News today in the local press that Newcastle will attempt to extend Hatem Ben Arfa’s contract before the end of this year, as the 26 year-old has become an important player for Newcastle, and hopefully his injuries problems at the club are now behind him.
Ben Arfa – new deal for the French wizard
Ben Arfa signed on at Newcastle in January of 2011, when he was still suffering from that terrible double fracture of his left leg (the important one), and it was a four and a half year deal he signed, so his current contract still has almost two years to run, but Newcastle are to renegotiate the deal to keep Ben Arfa on Tyneside.
Newcastle had hoped to open contracts talks in the summer, but presumably the chance didn’t arrive, for whatever reason, and we’re not sure who is now responsible for the contract talks – now that Derek LLambias is gone, and Joe Kinnear seems to be the top executive at Newcastle.
Ben Arfa is a match winner, and he showed that last time out against Fulham, when he was a constant threat down the right wing, and scored that fantastic goal with just three minutes of normal time to play to get a vital 3 points for Newcastle.
And that was even though manager Alan Pardew after the game admitted he was pulling his hair our at some of Ben Arfa’s decision making. 😀
It will be good to get Ben Arfa signed to a long term deal, and we hope he can play more games than he has played in the three seasons he has been on Tyneside.
Ben Arfa has appeared only 60 times, but has scored 12 great goals and the French International also has 14 assists, and certainly has been Newcastle’s best player so far this season.
What do you think?
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26 comments so far
Himanshu Dhingra
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:14 AM
Comment #1JFK will ask him to make some contribution too
yo-yo
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:18 AM
Comment #2REPOST – Sorry folks
Bills
An an apologist for Ashley you’re becoming an expert goalpost shifter too – every time he fails to meet your stated points for judgement you downshift or procrastinate.
Man buys football club and discovers he’s been sold a pup with sigtnificant debts. What can he do ? He can either take a major hit on his investment and see the value plummet as its worth maybe £100m less than he paid for it or he can reschedule the debt to keep up the club’s value and avoid taking a massive loss on his original purchase price.
Ashley has simply rescheduled the debt he didn’t discover by lack of due diligence. So he overpaid originally and is trying to reduce the debt as soon as – but only to keep up the value of the club. Sort of a footballing finance keepy-uppy. It is not the club’s debt. It is the liability of the person who owns the club.
And if we were successful ? Well the calculation made is that the increase in capital value would not be a meaningful return on the investment made and anyway he’s bored with this Toy Toon. It’s all risk avoidance and damage limitation.
And that is what happens when you buy a football club for all the wrong reasons – like you don’t really love the game and don’t have any attachment to the club. It’s just money.
toonarmydownsouth
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:20 AM
Comment #3Can anybody tell me if the interest free loan (which he will get back ) is really worth it?
I mean if he’d actually paid for advertising like normal sponsors do would we still be in that debt? Or surely it would be very heavily reduced by now?
Rotonda heights
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:24 AM
Comment #4That headline disappoints again !!
No mention of Pardew, JFK and Wonga being sacked
sparky55
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:26 AM
Comment #5re-signing the most injury prone and inconsistent player in our squad is the least of our problems at the minute
toonarmydownsouth
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:27 AM
Comment #6Apparently Notts Forest are after Gabby on loan, when does the fizzy pop loan window open? Why didn’t we just give him to them and get his wages of the bloody books and get Ince or Redmond in?
Transfer Sage
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:28 AM
Comment #7tads
I don’t know the figures for ground advertisement but from what i guess going off rough figures released i can’t see it being much money.
And i think even without that loan he would still have sports direct around the ground.
toonarmydownsouth
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:28 AM
Comment #8Sparky
That’s a big assumption he’ll re sign….I mean as DoF doesn’t that mean kinnear will be in charge of negotiations?
sparky55
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:30 AM
Comment #9@8… 🙂
sparky55
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:31 AM
Comment #10might just fail to get him over the line with JFK in charge of negotiations
Transfer Sage
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:31 AM
Comment #11Also why don’t people understand the purpose of the Ashley out campaign and it’s goals? It’s simple, to get Ashley to sell to another person.
It’s like selling a house, if you sit there and wait for a bid you might wait all your life….if you list it as for sale, advertise in an estate agent and have that estate agent actively push it for those looking to buy then you are more likely to get a sale.
The same is true of a car, business and even a football club. Fulham actively looked to be sold and it was within 1 year.
