Hectic schedule forces Pardew to prioritise

The Magpies take on Sir Alex Ferguson's team at Old Trafford on September 26, but with Premier League and European campaigns to think about, Pardew admits some competitions will be prioritised over others. That does not mean Newcastle won't take the competition seriously, but over the past 12 months Pardew has been paying particular attention to his youth prospects. Many of those will get a chance to impress at Old Trafford, but Pardew insists the team he will field will be capable of upsetting the Red Devils. 

We are working on the younger group who are very important this year, said Pardew. We have the Man United game where we are going to field some youngsters and the European game where there will again be young squad players. We have to prioritise somewhere down the line and the Premier League comes first, then the Europa League/FA Cup and then there is the League Cup. We have to be careful because we have been bunged into a busy period of six or seven games in quick succession.

We still want to win all our games and I will put out a side I think can win and it will be great to come up against Sir Alex. We've had a few nice tussles in the past.

While he has been working on improving the foundations at the club, Pardew was also relieved to see the transfer window close without any major departures. Several of his first-team player were subject of interest from other clubs and the Magpies boss admits the fact the club retained them was even more important than bringing in new faces.

He said: You could argue that it (the transfer window) was probably better than we might have imagined so to secure them again is great. You have to look at six-month segments in this football world now. It goes from window to window and so from now until January we are stable again and hopefully we can fend off our rivals or the bigger clubs in the next window so that we get the next period. I am looking forward to working with them on the training ground. It is important for the development of the club seeing that the big players are still here and the younger players can learn off them all the time.