Quantcast
Blogs

Hatem Ben Arfa – do you want the good news or the bad news?

|
Image for Hatem Ben Arfa – do you want the good news or the bad news?

Hatem Ben Arfa has really come into his own at Newcastle United in recent weeks, scoring sensational goal after sensational goal and starting to significantly influence games from the right hand side of midfield. Today there a few football news stories that emerged surrounding Ben Arfa, one good, a couple not so good. So do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Well, let’s start with the good news surrounding Hatem Ben Arfa. The 25-year-old has been named in Laurent Blanc’s preliminary France squad for Euro 2012, where he joins Newcastle teammate Yohan Cabaye. Blanc has taken the strange step of naming his foreign-based players first and if Ben Arfa does make the final squad he’ll be looking to earn his ninth cap in France’s Euro 2012 opener against England.

This is what Blanc told Eurosport about the inclusion of Hatem: “We have monitored him and can count on him for the knockout stages of the Euro. Sadly after a dispute with Marseille, when I told him to be calm, he left for Newcastle where he suffered a terrible injury. I have watched him play again and watched him recuperating at Clairefontaine, he took some time to come back but his talent was always there and always will be, and he has shown more maturity this season.”

[ad_pod id=’unruly-video’ align=’right’]

So that’s the good news for Ben Arfa, but the bad news as far as Newcastle are concerned, is that he’s being linked with a move to Serie A. The Mirror is reporting that champions Juventus and Inter Milan are both interested in taking the Frenchman to Italy, which isn’t really a surprise given his form in the Premier League. You’d like to think that as Hatem has spent a lot of his time at Newcastle on the treatment table, that he owes Alan Pardew more time at the club for sticking by him and giving him a chance when many wouldn’t.

A personal blow for Ben Arfa is also that his advisor Simon Stainrod has had his licence suspended by the FA. He worked as a translator for Hatem when he joined Newcastle and is a close friend of Ben Arfa. He has greatly helped the Frenchman settle into the north-east and the former QPR striker may now be forced to cease work in England.

So, a couple of bits of bad news regarding Hatem Ben Arfa and one good one. It would be good to see him line up alongside Cabaye for France in Euro 2012, but if he does do well interest from Italy might just become even stronger.

***

Click on Shearer below to vote for your favourite Newcastle Volley EVER

Share this article

11 comments

  • kormee says:

    well here we go again blagh blagh blagh doom spew and again more bile stop printing negative stuff anyone in the world will want him we know that but i dont think he will be sold or want to go , now we geling as a team gonna be a great team , the foundations are in place now so lets just be positive yes

  • Ash-out says:

    According to the media we may as well just sell all our best players and start again from scratch next year.
    What is it with this journalistic desire to agitate for all our top performers to leave the club?
    Envy, mischief, fear of us breaking the ‘big boy’s’ cartel or what?
    Hope Ashley tells them all to get stuffed.

  • JP...from The Rock says:

    He plays on the Right of midfield not on the left and this is a really negative article. If he does well in the Euros the good for him and us. His value would increase but I doubt he wants to leave and also doubt that Newcastle would want to sell him.

  • Oslo Mag says:

    Clueless blogger, this Tom Jones is… doesn’t even know what position Ben Arfa plays in. Utterly pathetic attempt at journalism. Should be ashamed of himself.

  • DEREK M says:

    AS FAR AS THIS TOM JONES SPREADING RUMOURS – ITS NOT UNUSUAL

  • naturally like your website however you need to check the spelling on several of your posts. A number of them are rife with spelling issues and I in finding it very bothersome to tell the truth on the other hand I’ll certainly come back again.

Comments are closed.