Pardew admits to "difficulty" in keeping hold of Jose.

Alan Pardew has admitted that he could be facing a losing battle with regard to keeping hold of Jose Enrique in the summer.

The Spaniard is about to enter the last year of his current deal with Newcastle, and with speculation rife regarding a summer move to a whole host of clubs we could well be facing the distinct possibility of saying Adios to Jose at some point in the coming months.

Following on from the last article about Pardew and Ashley's transfer pow-wow, it would appear that talk of new contracts for current players was also on the agenda of said meeting. In a quote taken from the Northern Echo, Pardew had this to say about the whole Enrique situation.

“The Enrique situation is something we talked about. How possible is it going to be to get him over the line? It’s difficult because we’re finding it difficult to get him to come to the table. We’re safe, which was what his people said that they would wait for."

“It’s now the last game, and once we get the last game out of the way we’ll sit down and see where we are with it. We’re very hopeful he stays, but there’s no point keeping a player who has set his sights on a club he has perceived is bigger. You can’t keep a player that’s unmotivated.”

That doesn't sound overly promising to me. Why are the club having difficulty in getting Enrique to talk to them? Is a move already sorted? Was Phil Thompson right all along? God I hope not. Anywhere but Liverpool!

Once again time will tell, as it will with everything at the minute. It doesn't make it any less frustrating though and I would like to hope that this situation is resolved one way or the other at the soonest opportunity to allow us to either plan for life with Jose or plan for life without Jose.

In an ideal world Jose will stay. I'm pretty sure that is the outcome that we'd all like to see, but in reality it's a fact of life that players come and go. If Jose actually wants to go then there is very little to stop him. His heart wouldn't be in it and, as Pardew said, what would be the point in keeping an unmotivated player?

The last thing I want is for this to drag on and on and on. It seems that every summer we have a transfer saga at Newcastle, but now is not the time for that. This summer is important to the club as a whole, and whilst keeping one individual would b a bonus it wouldn't ruin the whole transfer window, if everything was concluded early enough.

So now it's over to Jose. If he wants to stay then fine, but if he really has had his head turned then he needs to make his decision.

Soon!