Mick

You're missing the fact that we sign players on contracts and pay for them up front, the only difference with this is that we would only have to pay next year and that would only come into play if we stay up. If we do stay up then we will be much healthier financially as we'll have been paid 12 months worth of Premiership payments and everything which comes with that. Who else does or doesn't want Ben Arfa shouldn't come in to his valuation, it's irrelevant.

You're making something out of nothing, we tie our hands with every signing we make, this would be no different other than not having to pay up front for him.

How is the buyout clause lose-lose? The signing is basically a buy now pay later transfer if it goes through on the terms required by Marseille and is no more a lose-lose than signing anybody else on a normal contract.

My biggest worry for Sunday is that we'll not be able to keep hold of the ball and it will keep coming back at us for 90 minutes, Perch is the least of my worries.

I edited my post to say the same, I think Hughton will have to drop him at some stage.

That's where I would use him. I didn't see your edit, I wouldn't play Nolan at all and think if we are to stay in the Premiership then Hughton will have to drop him.

I'm not sure I'd call him a midfielder, at least not a typical one. Ben Arfa reminds me as much of Bellamy as any of our more recent players. He's got loads of pace and can dribble past players with the ball in the way that Dyer could when he was up for it.

I've seen him play full games and think he's the type of player our team is crying out for.

I think most would just be delighted to sign Ben Arfa regardless of contract details. The details of the contract are only being talked about because they are preventing us from signing him.

That's not the point though is it. They are wanting us (allegedly) to commit to buying him at the end of season if we stay in the Premiership. So if he has a crap season, or is an arsehole, we would still have to fork out £5m or whatever to buy him if that clause exists. That doesn't sound like good business sense to me. The clause is no different to buying a Barton or a Nolan to name two, except that we wouldn't pay for him until next year.

The money has gone to reduce our operating loss.

Irrelevant.

Regardless of how much we've spent in the past, only an ignorant or arrogant fool would go into this season with our current squad. It looks like we've got a few fools at the club.

The club was floated and we then spent the cash over time, that still doesn't mean that we can't spend a little now to help us remain in this division.

Ben Arfa's dad is having his say now without mentioning us, this is via Google Translate. http://www.le10sport.com/Football/Ligue1/Bernes-au-centre-de-la-polemique-DeschampsBen-Arfa-190838868.html Bernès the center of the controversy Deschamps / Hatem Ben Arfa Ben Arfa will not revisit its decision to leave Marseille and it is not the offers he receives from abroad who are the reason. From the beginning, his relationship with Didier Deschamps was tense as his father said. This is probably the case this summer. Thursday, August 12, Hatem Ben Arfa left the training center Robert Louis Dreyfus Having discussed the last time with Didier Deschamps on his future at the club. Since then, no news of the former Lyon but not his desire to move abroad, which was behind his desire to leave but the personality of its coach. In an interview with Goal Marseille, the father of Hatem Ben Arfa looks at the reasons that prompted his son to leave Marseille. He said: "Hatem no longer wants to work with Deschamps is as simple as that," nothing to do with the club as explained Kamel Ben Arfa: "Everything has just arrived in Marseille Deschamps, who wanted impose his agent, Jean-Pierre Bernès to my son. He refused because he works with his lawyer, Jean-Jacques Bertrand. Relationships have always been cold between the two men because of this first spat. The father of Ben Arfa said that he "never cites his name, he said the coach" to talk about Didier Deschamps. One must ask if the man of the transfer window in France is not Jean-Pierre Bernès.

It's just as imperative that Nolan isn't one of the two.

You should contact his lawyer to see what's going on.

I said what?

He would look better if his head was in the middle of his body.

Wait until you see ours, then we'll talk lightweight.

I can also understand OM's position, my only problem is that we're being told an agreement had been reached.

We got less than £2 million for Vianna, I don't know if we got a loan fee on top of that.

It's a pity we hadn't done the same when we signed some of the shite we've got now.

I'm not sure it beats the photograph on here when Enrique signed.