Pardew: No deal for N'Zogbia or Taylor, but we still have cash for a striker.

It looks as though any moves for Charles N'Zogbia and Neil Taylor are now dead in the water as Alan Pardew admitted defeat in the pursuit of the duo.

N'Zogbia has been linked with a move back to Tyneside for some time now although the admission from Pardew that the Frenchman has an imminent move lined up means that it's now almost certain that he will not be returning to St James' Park.

Meanwhile, as reported previously Neil Taylor looks like he'll stay at Swansea after the Welsh outfit offered him a new contract, and a rumoured £12,000-a-week pay rise to boot, and held face-to-face talks with the left-back. With Newcastle seemingly unwilling to raise their initial bid from what they believed was written into Taylor's contract it appears that particular deal is also dead.

Speaking of the pair Pardew said: “I am told that Charles has got an imminent move, so I don’t think that will be us. Neil Taylor, I think, will not come to the club. We got to a situation where we thought there was a price set in his contract and that hasn’t proven to be the case."

“Therefore it started to get a little bit higher than we anticipated in terms of a fee, so I think the boy will end up staying at Swansea.”

However Pardew is adamant that all is not lost as the club look to bring in another striker ahead of the new season. He claims that money is still there for a striker "of the right ilk" although quite how long it remains available for transfers before it gets earmarked for repainting the lines in the car park is anybodys guess. My advice would be for Pardew to move quickly before new lampshades need purchasing!

“I don’t really want to mention names, but all strikers who are available, we are keeping a close eye on. It’s important that we keep bolstering the team as best we can," said Pardew, who was happy to mention the name of Mevlüt Erdinç yesterday. He continued:

“We have obviously been looking for a striker – we are still bidding for a striker as we speak – so we are doing all we can to get the right players for Newcastle."

“It’s not easy, it’s not an easy market – strikers are always the most difficult to get across the line – but we are working hard on it.”

Pardew has previously talked of recruiting a further two players on top of our summer signings already acquired, although he does now admit that with a striker taking the priority it will depend on what cash is left after they manage to bring that elusive goalscorer through the door.

Asked whether there would be more than one signing Pardew said: “It depends, really, on the attacker that we hope to secure."

"There has been talk of the money we have got in and where has it been spent, etc, etc. But you would be surprised with the deals we have done, it actually amounts to a fair bit."

“We have got enough to bring a striker in of the right ilk for this football club, and that’s what we need to focus on. When we secure that player, then we will look again.”

So there you go. Details from Alan Pardew's very latest press conference. No N'Zogbia, no Neil Taylor, but definitely, maybe, a striker. Quite who that will be I'm not sure, but with Erdinç being the only name that we know is the subject of concrete interest from us you'd have to think that he is our new main target.

What do you make of this?