Inter Milan are weighing up testing the resolve of Newcastle United for Hatem Ben Arfa. The France international has been in dazzling form in the second-half of the season and played his way back into coach Laurent Blancâs European Championship plans. Inter, where former Middlesbrough striker Marco Branca is in charge of transfers, have been keeping tabs on Ben Arfa and now are actively discussing a summer move for the midfielder. Ben Arfa has found his feet since the turn of the season, scoring quality goals and helping to effectively link midfield and attack. Inter Milanâs interest in the French international may be all the more tempting for the former Marseille man if the San Siro side secure a Champions League spot for next term, but thatâs a big ask as they sit in sixth spot and will need Udinese to lose and Napoli and Lazio to fail to win their last games of the season. Meanwhile, Real Madrid scouts have been watching Papiss Demba Cisse with a view to making a move for the Newcastle United this summer. In many ways this could be considered a âgoodâ problem to have. Alan Pardew has seen his side perform phenomenally this term and as a result his top performers are being linked with moves to many of Europeâs âeliteâ and itâs a situation that many clubâs would be happy to see. Newcastle United are still hopeful of landing a top four finish that no one at St Jamesâ Park, fans or staff, could have predicted after the Magpies lost a host of their first team over the previous year. Pardew lost the likes of Andy Carroll, Kevin Nolan, Jose Enrique and Joey Barton and had to work on a fairly strict transfer budget but he has come up trumps. Papiss Cisse has been in astounding form, scoring with almost every effort on goal and itâs no surprise that clubâs would be interested in the Senegal international. Indeed Arsenal are strongly linked with his strike partner Demba Ba, who may be a little harder to keep at the North-East club given his reported transfer release clause. And Cisse, who cost just £9m, says he is desperate to win Europe's premier tournament - and although he admires Madrid, he is happy at Newcastle for now. "My goal, long term, is to play in the top teams and win the Africa Cup of Nations," Cisse told L'Equipe. "Also, I'd like to win the Champions League. Since I was little, I have liked Real Madrid but today I am in Newcastle. Even if it's not Manchester United or Manchester City, it's still a great club." Cisse has stolen the limelight from Demba Ba, who was the season's success story before his strike partner arrived from the Bundesliga. Ba has 16 goals this season but none in his last 13 matches - but Cisse says he can rediscover his goalscoring touch."Is he (Ba) mad at me for having stolen the show? No, no - not at all," Cisse added. "He is a great striker. He has already scored 16 goals this season. "The team is here today thanks to him. It is a bad patch, but he will find the net I am sure."
Topper if true... If they were to lose this kind of player, maybe we'd have a chance of finishing ahead of them.... But i bet that friggin Carr, would go out and unearth another few gems.....
I think Ashley has shown that he will let players go if the price is right. They could quite easily lose any of Krul, collocini, tiote, Ben arfa, cabaye, Cisse, Ba (they really do have a good team) They may well find few gems to replace them but that streak of "luck" will eventually run out. Its not a sustainable plan to progress a club. by luck i mean theres always bit of fortune good and bad when bringing players in.
Its the double edged sword MM, success brings admirer's knocking on the door, I expect Sess and Maclean to be on some lists and until we can keep the best players up here we will never take that next step.
This is it Syd. If we take our Mackem gogs off, we can look at them, and say 'Yep, it can be done by clubs around our size'. Then you see the team potentially torn apart, and the jobs ****ed. Cisse's quote 'Ok, i'm not at Manchester United or Manchester City, but it's still a great club', says it all sadly.
It's hard to say but "if they do keep them, they could be on the verge on something decent"... In fact they are where we wish to be, or where we want to aim for... How is their scouting team so much better than ours at present?
**** knows Comm, and it's really frustrating. Admittedly, I get a lot of free time to watch footy, but I knew all about Santon, Cisse, Ben Arfa, why didn't our club? I was aware Cabaye, French footballer of the year, was available for less than Gardner. Many more people like me see these players coming through and developing, yet SAFC seem to go after supposedly safe options, that rarely pay off. If we're honest, from the last 2 years business (which we at the time thought was solid), only Sessegnon & Mignolet have really gone above and beyond. Seb, O'Shea & Vaughan have been 'decent' That is a ****e record. Cabaye 500k less than Gardner? Tiote less than half of Catts? Cisse £4million less than Gyan? What the ****.
Not a lot i can add Mush... We have Sess, Mig, and now the new rising star McClean (hopefully) In the same time span they have un-earthed?????????**** there's to many, it's ****ing scary.... Come on MoN get yer scouts out.....
You can look at it 2 ways Syd, I prefer to think 'the managers changed, so have some of the staff, we've seen them find gems abroad, we'll be looking'. The link with Abdellouae is a good start, we have scouts looking at Germany, some great talent. We heard that MON himself was in France, awash with young talent. Let's hope this summer, we take a risk abroad, and find a couple of diamonds.
Bruce and his scouting system mate. Lets keep the faith with uncle Marty and see what business he does in the next 2-3 transfer windows
Fortunately Comm those vital words are in there "l'equipe". Supposedly quite well respected in France but if I had a penny for every bullshit story they've printed about our French/African players over the years, I'd be a seriously rich man! To be honest there will be plenty looking, but not many willing to pay Mike's crazy prices.
I never got any of this from L'Equipe mate, as you are right, it's horse ****! The Cisse part was taken from a Spanish website and converted (get me!), the Ben Arfa part from Talkshite, so that's clearly bollocks.
Cisse wont go anywhere this transfer window am pretty sure of that mate and the only 1 I can see leaving is Tiote, purely basing it on a couple things that llambias has come and said already.
I called you Comm too! Twas a heavy weekend to be fair. It just says in the piece "Cisse told L'Equipe" in the bit you've converted (show off). Its going to be a crazy summe rof speculation for both clubs. You guys will get your fair share of silly stories being O'Neills first real window. He'll be wanting to stamp his mark on you lads, and the papers will be trying to mislead you how he is going to do it! To be fair I think you have to expect to lose someone from our ranks given the clubs policy and also the attention our season has drawn. Just nature of the beast unfortunately.
I'd say Tiote & Ba will go, but that's it. Good player that Tiote is, holding players are easily replaced. Pouch, I only wish Real and Inter were being linked with our players, I'm sure they wanna swap McCartney for Marcelo. Inter can have Ji for Millito.
Pretty much sums up the likely scenario. Some seem to think we can lose Tiote and just replace him. I think they may be in for a shock. I do think his departure looks likely based on DL's comments. Maybe there stance will soften with European qualification but I think the money being talked about (20m plus) will be too tempting given he cost 3.5m.
Not being funny mate, but Tiote is not anywhere near a £20million player, that's absolutely absurd. Yann M'Vila, probably the highest rated young CDM in the world, is likely to go for £17million. Lass Diarra would cost around £10million. Cambiasso similar. £12million plus, and you've done great business.
Why would HBA move to Inter when we'll be in the Champions League and they won't? Seriously though, Cisse can't leave because of UEFA rules, if we had to lose one player I hope it's Ba, and we use the money to bring in a full back, centre mid and left winger, which is all we need IMO to complete our team.
