Hatem Ben Arfa has cancelled his planned meet and greet session with Newcastle United fans at a city centre bookshop on Tuesday night after being warned it could be counterproductive to his hopes of first-team football at St James’s Park.

Excluded from Tuesday’s opening training session at the ground, and forced to train with the reserves all pre-season, the France playmaker threatened to deepen the freeze in his relationship with Alan Pardew, Newcastle’s manager, after organising his own independent event at bookshop The Back Page.

With the venue situated round the corner from the stadium, it was regarded as a provocative gesture by Pardew, who remains aware of Ben Arfa’s popularity with fans but still intends to sell the 27-year-old.

Despite Ben Arfa’s lavish talents, Newcastle’s manager feels he lacks fitness and defensive discipline but acknowledges he may struggle to offload a player with one year left on his contract and who would be happy to run it down.

With the former Marseille player too gifted to remain on the sidelines long term, both parties may need to compromise but the mooted unofficial meeting with fans would have made such a rapprochement all but impossible.