Alan Pardew is confident he will win the battle to keep captain -Fabricio Coloccini at Newcastle with a series of meetings involving the manager, player and board lined up this week.
It will be a busy week for Pardew, who is frustrated by his lack of striking options. With Papiss Cisse playing in a lone striker role here and looking isolated, Pardew was left to rue the fact that a deal to sign a forward has not been done yet.
Pardew is close to securing the transfer of Loic Remy from Marseille, although he faces competition from Tottenham. Signing central defenders will become a priority though, if Coloccini goes. The Argentine has told the club he wants to leave due to his wife's poor health. Although Pardew publicly claimed the situation can be resolved this week, the practicalities will cause complications.
Coloccini's father has insisted the player wants to return to Argentina but the 30-year-old centre-back has more than three years remaining on his contract with Newcastle, who do not want to loan him out. Severance or compensation could become an issue.
"We have got a meeting and we are going to try and resolve it," Pardew said. Asked if he was confident of a resolution, the Newcastle manager replied: "Of course. He is a class player. Great players can play through most crises. We have had a crisis in terms of our results. It's players of his calibre - and Tim Krul and Yohan Cabaye - who are going to get us up the league."
Cabaye has claimed that Coloccini's situation has not been a distraction, while the defender himself did not look like an unsettled man during this game. The Frenchman said: "Coloccini is a Newcastle player so for us nothing has changed. Nobody was thinking about that situation on the pitch."
The midfielder did, however, admit that Newcastle are suffering from a slump in self-belief. "Maybe we started to lose confidence after we lost a couple of games," Cabaye said. "After each loss, it became more and more difficult to get out of the run."
New strikers are required to rectify that, as Pardew admitted. "Papiss needs help and, unfortunately, I couldn't give him that," the manager said. "I haven't got another striker who I think is at the level that there should be at this football club."
Norwich manager Chris Hughton is also looking at strengthening, but only at the right price. "At this time of year, you are going to be quoted prices that are perhaps above players' actual values," Hughton said.
