Time for Jose to decide his future.

It's be said in the local press today that Alan Pardew is seeking an answer from Jose Enrique regarding his future at the club.

Good!

At the risk of sounding a bit harsh I think it's best for all parties concerned if they know where they stand. If Jose wants to go then fine, tell the club so they can plan ahead. If Jose wants to stay, fine, just say so and I'm sure it will get sorted. Basically I just can't be doing with this game of cat and mouse that is seemingly being played in front of our eyes.

I'm sure we'd all like Jose to stay. He is a class act and is probably the best left-back I can remember Newcastle having in my time. He very rarely gets beaten for pace, is strong and links up well with his team-mates. Yes he switches off at times, but overall we'd better off with him in the team than we would be without him in the team.

On the other hand, if the player wants out there is very little that can be done. Sure you can try and talk him round and convince him to stay, but it's hardly a cast iron guarantee that he'll stop on. You could also question the wisdom of keeping hold of a player who really had to have his arm twisted to stay in the first place. Sure he is a professional footballer and will just get on with it, but that is the problem for me. Plenty of people hate their job and 'just get on with it', but it means that you rarely end up giving your all.

Either way the time has come for Jose to choose whether he wants to stay or wants to go. The gossip was that he would talk to the club after mathematical safety was assured, so now that is done it's time for both parties to sit down and decide what they are going to do.

Hopefully that means that the club will avoid an Andy Carroll situation again whereby we saw a player leave with very little time to recruit one in his place. The ideal scenario is for Jose to stay of course, but at least time around it looks as though the club are going to make sure they have time to get someone in should Jose decide to pack his bags and say Adios to the Toon Army.

Maybe the club have learnt from January?