What the goal of the campaign is is to get Ashley/his representatives to actively seek a new owner and list it for sale in business sectors, not just sit on it and wait to see if anyone offers a fee for the club.
Now we can’t guarantee the new owner will be better or worse, but we can push for change. I accept it’s not for everyone but if you don’t want to see change either ignore the protests or start a campaign against them to say you like ashley as an owner.
JAMSHA
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:31 AM
Comment #12neva gona happn if jfk will deal with him
toonarmydownsouth
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:31 AM
Comment #13Sage
Really? Not sure about that, I mean he renamed the stadium for over a season and a half that must be worth the best part of £20 mil
I know the advertising would be up with or without the loan but if he was paying for the advertising like every other dual owner does at least it would be another form of revenue into the club which we apparently desperately need?
Jail for Ashley
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:33 AM
Comment #14tads,
A vast proportion of that loan could have been avoided if Mashley hadn’t have made his calamitous decisions and all the loan has done is to bolster the views of his dwindling supporters.
southafricantoon
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:36 AM
Comment #15The same thing happened with ANDY….. Signed a new contract …. 6 months later SOLD
daztoon
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:36 AM
Comment #16In Ashley terms it means some interest was shown in Benny last window,so lets put him on a longer contract to get top dollar return on any transfer
Nufc-83
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:39 AM
Comment #17Toonarmydownsouth – 20mill lol think that is just a tad too high. As an owner he can have what he wants around the ground and you will probably find the other companies paying so much who have ties with the owners purely to get around the financial fair play rules – injecting money into the club so they can spend more. Totally against what Ashley wants to do.
Lilongwe Geordie
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:39 AM
Comment #18Tads,
I’ve seen various articles estimating that we would earn around £8million if he paid for advertising. That is also very close to the figure that many have put the intersest at, £8-10million. In essence, we are allowing SD free advertising instead of interest so the club is no better off.
toonarmydownsouth
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:39 AM
Comment #19JFA
You mean like sacking keegan for selling players behind his back? Then getting sued by keegan and losing due to being a proven liar? Appointing Dennis Wise and p1ssing money away on players off you tube and Football manager? Appointing JFK and getting relegated?
That sort thing?
I think I’m in the wrong camp here……
ALL HAIL KING ASHLEY
Transfer Sage
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:41 AM
Comment #20tads
the sold shirt and stadium rights to wonga for 6mil a year
toonarmydownsouth
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:44 AM
Comment #21NUFC-83
How is £10 mil a season to much to rename a stadium?
As for being against what Ashley wants to do I’m assuming you mean invest
Well he wouldn’t be, because Sports Direct isn’t his personal piggy bank its a business in which he’s the majority shareholder so he wouldn’t be paying any of his own money
Coach
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:44 AM
Comment #22toonarmydownsouth@3
Mike Ashley owns NUFC – 100%.
I very much doubt that you pay yourself money to put things up in your house, I know I don’t. If he paid some theoretical amount it wouldn’t make any difference any more that you could make yourself richer if you paid yourself for the NUFC posters you put up in your bedroom.
OK, you may not have NUFC posters in your bedroom but I hope you get my point. You are imagining that moving paper money from one part of Ashley’s empire into NUFC would mean it would be spent there. It wouldn’t. Surely you’ve worked that out by now.
toonarmydownsouth
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:45 AM
Comment #23Sage
Thought I read wonga were paying £6 mil for the shirts and the stadium was a seperate charge
Jail for Ashley
Sep 10, 2013 at 9:45 AM
Comment #24tads,
Apart from that and a few other howlers, he hasn’t put a foot wrong.
geordiegav1987
Sep 10, 2013 at 12:46 PM
Comment #25I seem to remember benny boy saying he was happy to stay at newcastle as long as we show ambition, so dont see him wanting to extend his stay unless we sign some quality players and keep our best in january and cut out this mid-table target nonsense.
Charlietoon
Sep 12, 2013 at 6:29 AM
Comment #26Coach I think what he is referring to is that most clubs sell their advertising space meaning extra revenue for the club whereas Ashley has chosen to use the advertising for his own business There is no way of knowing the exact monetary impact of him advertising his company all over the stadium whereas if we sold that space we could clearly say ‘right we have 2 mill’ or something like that. That money could either go on players, wages or even to specifically pay back his loan. As it is we don’t see any of that cash accounted for.