Ben Arfa boost for Newcastle

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has revealed Hatem Ben Arfa could return from injury before the end of the season.

After 12 weeks out, the Frenchman returned to action earlier this month in the first leg of United's Europa League last-16 tie with Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala, but lasted only 64 minutes after being forced off with a hamstring injury.

The former Marseille winger was then ruled out for the rest of the season, but having returned to France to work on his fitness, Pardew has revealed he may be back to action sooner than planned.

Speaking to the Newcastle Chronicle, Pardew said: "We're getting more optimistic he could be involved again before the end of the season."

Pardew has previously insisted he will not take any risks with Ben Arfa but it would be a major boost for Newcastle if he can return for the run-in as he is a player who the manager feels brings a different dimension to the team.

"He's a massive player at this level. He's our Suarez - he's that different player, someone who in a tight game can create something out of nothing," Pardew said last month.

"He's a fantastic player, tremendous technique and a great mentality to be one of the best players in the world.



"That's what he wants to be. That's his target and all I am trying to do is drive him towards that goal."

Cabaye reveals he battled depression

Newcastle United star Yohan Cabaye has revealed that he battled depression earlier this season after a gruelling debut campaign in English football.



The former Lille star joined Newcastle in the summer of 2011, and he had a sparkling year which ended with his appearance for France at Euro 2012.



But he admits that not having a winter break for the first time in his career took its toll on his body, which led to a bout of depression.



Cabaye, though, feels that the groin injury he suffered midway through this season in many ways helped him and he now feels he is getting back to his best.



"Depression? I am not afraid to say that. It was that," he explained to L'Equipe.

"I was reassured reading the books of Jonny Wilkinson and Rafael Nadal, who both talked about the same thing. They talked about post competition depression and the need to have a break."

Yohan Cabaye

"But I was reassured reading the books of Jonny Wilkinson and Rafael Nadal, who both talked about the same thing. They talked about post competition depression and the need to have a break.



"Euro 2012 was the first big international competition I had played. It is completely different than what you could experience in daily life with your club.



"My season was long in a league where the pace is higher than in Le Championnat. I started with Newcastle early in July 2011 and finished late in June 2012 and, for the very first time, I didn't have any winter break so then to resume in July 2012, it was very difficult. Maybe it is difficult to start again after a big competition such as the Euros, but my body didn't allow me to do what I wanted to do.



"On a morning when I woke up, I could still feel tiredness. I wanted to think about something else rather than football.



"I am lucky to earn a living with my passion, but it was the right moment for a break. So my groin injury at the end of the year was finally not such a bad thing. Maybe that is why I was back earlier than expected.



"I asked myself a lot of questions. As long as you didn't experience it [depression] you cannot understand. But I was not worried.



"My injury allowed me to have some rest, meet my family and friends in Lille. When I was back in Newcastle in December I knew I felt better, but I never complained to anyone but my entourage."

Back to his best

Cabaye insists that he feels so much better following the surgery on his groin and he is now loving football again.



He added: "When I underwent surgery, I never asked myself if I would find my best level. My only desire was to cure my adductors, not feel any more pain and to be back perfectly fit in 2013.



"Physically I feel perfectly fine now and I am keen to fight for the club. I want to give twice as much to save the club from the drop. I want to prove to the fans that they can trust me and I can defend the Newcastle colours.



"Now that episode is over, I have much more fun going to daily training sessions. I realise how lucky I am. I felt that enthusiasm could leave and that is most dangerous."

Owen accuses Newcastle

Michael Owen has accused Newcastle of lying and insists he was never offered a new contract when his time at St James' Park came to an end in the summer of 2009.

The former England international, who announced on Monday he will hang up his boots at the end of the season, joined Newcastle in a £16million deal from Real Madrid in August 2005.

His four years in the north east were badly hampered by injury, but he still produced a healthy return of 26 Premier League goals from his 71 appearances.

The former Liverpool striker joined Manchester United as a free agent after his deal expired when the Magpies were relegated to the Championship, but many supporters still bear a grudge following his exit.

Owen, now with Stoke after three seasons at Old Trafford, has moved to set the record straight and took to Twitter to explain his version of events.

Owen wrote: "Newcastle fans, plenty of you tweeting me saying you don't blame me for getting injured but for leaving when we got relegated.

"Despite the club saying they did, they didn't ever offer me a new contract despite them putting it in the press that they did.

"How could they when they had just been relegated? It would have been financial suicide.

"I've seen it a million times, a club will blatantly lie to their fans to take the moral high ground leaving the player with no leg to stand on.



"I've taken the stick for years which is fine but you really don't know half of it. All will be revealed one day."

Pardew blasts horror tackle

Alan Pardew struggled to contain his anger at Callum McManaman's "awful" tackle on Massadio Haidara in Newcastle's 2-1 defeat at Wigan.

Latics forward McManaman, on his first Premier League start, caused outrage with a reckless knee-high challenge on Haidara, who was reported to be in too much pain to have the injury assessed after the game.

The Newcastle boss later revealed that referee Mark Halsey, who did not even book McManaman, had apologised at half-time for missing the challenge.

Pardew's annoyance was compounded in the final minute when Arouna Kone slotted in the winner after a goalmouth scramble, with the Newcastle players all appealing for handball on Maynor Figueroa.

"It is an awful challenge. The pictures speak for themselves," said Pardew. "I thought it was a bad challenge and I was 60 yards from the incident.

"The players knew because they were on top of it and there was a lot of bad feeling about that incident when it goes unpunished. He (Halsey) said 'If I've missed it I apologise' - that was at half-time.

