Hatem Ben Arfa Not Completely at Fault for PSG Snub

For the fourth consecutive game, Unai Emery announced that Hatem Ben Arfa would not be a part of Paris Saint-Germain’s 18-man squad, ahead of the side’s trip to face Toulouse FC on Friday night.

It initially came as a shock when the 29-year-old was omitted from the team to play Arsenal in the Champions League, and the French press went into overdrive, failing to believe that it was just for “sporting reasons,” as the Spanish coach had hinted.

PSG confirm NO Hatem Ben Arfa again vs. Toulouse. Thomas Meunier & Marco Verratti also OUT. Serge Aurier & Layvin Kurzawa back IN. #TFCPSG

— Jonathan Johnson (@Jon_LeGossip) September 22, 2016

“We have players who are ready and I have picked the best for tomorrow’s match,” the 44-year-old coach emphasised before the following game against Dijon. “I believe in looking at things match after match. I have picked the players to form and prepared what I feel to be the best team to play the game.”

Thus began another ominous chapter of the Ben Arfa story. Again, not a positive one. However, there is some defence to be made on the player’s behalf, and regardless of how this plays out, the situation can’t all be laid out at the player’s feet.

Yes, Ben Arfa will take some blame, but PSG has to shoulder some of it, too. This was a problem that most could envision from the moment he signed this summer.

In an incredible 2015/16 season with OGC Nice, the French forward scored 17 goals and picked up six assists and recaptured the imagination of the Ligue 1 fans.

Reportedly, before signing on a free transfer for PSG, he was linked with a move to Emery’s old club Sevilla, per ESPN FC’s Mark Rodden, and Southampton, per L’Equipe (h/t the Metro’s Coral Barry), where Claude Puel joined after leaving Nice.

PSG outcast Ben Arfa told he’s ‘No Messi’, set for Saints move?https://t.co/7LWfaQhV4v@psg_inside #Saints #Ligue1 #EPL pic.twitter.com/0lHGO3rAXg

— Edo Dalmonte (@EdoDalmonte) September 22, 2016

Yet the troubled forward choose to join the club of the city where he grew up. Born in Clamart, five miles outside the centre of Paris, the youngster would then impress for AC Boulogne-Billancourt, a lower-league side that play in the same arrondissement where you will find the Parc des Princes.

He was then picked up by Olympique Lyonnais to become a star of their youth system. The rest has been well-documented, but it demonstrates why he would have been keen to make his return to the French capital regardless of who was in …

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