Liverpool transfer news: Kop face fight with PSG for Newcastle and Hull reject Hatem Ben Arfa
The French midfielder once deemed too fat for Newcastle and too lazy for Hull is being tracked by Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain
Liverpool will face a fight with Paris Saint-Germain for Newcastle and Hull reject Hatem Ben Arfa.
After wrapping up their fourth consecutive Ligue 1 title with a 9-0 win over Troyes in mid-March, Laurent Blanc’s side can complete the domestic Treble in the coming weeks.
PSG want £50million Everton striker Romelu Lukaku, £70m Chelsea playmaker Eden Hazard and French Juventus star Paul Pogba to join them in the summer, as they try to win the Champions League and have the funds for all three.
But they also want to add 29-year-old Nice maverick Ben Arfa, who had his contract ripped up by the Toon in January 2015, with six months of it remaining, after he went AWOL during a season-long loan at Championship club Hull.
This season, the France international has started 29 Ligue 1 matches and scored a stunning 16 goals, helping his side up to fourth in the table and creating interest in him across Europe, once again.
That form has led to Liverpool defender Mamadou Sakho ranking the former Marseille and Lyon man ahead of superstars Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Sakho said: “I have faced Messi and I have faced Cristiano Ronaldo, but I have always said that the player who impressed me the most was Hatem Ben Arfa.
“What he does on the pitch, it’s exceptional.”
When Ben Arfa fell out with then-Newcastle boss Alan Pardew, who once fined winger £1,600 after deeming him overweight he was shipped out to Steve Bruce’s side in September 2014 but it proved to be another disaster.
When Bruce lost patience with the mercurial midfielder, he said: “What a dreadful waste of real talent.
“It’s criminal because the lad can play all right but I must question how much he is in love with the game.
“To be great you have to be a team player not an individual.
“Now Ben Arfa is back in France and he has to start all over again. Where does he go from here?”
The answer to that question could now be Paris and the Champions League.