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. (more…)
The next episode!Marseille president Jean-Claude Dassier has opened the door for talks between himself and Hatem Ben Arfa.
Ben Arfa walked out on Marseille a few days ago in the hope of forcing a move to Newcastle, but the Marseille president now wants to talk to the player to try and resolve the situation.
Quite what that means is anyones guess, but the way I see it those talks can go one of two ways. The player will either stand his ground and still want to move to Newcastle, which would appear to be the more likely course of action given what Ben Arfa and his agent have said previously, or Dassier could convince Ben Arfa to change his mind as stay at Stade Velodrome this season. (more…)
Ben Arfa on strike.Hatem Ben Arfa has vowed never to return to Marseille, and is prepared to not play football all season to try and force Marseille into letting him join Newcastle.
It’s another twist in the strory that has given us all a good laugh over the summer, and as more details become public, it would appear it isn’t our club who are messing about.
The agent of the player, and now Ben Arfa himself have both said that Marseille set out the terms for Newcastle to take the player on a loan-to-buy deal. Newcastle then met all of those terms, to the point where the Marseille chairman said at the back end of last week that a deal was nearly done, but then they decided to shift the goalposts and block the move from happening. (more…)
Money can be made by signing players!Now you probably thought when you saw the headline that this would be yet another Ben Arfa article, correct?
Well it is, sort of, but I am more using his name to lauch into another tangent of thought, although these same thoughts can be applied to any player of a certain ilk in fairness.
As a fan, when you look at a transfer, all that we generally tend to look for is how much it cost and how much the player is getting paid in wages. That doesn’t change the fact that they are still assets though. Sulky, moody assets in the case of Ben Arfa, but an asset all the same. In many cases, money can be made by signing a player who pleases a crowd.
Go to any football game and you will see replica shirts all over the place, Newcastle fans are notorious for it in fact. Some of them have names on the back of the shirt, but there are a lot that don’t, and much like an empty advertising board, it is a space that gives the club an avenue to claw back some money on a transfer. (more…)
Ben Arfa - Tooning in next week?Just a quick update on the Ben Arfa saga as it appears to have taken yet another twist, so never let it be said we don’t keep you up to date with things.
The latest piece of information comes from the Marseille president, Jean-Claude Dassier, who claims that Hatem Ben Arfa will be a Newcastle player sometime in the next week.
Now I have no idea what if there is any truth behind this or not, but apparently Dassier said in an interview to French television channel Canal+ this morning that Ben Arfa has rejected the offers to play at Hoffenheim or Benfica in favour of a move to England, and that he should be at Newcastle by Tuesday or Wednesday. There is no mention of whether the deal would be on a loan basis or on a permanent basis, and if you wish to check the original French language article out for yourself you can do so here, or you can just take my word for it of course. (more…)
