Let's be perfectly frank here, Ben Arfa is not wanted at Newcastle United, and no amount of shouting his name at away games, or accusing Alan Pardew of idiocy over his treatement is going to change that. Rightly or wrongly, the player is deemed a toxic influence at the club, with poor on-field impact not matching up to his undoubted, unquantifiable talent, and rumours that he is something of a diva around the training ground. Make no mistake, the Frenchman has not simply been relegated to play with the kids because he is carrying a little too much timber, and the manager's assertions that his professionalism leaves a lot to be desired is a hint of what he's really like behind closed doors. But the real question for Newcastle fans is how far a player of such monumental talent - and it has been established on the pitch as such - should be tolerated for the greater good of his side's on-field fortunes? Clearly, there is some disparity between how Pardew feels on that front, and how the fans who bray Ben Arfa's name in the stands do. And who can really blame those fans? In a culture that encourages fans to herald the man management skills of the best managers - from Ferguson to Rodgers and most notably for the Toon Army, Keegan - it is impossible not to see what has happened with Ben Arfa as a failure by the manager. And when you think back to his previous, with the likes of Carlos Tevez and Javier Mascherano at West Ham, and the accusations that follow him about causing his own unrest at other clubs, it gets harder and harder not to imagine that Pardew is solely to blame for the wayward development of a player who should be one of the best at the club. But that's not the entire story: Ben Arfa doesn't really fit what Newcastle have become under Pardew - nor, in wider terms, what the Premier League has become. Back in the days of Keegan and Robson, single mercurial wizards like Laurent Robert and David Ginola single-handedly picked apart teams, and shirked their responsibilities defensively. But that was fine, because of the end products they produced - now, winning is about terms like team dynamics and synchronicity, and only strikers and 'keepers are really celebrated as individuals. Everyone else is a cog in a machine; an element working together with others to produce a team performance and a team victory. In that context, it's no wonder Ben Arfa didn't fit this world: he is the epitome of a maverick, and the idea that he should listen to requests to help someone else play are as perverse to his nature as a player as fans who suggest that nobody would ever ask Messi to track back proclaim. it now looks like Ben Arfa's career is over at Newcastle: but what remains to be confirmed is how he goes down. As long as Pardew and Mike Ashley are at the club, Ben Arfa cannot flourish, because he is too much of a rogue element in a system built rigidly on structure and order. Newcastle will not over-reach themselves financially, and nor will the side be allowed to try such things on the pitch. That leads to occasionally perfunctory football - boring at worst - but it is perhaps built on a good idea: that the team is greater than any individual. It's being executed in a misguided way, and Ben Arfa appears to be a scapegoat of the manager's disgust at the idea of any one talent outweighing the achievements of the collective, but it's a good idea at the heart of things at least. So what is left for Ben Arfa? Should be take the route offered by Lyon? Or should he stay and fight - the martyred symbol of a battle that some fans won't accept was lost midway through last season? Well, for the sake of everyone - even those fans who will be most upset by his departure - he needs to go. He is no more than a Man In An Iron Mask at St. James' now: confined to the tower (or the kids' team) while the management vehemently denies he exists, and the calls for him to play from the stands are far from a positive thing. Why would players on the pitch try when they know they will ultimately only ever be classed as pretenders to Ben Arfa's throne? How much can they achieve in the imagined shadow of a player who wouldn't ever try as hard as they would? Because of the agenda they have in place, Newcastle need to get rid of Ben Arfa now: even if that means a free transfer, and for the sake of the player - and for his personal fans - he needs to ignore the calls for his heroic return (because it won't happen) and move on.