"My job was to calm the players at half-time, not go looking for retribution, and try to win the second half - which to all intents and purposes we did.

"But again there's a decision at the end where we should have had a corner, it goes up the other end and there's a handball - that is tough to take."

When asked about the extent of Haidara's injury, Pardew added: "The doctor assessed him quickly before he was scuttled away to be assessed later.

"It looks like knee ligaments and bad bruising and that's the best we can hope for."

The Newcastle boss also has concerns over full-back Mathieu Debuchy who limped off with a hamstring injury and was replaced by Haidara.



"We will send him to France (for this week's international duty) for them to assess him but we think he will be on his way back," he said. "We don't think it is a particularly bad tear - a strain hopefully."

Tuesday's round up of the top transfer stories

- Newcastle have completed the signing of central defender Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa from Montpellier on a five-and-a-half-year contract.



- Moussa Sissoko will be left out of Toulouse's matchday squad on Wednesday night - and he could be on his way to Newcastle United.



- Newcastle are expected to complete the signing of Bordeaux striker Yoan Gouffran on Wednesday.



- Nancy's French defender Massadio Haidara is closing in on a move to Newcastle



- Ashley Cole is keen to taste further success with Chelsea after confirming he has signed a one-year contract extension with the Premier League club.



- Chelsea target Radamel Falcao has angrily denied he is cosying up with Real Madrid ahead of a possible summer move.



- According to The Times, Alex Ferguson is looking at the possibility of proposing a goalie swap with Fútbol Club Barcelona. After the announcement that Victor Valdés is leaving Barça, the Scottish manager is contemplating the possibility of exchanging him for David De Gea.



- Manchester United expect to wrap up the signing of Wilfried Zaha by the morning, although they may defer the finer details of the transfer until the summer.



- Arsenal target Adam Szalai has cooled speculation linking him with a move this month by saying he expects to stay at Mainz.



- Fulham target Maarten Stekelenburg is likely to stay at Roma as the

Serie A side have received no bids for him.



- Celtic manager Neil Lennon has confirmed his club have rejected a second bid from Norwich City for striker Gary Hooper.



- Tottenham are weighing up a shock move for wantaway Celtic star Gary Hooper.



- Everton and West Ham target Danijel Pranjic has moved on loan to Celta Vigo for the rest of the season.



- West Ham are poised to make a move for Middlesbrough defender George Friend.



- Swansea boss Michael Laudrup says striker Danny Graham is no nearer to leaving the club as Norwich and Sunderland battle for his services.



- Swansea defender Alan Tate has returned from his loan spell at Leeds United a week early.



- Sunderland face a battle to sign Mauro Zarate after his agent revealed the player is happy to stay and fight for his place at Lazio.



- Liverpool are pressing on with attempts to sign Philippe Coutinho despite the midfielder declaring he would be happy to stay at Inter Milan.



- Liverpool are keen on Australian A-League star Marco Rojas - but his club Melbourne Victory believe he will stay for now.



- Edin Dzeko's agent has played down talk linking the striker with a move to Inter Milan and insisted he will not be leaving Manchester City this month or during the summer.



- Barcelona captain Carles Puyol has signed his contract extension at the club, extending his stay until 2016.



- There are three official moves to report, as Siena have signed Innocent Emeghara and Salvador Agra, while Genoa loaned Giammario Piscitella to Modena.



- Galatasaray have signed Inter Milan playmaker Wesley Sneijder on a three-year deal.



- Deportivo La Coruna are ready to battle QPR for the signature of out-of-favour Porto defender Rolando.



- Lyon president Jean-Michel Aulas has told Tuttomercatoweb that Yoann Gourcuff is unlikely to be on the move this month as he continues to be linked with a move to Arsenal.



- Ajax are due to open contract talks with rising star Viktor Fischer amid renewed interest from Manchester United and Barcelona.



- Birmingham are set to re-sign left-back Paul Robinson on a new contract when his current deal expires this weekend.



- Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Chris Lines is set to join MK Dons on loan.



- Barnsley have offered a trial to striker Mathieu Manset and are hopeful that he will soon reach full fitness.



- Blackburn Rovers defender Jack O'Connell is set to join York City on loan.



- Joe Lennox has departed Plymouth after the League Two club opted not to offer the midfielder fresh terms.



- MK Dons have completed the loan signing of Sheffield Wednesday midfielder Chris Lines for the remainder of the season.



- Ryan Nelsen is to start work as the coach of Toronto FC on 1 February and will play his last game for QPR next week.

Chelsea complete Ba signing

Chelsea have completed the signing of striker Demba Ba from Newcastle United.



Ba has put pen to paper on a three-and-a-half year deal at Stamford Bridge, after the Blues triggered the £7 million release clause in his Magpies contract.



The deal was completed just in time for the Senegal international to be available to manager Rafa Benitez for the FA Cup tie against Southampton this weekend.



"It feels good to be here, I'm very happy and very proud," Ba said. "When the club who won the Champions League wants you, the decision is very easy.



"This club is massive and that's something that helped the decision a lot. It was not a hard one."



Ba is also available for the club's Capital One Cup semi-final against Swansea, but cannot play in the Europa League due to Newcastle's own participation in the competition.



He will wear the No. 29 shirt for Chelsea.



"It was important for me, and for Newcastle, to get my future sorted and now we can move on," Ba added. "Now they have the whole month to buy someone and for me as well, the sooner the better.



"Now I am here I just need to get settled in."



Ba was Newcastle's top scorer for the first half of the season, scoring 13 Premier League goals - including a hat-trick in what turned out to be his final game for the club, the 7-3 defeat to Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium.



He previously gained Premier League experience with West Ham.