You can see how bad our system is by how many of our youth and reserve players have completely dropped out of league football after being released by us, the northern league seems to be the norm for most of them.
I could be wrong but I just think Pardew would keep him away from public friendlies and use the behind closed doors ones to play him in. Pardew knows keeping Ben Arfa out of the first team is an unpopular decision and playing him in local friendlies will just get him more stick off the press and supporters.
There was an ex Jamaican international on come dine with me last week who said he basically got a few games for them when he was playing in the conference by his uncle giving the manager a phonecall.