Ben Arfa pledges his future to NUFC

Love HBA.

The only thing that will see him leave is a stupid Liverpool bid of over £25m.


http://www.shieldsgazette.com/sport...rns-sunderland-he-s-ready-for-derby-1-5578523

HATEM Ben Arfa pledged his future to Newcastle United after the club’s agonising Europa League defeat to Benfica.

Alan Pardew’s side were held to a 1-1 draw by the Portuguese side on a dramatic evening at St James’s Park last night.

Papiss Demba Cisse’s 71st-minute strike left Newcastle needing only one goal to reach the semi-finals.

But after a series of late chances went begging, Eduardo Salvio finally ended United’s hopes with a stoppage-time goal which condemned the club to a 4-2 aggregate defeat.

Ben Arfa – who has been out for a month with a hamstring problem – was electric after coming off the bench, with his cameo putting himself firmly in the frame for Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby at St James’s Park.

The 26-year-old declared himself ready to face Sunderland after the game – and shrugged off speculation linking him with a summer move to Liverpool.

“I want to stay here,” Ben Arfa told the Gazette. “I’m focused on Newcastle – 100 per cent Newcastle – and I hope to stay here.”

What’s more, Ben Arfa’s determined to again represent the club in Europe.

“We’ve had a good Europa League tournament,” he said. “It’s very important Newcastle to come back to Europe and play at a high level.

“Everything is here. It’s a great club. We have a great squad, big ground and great fans – everybody in football knows that. It is all set up for a great future.

“We have a great team, and I’d love to play for this team in Europe again.

“We won’t next season, but after that we can maybe go again and do like last year (when United finish fifth in the Premier League).”

Ben Arfa felt the team gave everything against Benfica, who are on a 36-game unbeaten run at home and abroad.

Reflecting on the game, Ben Arfa added: “We were disappointed, but we were also a little bit proud because we gave a good game.

“We can be disappointed. In the first game (at the Estadio da Luz) we had a lot of chances. We hit the post twice through Papiss, and we had two goals disallowed in the second leg.

“Maybe we could have had a penalty which wasn’t given. There were a lot of chances.”

Ben Arfa’s made just two starts for Newcastle since hurting his hamstring against Maritimo in November, and he’s desperate to stay fit for the club’s Premier League run-in, with the club’s top-flight status still to be secured.

Asked about the Sunderland game, he said: “Yes. I’m ready to play some part.

“We know it will be a great game for everybody. It’s a great game for us, the crowd, the press – all of us. It’s going to be a great game.

“I’m very happy to be back on the pitch at St James’s Park. I always like to play here, and I’m back.

“I played well against Sunderland last season, so hopefully there is more of that.

“Everybody in the city will talk about the Sunderland game.They won’t be talking about Benfica, they’ll be talking about Sunderland.

“They think it’s more important We know that and we will give all we can.”

 

He's a fantastic player, but he's just not quite got the record with injuries to be attractive enough to get a 20m+ bid for him.

He wins us a lot of points and is our best player, and we'll usually get a good 15-20 games out of him.

If he was playing 30+ games a season, we'd get 20m no problem for him. Fortunately he's just not quite TOO good for us.

 

He looked good from his first touch last night, there's no substitute for class.

 

Be nice to think but it may not always be his choice. Class player. Even though he looked a bit portly last night and not fully tuned up he still had his moments. I think if he had stayed injury free and Ashley wasn't such a hard bargainer, we might have problems keeping him this summer. As it stands I can't see anyone paying the fee we'd want for a guy who struggles to play many games.

 

Even with his injuries I'd say he's too good for you, he's a champions league player, no doubt.

 

Guess that means we coud be losing him to you then.

 

haha i wish

 

We're a CL team

 

I love the fact that we seem to have a core of players who have genuinely bought into the club and love playing for Newcastle. In this day and age you can't ask for a lot more than that. Good to know too that we have a chairman who wont let them go for peanuts like we have seen all too often in the past.

 

Cool av Tash, much better than the other one.

 

It's always good to read that a player is happy here and complimentary about the club, fans & stadium...

...we all know by now though, that the minute two clubs broker a deal, he will be gone - I could see some truth in the Carroll/Ben Arfa swap deal with Liverpool.

I realise that Ben Arfa is by far our most directly creative player, but I would accept the deal as I believe Andy Carroll would be absolutely perfect for the way Pardew likes to play his football.

Besides, if Cisse got injured long-term, who would fill in? Shola?

No, we need another striker and Carroll fits the bill perfectly - obviously I would rather the club just forked-out £20m cash for AC without losing HBA, but I would be willing to let the injury-prone Frenchman leave to see the big-man return.

 

Ben Arfa pledges his future to NUFC

Really don't see why he wouldn't to be honest, and whilst we are on the subject, l really would hope that Benni's sentiments were echoed by all our current first choice players.
With patience and hard work we have the nucleus of a very good team indeed, who on their day are capable of competing with anybody.
If the desire is there from the players and from the Board, then success and silverware is achievable by staying put and committing to the club.
That seems to be what Benni is implying and l for one hope he is sincere.

 

I think HBA appreciated the sympathy and good wishes we gave him after the De Jong horror tackle at Maine road, and is trying to pay us back by his loyalty.

Us for him, and him for us.

I was at Maine Road for the game and I'd bet a pound to a penny that De Jong meant business with that tackle, he even wrapped his trailing leg around HBA to make sure he didn't go anywhere.
________________________________________________________

A little something from a newspaper at the time.

The unintended irony in Manchester City assistant manager Brian Kidd's appraisal of his midfielder's character – "Everybody knows Nigel de Jong" – might have been amusing had not the prodigiously talented young victim of the Dutchman's first challenge been preparing for the long haul to recovery from a broken leg last night.

The game was only four minutes old when Hatem Ben Arfa was scythed to the ground by De Jong's following leg and effectively caught in a pincer. It was as premature a departure from yesterday's game as from the Premier League for the Frenchman, who moved heaven and earth to escape Marseilles and join Newcastle.

"It was a challenge that did not need to be made," Chris Hughton said last night, which was ballistic stuff by his standards. This was different from the Newcastle manager saying the Dutchman had fouled his player, but the words summed up many of the challenges which too often put De Jong on the wrong side of the line of reasonable conduct. Just 12 minutes after the Ben Arfa challenge, he launched off again into a tackle on Ben Arfa's replacement, Wayne Routledge.

The tackling of De Jong Рwho was known as Rassenmaher ("lawnmower") in his Ajax days Рis something of a running joke at City's Carrington training ground. David Silva first arrived this summer to find someone had posted up an image of De Jong's notorious challenge on his compatriot Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final. Perhaps it is because the timing of his tackles is relatively good that they do not look as horrific as, say, Wolves' Karl Henry's on Wigan's Jordi Gomez on Saturday or Stoke's Andy Wilkinson's on Fulham's Moussa Demb̩l̩, which have intensified the debate on players' safety this season.

 

Get Benny to sign a new contract with a 40mil release clause while he's in a good mood!...

 

are YOU the danger tash?