys had been through the relegation, bonded in the Championship and knew what had to be done in order secure our Premier League status. But now with the French Revolution going on with the club, how much passion and desire do these guys have? (more…)
Camden Council: Scuppers No.9 hunt, for now.Right, so now as the dust settles on another tansfer window, where we made some great early progress with players such as Cabaye, Marveaux, Obertan, Abeid and Ba, and a couple of late window acquisitions in the shape of Elliot and Santon, we’re all set for the next big game in the stop/start beginning to this Premier League campaign.
The squads have been handed in to the FA and ‘set in stone’ until the January window creaks open for another round of harem scarem frittering of perfectly good cash on journeymen three-time losers and other teams ‘deadwood’. Can’t wait! (well, maybe I can as I can’t stand the way we have to do business these days).
Anyhoo, Yes, we could’ve done with a new striker to amply fill the legendary No.9 jersey here at Toon towers. But, it is what it is, so we have to just pick ourselves (jaws included) up off the floor, dust ourselves down and go with what we have now.
It’s a real pity actually, ‘cos i’d ’employed’ Mrs. FLiCK to ‘find’ us a new NO.9. A job she totally came up trumps with.
Alas, we couldn’t quite make the deadline in the registration of the ‘Great Black ‘n’ White hope’ in time for the squad lists. I put this down to the inefficiency of Camden Council and their collective inability to speed up the registry service down here in London Town. We were told that we had to form an orderly queue outside the Camden Town Hall and it could take as long as 6 weeks. I said:
Llambias: Understands fan's frustrations?Most of you will be aware by now that yesterday, Newcastle United’s Managing Director, Derek Llambias, issued a statement on the club’s performance in the latest transfer window. It read:
“Now that the transfer window has closed, we have had some time to reflect on the business we have conducted over the summer.
“Our aim was to secure young players who represented value for money and could add real strength to the squad. The majority of our transfer dealings were completed in the early part of the window and we feel we have signed some players of exceptional quality. Yohan Cabaye, Sylvain Marveaux, Mehdi Abeid, Demba Ba and Gabriel Obertan were all brought in early and we have seen these players settle quickly into the squad and perform well on the pitch.
“Earlier this week we were delighted to sign Davide Santon from Inter Milan to fill our left-back position after the departure of Jose Enrique. Davide is an excellent young prospect and we’re sure he’ll be another superb addition to the squad. We also welcomed young goalkeeper Rob Elliot from Charlton Athletic who will help us retain healthy competition for that position after loaning out Fraser Forster to Celtic.(more…)
