Pardew wants to add flair at Newcastle.

Now that we are officially safe we can start to really look at who will be brought in over the summer.

The 2-1 win over Birmingham yesterday was enough to see us mathematically assured of a place in the Premier League and banish any lingering worries of relegation. I've felt that we've been safe for a while now, although I do understand why people were still concerned about relegation, even though it had got to a stage where mathematical miracles were needed to take us down. This is NUFC though, and if there is a hard way to be found then you can usually bet on Newcastle finding it.

Not this time though! Instead Newcastle are looking up at the possibility of a top ten finish in their first season back in the big league. That would be quite some achievement to be fair, and we'd have got there without a host of household names. In fact this season has been built on hard work and graft, but next season Alan Pardew is looking to add a different dimension to Newcastle.

"I have got the owner investing at the training ground and I have got him investing in players and talking to agents and players, and I want to keep him there, so it was important to get a win," said Pardew after the match."

He continued: "Now we need those three or four players. Newcastle are renowned for getting them [the fans] off their seats, and we know that's probably what is missing and is going to take us beyond where we are at the moment."

"That's the type of player we are looking at and hopefully we can bring one or two of those in to add to what we have got."

I'll go for a bit of flair, although no doubt we'll have to wait and see just who these players are before we get too excited. I'll be happy with that though as I think we have lacked that final pass or bit of skill to really unlock defences.

No doubt people will focus on the "hopefully we can bring one or two of those", but I'm hoping he was talking about flair players only and not our total transfer intake of players. I think enough caveats have been dropped by Pardew to suggest that we can expect more that one or two players in so I reckon he was solely on about flair players. I bloody well hope so anyway!

Time will tell on that of course, but we are nearly at the stage where we need to see all of these words put into action. This summer is probably the biggest test of ambition Mike Ashley has had, and if he can pass it he can go some way to clawing back some credit in the eyes of the fans.

Over to you Pardew, Ashley and that buffon Llambias!