Hey, I see you guys are getting linked to him quite a bit. Just thought I'd tell you a bit about him - He's basically a lot like Hulk. He has a great left foot, great dribbler, he's creative, scores goals, has a great turn of pace. He's not as good as Hulk, but has a better attitude. He works hard for the team and is mature. He's obviously gonna try and do things by himself at times, but I'd say it's vital to allow him some freedom. His injury spells weren't really down to him being injury prone. They were extended unnecessarily by Pardew playing him in matches when he was only half fit. Ashley would probably try to push you up to 30m for him, and I'm pretty sure you'd probably not pay that for him. Feel free to disagree with this last point - If it weren't for our injuries this season, we'd probably be no more than a few points below you right now, and Ben Arfa would most likely only leave for a great offer to a top club. Not saying you're not a good club, but he'd want something like PSG or Chelsea.
With the injury problems he has had and the fact that he sometimes just goes missing in games then I'd like us to look elsewhere.
Nice one I did have my concerns about his injuries as you pointed out, this could be down to poor management. I would like to have him as I think he's a very good player but I think he will come at a significant cost and I don't think it would represent value for money. If we get a good deal for him, then definitely. But I'd like to think that we'd learnt our lesson after Carroll.
Sorry think I'd pass on this one - there's better options out there for us. If there's a keyword to describe the type of player we need to sign then it is consistent. Ben Arfa has not proved that so far.
Not for me, I think he is very over rated. I don't think you will get anyhere near £30mil for him, he wants out and wont sign a new deal so you will be lucky to get half of that and hopefully it won't be us that is buying him unless its a swap deal including Carroll.
Quality player when fit but what's the point in having a talented player that's hardly ever available? I wouldn't want us to sign him for £10m, never mind the £30m you mentioned
Do have to say the same could have been said for Ba and Rvp. Then again for those who can actually bounce back you get your Joe Cole, Kewell, type who never come back from it. ****ing Kewell.
maybe for £10-£15 mill might be worth a look, even that figure is too high for my liking, but £30 mill, we could get Eriksen etc for that sort of figure.
And I did say the same thing for them both too! Despite RvP having a fantastic season, I still don't think it was money well spent considering his age (unless they manage another treble) but his injury record appears to be much better
It is also very fair to say the guy has a right foot that even oscar petorias is not envious of... I kid you not he's that bloody bad off that foot. .................................................................................... oh and newkie... it is ok to say you'd only be a few points off us as you really are not that far off us now!!! you are 9 points behind us and we are 10 off 4th... you bascially over achieved grossly last year and now have a team of frenchmen who you expect to get you safe... best of luck cos the prem NEEDS big teams like newcastle to improve it but don't think you are anything near 4th-6th place just cos you were unlucky with injuries. we're ****e and we know it!!! just you need to realise that being a few points off lfc is not an achievement
This is all over the Sports pges today: http://www1.skysports.com/football/...looking-for-Hatem-Ben-Arfa-to-improve-fitness Stylistically Ben Arfa is a good fit for us but are his fitness issues to big a problem? Brenden Rodgers manages players fitness differently, changing players training times instead of dropping them for matches or subbing them off differently. This has helped Agger, Gerrard and Johnson massively and probably the youngsters to. But could this help Ben Arfa?
he could do JK but for £30 mill no thanks. £10 -£15 mill tops, but as Newcastle wont accept that, doesn't matter anyway. too much of a risk for a 25 yr old, by the time we got him to full fitness or what we hope from him he would be pushing 30 probably and wont be as useful to us anyway.
Newcastle wouldn't be that foolish, if we involve Carroll in the deal, they'd still want at least £10m
Hatem Ben Arfa is a good player but unless he is coming to the end of his contract and you can get him for less than £10m why bother?
. If we did go for a straight swap between them two then I'd be more than happy, unfortunately they won't fool for it
