Joey Barton has followed Jose Enrique's line of refusing to talk about a new contract until the summer.
Pardew says midfielder is following Jose Enrique's line
Joey Barton has followed Jose Enrique's line of refusing to talk about a new contract until the summer.
Whilst reaffirming his delight that Cheik Tiote had signed a new long-term deal, manager Alan Pardew revealed that Barton was not yet ready to sign.
Barton has less than 18-months left on his current deal, but earlier this month stated that a new contact was all but agreed in principle and he was ready to sign.
But Pardew now says that Barton is waiting until the summer, following the same path as that of Spanish defender Jose.
Decent offer
"We have made a decent offer," Pardew said of Barton.
"But it's difficult negotiating with any senior player at this level and I think Joey's view is to perhaps see what happens in the summer.
"I don't want to speak for Joey, but that might be where he's at with it. I want to keep him, and I've made that clear to Mike [Ashley], but that process will probably run until the summer now."
Pardew feels that Tiote's new deal is a sign of Mike Ashley's willingness to spend money, following Andy Carroll's big-money move to Liverpool in January.
And he admits Ashley is no longer looking to sell the club, continuing: "There was a period when Mike perhaps wanted to sell the club.
"But he's out of the other side of that. He wants to build something here, but he wants to build it in a financial structure where it's not costing him £10-15m a year of his own money.
"He wants it to try and run itself and with the fanbase we've got, there's no reason why that can't happen if the finances are correctly managed. Between myself, Mike and Derek (Llambias) we're trying to do that, and in doing that we're trying to build the team."
"After the sale of Andy, I think everybody involved with Newcastle, in the dressing room and on the terraces, was a little bit concerned.
"But I think Mike Ashley wanted to answer that and I think he's done that in the best possible way.
"It is a massive statement of intent, and in terms of me and my staff, I think the signing of Cheik is very, very important. I think that's true for the fans as well because they have taken to him and he's a very important player for us. He's someone who would be very difficult to replace.
"He's done exceptionally well in his first year, and hopefully he's someone we can build a side around because he gives you some protection to play four midfield players.
"When you play against a team with five in midfield, you need energy and legs in there to be able to keep two strikers on the pitch and Cheik gives us that."
Sale
Pardew did admit that Newcastle could not guarantee that any other player may not be sold in the same manner as Carroll.
"I'm afraid no one's unsaleable," he said.
"That's the truth of it, but we hope we can guard against it (the sale of Tiote) with this statement. The difference between the two (Tiote and Carroll) is that Cheik wants to stay here. Although Andy said that, he went.
"You can always harp on about the negative of Andy leaving, but we have a surplus of cash to buy in the summer and if I was in the dressing room at the moment, I'd be thinking we already have a good side, as we've proved since Andy left.
"If we can improve on that with signings like Cheik and some new players, we could be a force next year. That's what we hope to be."
