Pardew dismisses Cabaye reports

11 July 2012 17:17

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has laughed off suggestions that Barcelona could prise Yohan Cabaye from his grasp for as little at £8million.

The 26-year-old midfielder proved one of the buys of last season after making a £4.8million switch from French double-winners Lille to Tyneside, and further enhanced his reputation on international duty at the Euro 2012 finals.

A report claimed the Catalan giants could be preparing an £8million bid for Cabaye, but with the Magpies ready to fend off all but "silly money" offers, Pardew has warned them not to bother. He said: "The interest is purely speculative. We have had no contact and certainly no offer, and obviously we wouldn't even consider an offer anywhere near that region."

Cabaye is the latest in a long line of Newcastle players to have been linked with summer moves away from the north-east after excelling in last season's surprise surge to fifth place in the Barclays Premier League.

Keeper Tim Krul, midfielder Cheick Tiote and striker Demba Ba, who has a release clause in his contact, have also been touted for possible exits. However, just as they did when they extracted £35million from Liverpool in return for Andy Carroll, the Magpies are adamant that they will not be doing business with anyone unless they received a huge offer.

Nevertheless, the possibility of losing key men is one with which Pardew has had to come to terms, although he is philosophical. He said: "I really don't think as the manager you can beat yourself up about it because we are what we are, we can't compete with those really big guns.

"If they come and they want to pay - and it's going to be very, very expensive for someone like him [Cabaye]. Trust me, he will be inflated - then we have to then go to plan B, which is to get a replacement.

"We like to think we are going to deal with stories like that about all our players. You could say [Papiss] Cisse, Ba, Cheick Tiote, Tim Krul, Cabaye, [Fabricio] Coloccini - we have got some great players here.

"The type of club we are, where we are not in the higher reaches of European football, we haven't got that finance and our players are going to be linked to other clubs. It's flattering to us and to Cabaye to be linked with Barcelona."

He added with a smile: "I probably leaked it myself."

Source: PA