He said at the time he was "gutted" the bids for strikers didn't happen .. but today he said " I wasn’t as negative as others".
Alan Pardew: “I was confident in the defence. We went into the summer without losing any of our defenders so I was quite confident about our defenders.
“Obviously (losing) Enrique was a blow. We brought in Santon and I’ve been happy with him – he will definitely improve it.
"We have got a good player – a player who will improve – and we’ve got the bonus of Ryan Taylor (pictured right), of course. And he has been a bonus.
“I was always happy with that side of it. Midfield I was very happy with – we had Jonas, we had Cheick, I knew Cabaye was a very, very good player. Then we have Marveaux and Obertan.
“With the strikers from last year, they’d all done terrific for me and then I brought Demba Ba in here. And I knew I had Hatem coming back. So I wasn’t as negative as others – when you think about it, it was never that bad.”
Source: FOOTYMAD
