Pardew "pleased" with transfer budget.

Alan Pardew has already held discussions with the NUFC over transfer funds for the summer, and he claims that he is pleased with the outcome of the meetings.

It will be a few months yet before we know what exactly Pardew is pleased with, but for all of our sakes I hope that he is getting enough backing from the board when it comes to transfers.

Indeed there is no excuse for not investing in the summer. The squad clearly needs it, and with the money from the sale of Andy Carroll underpinned by a strong suspicion that the club is already breaking even you can see why fans are looking to see some sign of improvement over the summer.

Plans had been on hold until our Premier League safety is assured, but initial discussions have apparently already taken place over the signatures of Cheikh M'Bengue and Kevin Gameiro according to the Northern Echo so hopefully not everything has been ground to a halt whilst our survival hung in the balance.

The fact the we are seven points clear of the bottom three with only four games remaining has led to Pardew calling us safe, although some fans are keen to point out that until we are mathematically safe there is still cause to be concerned. Rightly or wrongly, I agree with Pardew and think we are safe now. Even with United's tendency to balls things up I think we'll be fine and we can all start to look, tentatively, towards a summer of squad rebuilding.

“I think that's us past the post now, and that obviously makes it a little bit easier in terms of looking towards the future and hardening up some of the plans,” Pardew the Nothern Echo. “To be fair though, that process has been ongoing for a little while now anyway."

“We've already covered a lot of the bases, but now we can step things up in certain areas. We've already started work on the training ground, and we have some undersoil heating going in that will make a huge difference to us. We might actually be able to train in December and January which will be useful."

“We're also actively pursuing players already because we don't want to be left behind in the summer. I've had a meeting about budgets and I think we all know where we stand. I'm obviously going to keep the details of those discussions private, but I'm pleased with the talks that have taken place.”

This summer will be the big test for the board and the manager. The majority of fans aren't stupid and know that there is money there to invest, even without Mike Ashley dipping into his £1 billion personal fortune. There is no relegation to contend with, no management upheaval and as yet no statement saying "no new plans for capital outlay" to piss on our chips.

We ran a poll here on NUFC Blog at the start of March where we asked how much you thought we would spend in the summer, with most people believing that around £15-£25 million will be spent in the summer. If you haven't already voted you can do so now, or you can just see the current results by clicking on 'view results';
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I don't think we'll spend the £35 million. In fact we've pretty much been told that we won't as part of that cash will be used for wages. I'm not really bothered either if I'm being honest, and I certianly won't be counting the pennies in or pennies out like some fans will be over the summer.

All that matters to me is that the squad is stronger than it is now. If the club, who to be honest haven't done too bad when picking up the odd bargain, can make the squad stronger by spending only 50p then I couldn't care less. Obviously that was an extreme example, but sometimes you have to get back to basics to get the point across ;)

If the club are getting their backsides into gear early then fair enough. They know what needs doing, and they've talked about it often enough now, so all they need to do is put those words into action and come up with the goods. We've been let down in that department before of course, but this time around, for some unknown reason, I'm cautiously optimistic about the summer.

Weird I know....