No need to sell and money to spend, says Pardew

Pardew has money to spend Rumours have been a big part of the summer so far. In fact I'm struggling to recall a summer quite like it in terms of players linked with moves to us.

Naturally these rumours have been interspersed with players being linked with moves away from us, but for those fearing that particular scenario then Alan Pardew's words in the Sunday Mirror should be of interest to you.

The silver-haired supremo has revealed that United have the cash to bring in as many as three more players this summer, and perhaps most tellingly, also revealed that the he can do so without the need to sell one of our bigger players to fund the recruitment process over the next six weeks or so.

“I know we can sign two or three ­players and keep all those we have. I know we can do that. I think we will be stronger," Pardew told the Sunday Mirror.

“And if we do lose a ­marquee player to a ­really inflated price – an Andy Carroll price – then we have got to trust our ­judgement and go into the market place and bring in an equivalent, and I think Mike is quite comfortable with that."

“The big job this ­summer is keeping players, as well as signing them. I think that is the key. We still have a window wide open and everyone is analysing and looking at what they did over the last year and at what other teams did. A lot of people will look at us, so I’m not out of the woods on that for sure."

“I don’t fear a big offer coming in, I expect it. I expect a bid for one of our marquee players. Whether it’s enough money to take the player away, we will have to wait and see, but it would have to be a lot of money.”

“I would be very ­surprised if the spirit and ­camaraderie we built up last season was broken up, unless we lost four or five players – and I cannot see that in a million years.”

What about the aims for next season though? The other day he suggested that the fans would be happy with an eighth placed finish, but is the real aim for this season? Improvement it seems is the order of the day.

“We ­finished fifth, but that was last season. It is important that the message gets through to the players here that, while it is a good finish, it isn’t winning the league," said Pardew.

“There are still four places to aim at above us and, if you want to be a winner, then you have to be better than you were last season.”

So nobody out, two or three in, plus an assault on the Premier League title? That wouldn't be too shabby would it. I'd quite like us to conquer Europe whist we're at it, and maybe win a domestic cup competition. Is that too much to ask?

In all seriousness though these are pretty positive words. Yes one of our big players could still go and no doubt people will say that Pardew is "whoring" our players out again, but look at the facts. It's going to take big money to do so and the kind of clubs that can offer that will more than likely prick the interest of the player in question as they will be clubs who are competing in the Champions League. It's happened at bigger and more successful clubs than ours so we can't be surprised can we?

Right, now back to waiting for something concrete to happen...