Pardew laments tough Toon job

The 50-year-old has presided over yet another difficult period in the club's turbulent recent history which has seen striker Andy Carroll leave in a £35million swoop by Liverpool, 12-goal skipper Kevin Nolan head for relegated West Ham and Spaniard Enrique pack his bags and head for Anfield with a view to joining Carroll. At the same time, the Newcastle fans, as well as some high-profile members of the dressing room, have grown increasingly frustrated at the Magpies' own transfer activity, which has seen Yohan Cabaye, Demba Ba, Sylvain Marveaux, Mehdi Abeid and Gabriel Obertan arrive, but still not the big-name striker they had wanted. However, as he operates within the bounds of self-sufficiency imposed by owner Mike Ashley, Pardew is simply getting on with the tasks of recruiting the frontman he wants, finding a replacement for Enrique and attempting to discover Barton's plans. Pardew said: "It seems to me that this job comes with 'tough' somewhere in the middle of it. "Some of the problems I have inherited that have gone on before haven't made it easy, and I have picked up some history of what has gone on in contract negotiations et cetera. "It's very, very important that we try to build a new understanding of the club going forward together. "It's documented that the club needs to be sustainable from its own funds, and that put us in a category of clubs that probably we are not used to being in. "Maybe 10 years ago, we would be able to rival the Arsenals and Manchester Cities and Chelseas of this world in terms of transfers. "But that looks difficult at the moment until such times as we grow the club and show on the pitch that we can bring some success, then hopefully keep our better players and build on that. "Unfortunately, the business of this Premier League makes it difficult. These top clubs can come and grab our players and until such time as we are financially strong enough to hold off sovereign states, we are going to have a problem." Pardew's comments came after Enrique had headed to Merseyside to discuss personal terms and undergo a medical at Liverpool as one the summer's worst-kept secrets was finally revealed. Having had to admit defeat on his efforts to keep Carroll out of Kenny Dalglish's hands in January, the Newcastle boss had signalled his intention to tie up Enrique, Nolan and Barton in long-term deals. However, both the Spaniard and the former Bolton midfielder rejected the terms on offer while Barton was told there was no fresh deal on the table, and he has since made his feelings on the whole situation well known, at significant personal cost, via his Twitter account. Asked about the Enrique situation, Pardew said: "He was in the last year of his contract and he made it clear he didn't really have any motivation to re-sign here. "He's got the move he wanted and we have to move on, and we will." PSV Eindhoven's Erik Pieters is understood to be among a series of targets, although Pardew, who has also been linked with strikers Eren Derdiyok and Nicklas Bendtner, was refusing to name names. He will also make a late decision on Barton ahead of Saturday's opening day Premier League clash with Arsenal after seeking assurances over the player's commitment. Pardew said: "I have said to Joey that he won't play for me and I won't include him unless I think he is pulling for us. "I know if Joey turns round to me and says that is what he is going to do, then he will do that. He is in the process of weighing up what he feels he needs to do."