Hatem Ben Arfa..... can we keep him?

If he keeps up current form, I reckon he'll go. I say, enjoy him while he's here!

 

Put up with? The only reason Hes been Hit and miss Was the fact it Games years after a leg break to get back if ever. Would they put up with shola.

 

I do not think Ben Arfa would leave as the relationship he has with the fans is truly special.

 

He's already worth 6!

Can't see any reason to leave ATM and if we can get him signed up to a new contract he will be worth a pretty penny if he does leave.

 

Sadly, this is true. We will never be able to enjoy what we have without the fat parasite Ashley hovering over us like a vulture.

 

What ?

 

I think we have a better chance of keeping Ben Arfa than any other of our big hitters as for all of Pardew's praise for Cabaye he knows deep down that he is replaceable. I mean we already can replace him by playing Tiote deep and Anita further forward.

Pardew knows that Ben Arfa adds an extra 30% to us. He knows he can't be replaced like a Cabaye or Carroll etc. I don't want people to misinterpret this next statement but the only players that can do what Ben Arfa can do with a ball are players like Messi, Ronaldo, Bale, Neymar and one or two more in world football, the difference is they do it in 95% of the games they play and Ben Arfa does it in about 50%. It's the only reason we were able to sign him in the first instance.

He's without doubt the single most talented and exciting player I've seen where a toon shirt and we couldn't get anywhere near a like for like replacement on our budget. Pardew knows this, Ashely knows this and it's so obvious that I reckon Joe might know it too.

Get the lad tied down to a big fat contract, continue to build our team around him, sing his name at every game and I reckon he could/would stay.

 

I don't think that's necessarily a stick to beat the owner with. Ronaldo or Bale to Real Madrid, Van Persie to Man U, Fabregas to Barcelona - even the biggest clubs lose players. What we should hope is that he keeps this form up so that his price become insane - I would imagine our urgency of a new deal is purely to insert a ridiculous get out clause, which is no bad thing.

Players come and go all the time. We've put on a pedestal the likes of Andy Cole, Sir Les, Daveeed among many others, all of whom barely gave us a couple of years. World Cup year works for us for two reasons - players need stability, which Deschamps highlighted for us (merci beaucoup, Didier), and it's a significantly reduced transfer window. As we're still only likely to need a handful of players to keep it fresh (including swapsies), we may have a good side for a few years yet. And when/if Benny does go, then I'm sure we'll bring in a Ben Yedder to replace.

 

HBA has to stay, Iv'e got

BEN ARFA
....10

on my new top.

 

Me too. He will stay, he loves the fans. You can tell he enjoys playing for us by his body language. It is also clear that when he scores he scores for NUFC and not Ben Arfa.

Some of the stuff he does with the ball is incredible. He has beefed out too. When I say beefed I mean he clearly looks stronger.

I just hope that we can keep the form and continue to play attractive football. The balance just feels right.

 

I think we all feel the same way.

 

He'e 26 yo and has less than 2 years left on his current contract, so his next one, whether for us or whoever, needs to be the right one for him at this time in his career.

In a recent interview he indicated how he still hoped one day to be awarded the Ballon d'Or. To get that award he will need to be at a club that is playing at highest level - Champions League.

If he's ambitious, which he seems to be, I can't see him being with us beyond next summer, as he will want to go to a more ambitious club. With 12 months left on his contract by then, the club will sell him whilst they can still receive a decent fee.

I hope I'm wrong, and he signs a new contract, but being realistic, HBA is a professional and will do what's best for himself and if that means leaving, he will go and the club will not be able to stop him.

 

Double his wages pronto. He`s the only real attacking threat we seem to have.

 

We know for a fact that if the price is right, Ashley will happily sell any of our players.

Thing is though, I've noticed that Mike is getting a taste for being extra-greedy when it comes to transfer fees.

Refusing £10m for Cabaye really surprised me - I thought that on doubling the fee paid for the Frenchman, Mike would bite Arsenal's hand off. But no, he wanted £18m!

If someone bids £25m for Ben Arfa, then he's gone.

 

We have had this conversation many times and any move is always scuppered by injuries or inconsistent form. If those two things don't happen I think they'd be all sniffing and he'd go. Just enjoy him while he is here.

 

I think he really wants to stay and I think almost all of us want him to.

 

Have to say one thing, it does annoy me how Pardew advertises that we're "vulnerable" to losing our best players in a lot of his interviews. I just think if he came out and said they're not for sale it firstly may put people off bidding for our players and secondly increase their price further.

This isn't a massive dig at Pardew, more of a pet hate. It's just you didn't see Paul Lambert saying Villa were vulnerable to losing Benteke, he said he's not for sale and gave him a new contract (which probably does include a release clause but for a huge, huge fee). You don't see Steve Clarke talking about losing Ben Foster, or Everton inviting bids for Fellaini (they got an extra 4m by saying they didn't want to sell him instead of flaunting it publicly). Or Norwich with Ruddy. I could go on by I guess you get my point by now.

I mean if we're not going to strengthen in the summer windows, we could at least send out a strong message to our own squad by publicly saying nobody is for sale. It's pretty apparent that if Arsenal had bid 25m for Cabaye on deadline day he wouldn't have been replaced (not that I'd be complaining about the fee because it would have been good money). At the monent the message we send out to our own palyers is that we'll sell for good money and will only buy someone at the very bottom of their estimated value.

Hardly the way to build positivity amongst the players let alone the fans.

Next time Pardew is quizzed about the possible departure of a Ben Arfa, Cabaye, Krul etc he should just come out and say "they are not for sale, we're trying to build a team around these kind of players". Problem solved. It's the fact that he doesn't say this that results in the same questions being put to him at every interview.

Now I know people will say every players has his price, look at Ronaldo, Van Persie, Bale and they are correct. But what did Ferguson, Wenger and AVB all say in the build up to their sale, they simply said "the player isn't available". As a result each player ended up staying a further season before being sold. I just don't like the fact the we advertise that our players are available for silly money, I don't see any positive reason for doing this.

 

Come and get them.

 

He may want to stay but, ultimately, when a club meets the price that's on Ashley's whiteboard next to his name then he'll be off.

That's the cold and hard truth of the matter. Every player at StP has his price, that price is written up on the wall and that, quite simply, is that.

 

It's a really valid point. I think you'd do well to get this point raised at the next liaison meeting. Even if behind the scenes we all know the score, it doesn't hurt to once in a while put out some positivity. It's not like Spurs fans are lambasting AVB for 'lying' about Bale. Nor do any of us hold Pardew accountable when he claimed Carroll "would not be sold". In fact, that kind of underlines your point - the money we got for Carroll was beyond ludicrous. If Pardew had said back then that "every player is available", we'd probably have got at least £10m less.