Source: northern_echo
Pardew pondering a late defensive transfer
Pardew pondering a late defensive transfer
12:46pm Friday 31st August 2012 in Newcastle United News
By Paul Fraser, Chief Football Writer
FIRST STRIKE: Goalscorer Haris Vuckic celebrates his goal at St James' Park last night
NEWCASTLE UNITED secured a place in today's draw for the group stage of the Europa League last night and manager Alan Pardew then revealed his hopes that the victory over Atromitos will strengthen
claims to add to his squad.
After watching the Magpies edge through 2-1 on aggregate against the Greeks, Pardew revealed progress in the competition came at the cost of a potentially serious injury to Ryan Taylor .
Taylor, the versatile scorer in the first leg, jarred his knee in the first half at St James' Park and will undergo scans this morning, amid fears he has damaged ligaments.
The concerns are enough for Pardew to ask owner Mike Ashley to consider investing in the squad before tonight's 11pm transfer deadline, with a new defender highest in his thinking. Andy Carroll won't be returning to Tyneside after moving to West Ham on loan.
Twente's Douglas and Lille's Mathieu Debuchy are long-standing targets, although it remains to be seen whether there is enough time to push through deals for either of those based abroad.
Pardew, aware of previous interest in some of his most valued players this summer, is also confident there would be no late movers through the exit doors.
He said: You have to pay a lot of respect to Mike, we've had a couple of phone calls during the window and we could have cashed in on a couple of our players but he didn't and I thank him for that
and our fans should thank him too.?
Pardew, who feels the knock James Perch took will not be serious, then added: I fear the news will not be good on Ryan's injury which is a shame, he is an important player for us. This is the
problem with all of these games, you lose players to injury and suspension.
The Taylor injury will see us think about maybe needing another defender. We are running, potentially, 16 games to get to the final of this, plus a Capital One Cup campaign, an FA Cup programme
and then the leaguesee.?
One player not arriving on Tyneside is Carroll. After months of privately maintaining he would only leave Liverpool on loan if it was to Newcastle, Carroll completed a season-long switch to West
Ham United.
The Hammers are believed to be paying the England striker more than what he is earning at Anfield and there is an option of making the deal a permanent arrangement next summer.
Pardew said: For us Andy Carroll was a political move.
That was perhaps not going to fall our way. Liverpool gave us £35m for him and I wish him all the best.?
Newcastle were last night handed a third round tie at Manchester United in the Capital One Cup and are looking forward to hearing who they will face in the group stage of the Europa League.
The draw will take place in Monaco today and Pardew is hoping Newcastle are paired with the likes of Inter Milan or Lyon at the early stage to liven the group stage up.
Pardew, whose focus is now on Aston Villa on Sunday in the Premier League, said: I am happy to be in the draw. Even the players that didn't play will have gained experience and we know the levels
will get tougher.
We step in to the unknown with some of our players.
I would love a big European club now, it would be a great reward for all of those fans who come week in and week out.
It was a funny performance to see us through.
For 40 minutes we could not have played better with the team we had.
We raced away trying to get a second goal and are very pleased we got through. We wanted to give our fans a taste of this competition, we had to qualify.
We are all absolutely delighted.?
? Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers has suggested record signing Carroll could still have a future at Anfield.
Rodgers said: ??I believe it has been difficult for him in his period here. He hasn't played anywhere near as regularly as he wanted to and he wanted this to be a season where he was going to be
playing regularly.
??Obviously I couldn't guarantee that and obviously getting later into the window it still wasn't the case.
He wants to play and unfortunately for us we are not really in the position to have a £35million player not playing regularly.''
