Pardew targets busy close-season

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew is braced for a busy close-season as he rebuilds in the wake of Yohan Cabaye’s exit.

The France international midfielder joined Paris Saint-Germain earlier this week following a three-year spell at St James’ Park.

Lyon’s Clement Grenier has been mooted as a potential replacement for Cabaye and has held talks with Newcastle, but his agent has revealed that the 23-year-old looks set to remain at the Ligue 1 club.

Regardless of whether a deal for Grenier can be resurrected, Pardew knows he will be active in the next transfer window before the 2014-15 campaign.

“I already think I’ve built two teams here,” he told the Northern Echo.

“There was the one with Demba (Ba) and Papiss (Cisse), and you would argue that at the back end of last season and this year, I built another team with (Yohan) Cabaye, (Loic) Remy, (Yoan) Gouffran and (Moussa) Sissoko.

“Now, I’m going to have to build another one in the summer.

“The summer is going to be very important to us because of the players we have with two years left on their contract, and the situation we have within the group. We’ve got a very young team. It turns over quickly at Newcastle and you need to have a clear mind where you are going with it.

“Not even my ego would have envisaged building three teams.

“I assumed I would build one, but I’ve always had a vision of how I want to play and we’ve worked towards that.

“But if we don’t replace Cabaye, we might have to change our style of play a little bit because of the personnel I have.”