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Tyne Talk

What Ben Arfa Really Said In That Interview About NUFC, Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool…

11 years ago
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Earlier today we brought you the headline news following an interview that Hatem Ben Arfa did with ‘BeinSport’ in France and warned you to watch out for the following headlines/’quotes’;

“I am interested by Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, Today, these clubs are over Newcastle”.

We asked you to give us time and once our French expert Pierre had dug his car out of the Tyneside snow, he delved into the murky world of French interviews with Newcastle players and the translations that came out of them.

The ‘quote’ came from a half hour live interview Hatem Ben Arfa gave on ‘BeinSport’. The only thing he was really guilty of was possibly naivety as after speaking for all of thirty minutes on live TV a ‘quote’ has been used which he didn’t actually say, or rather the meaning attributed to it is not at all honest.

The whole interview saw Hatem speaking glowingly about Newcastle United and English football in general, which would not have impressed the French hosts or the other watching media.

With such a long interview it has to be taken as a whole and what came over loud and clear was that he loved it at Newcastle and the only thing he was desperate for…was for NUFC to show ambition and bring in other quality players, he is desperate to be successful at Newcastle!

As for ‘Arsenal. Chelsea, Liverpool’ these were names thrown at him totally out of the blue in the middle of the interview and while he answered ‘yes’ to the ambushing question, quite clearly he wasn’t saying yes he was desperate to sign for any of them over Newcastle.

Here are the basic words and once again thanks to Pierre;

We have read the article in the Parisien, followed various social medias and blogs and it has been announced your desire to join PSG.

HBA We need to put things into context; I was asked questions such as ‘is PSG a club that is part of your dreams’ I said yes of course, when I was small I was a fan of PSG and it is a club I would have liked to play for but today I am at another club Newcastle which is in a difficult position. We hope that we can do the maximum and remain in the league and finish the season well. After that I don’t know… that if there was a proposition from PSG of course I would consider it but today it is not the case.

Does that mean that at the end of the season you intend to leave England, Newcastle, to progress and go to a bigger club, it a great club but not a club at the top of the league?

HBA At the end of the season we will have a discussion with the owner and the coach, if they show they have ambition then why not stay but if they have no ambition then I prefer to leave and play for titles and have a greater challenge, but if they have ambition why not stay?

What do you mean by that, you mean in terms of recruitment things like that?

HBA Exactly.

All the French who are arriving at the moment, is this good news, does that show they are ambitious?

HBA At the moment they are ambitious, they should have done it sooner, it was talked about. But what they have done so far is a good approach but there are many areas on the pitch where we need reinforcement.

We are in  the middle of the transfer window, we spoke earlier that if there was a proposition from PSG you would consider it, what about if I mention a few clubs to you and you tell me if yes.

Chelsea?

HBA  yes

Arsenal?

HBA yes

Liverpool

HBA yes

These clubs are above Newcastle and do you feel they could make you progress in order to regain your place in the French team?

HBA Yes, today they are above that’s true but if we have good recruitment we can rejoin them.

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