Friday, 27th August 2010
Newcastle United have moved to the front of the queue in the race for Hatem Ben Arfa and hope to close a deal imminently. The Marseille winger has been rumoured to be heading to Werder Bremen and Liverpool in recent days, but Newcastle appear to have won the race according to reports from France.
L’Equipe report that Ben Arfa will travel to London later today and, barring no last minute hitches, should finalise the remaining details of his move.
Newcastle will sign Ben Arfa on a season-long loan deal, but that will turn into a permanent transfer worth between €5-6M should the former Lyon youngster play 25 games or more for the Premier League side.
Marseille would have preferred Ben Arfa headed to Germany as Werder Bremen were prepared to pay €8M for the player, rather than loan him first. After splashing out on Andre-Pierre Gignac and Loic Remy, the Ligue 1 champions wanted to realise a fee for Ben Arfa.
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