Pardew wins award, admits star players could be sold

LONDON – Newcastle United’s Alan Pardew was named Premier League manager of the season on Friday to cap an impressive campaign in which he turned his unfancied side into contenders for Champions League qualification.Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany was named player of the season. However, Pardew admits he may be unable to keep his best players if the Magpies receive big-money offers.United could qualify for next season’s Champions League if they beat Everton in their final Premier League game on Sunday.Pardew told BBC Newcastle: “It’s impossible to restrict Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Manchester City from coming in for one of our players.“We have players who are not on the salaries these top clubs can offer.”Yohan Cabaye, signed from Lille for a fee reported to be £4.3m last summer, is just one of the players to have flourished after coming in to replace the likes of Andy Carroll, Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan, who left Newcastle in the previous year.Striker Demba Ba has scored 17 goals in 39 appearances this season after arriving on a free transfer from West Ham.The 26-year-old Senegal international was linked with a move away Tyneside in January with reports that a buy-out clause in his contract would force Newcastle to accept an offer as low as £5m.“Demba’s release clause has been widely publicised, there is some truth to it, and some untruth,” said Pardew. “There is a clause there.Pardew insisted that Newcastle’s predicament was the same as that faced by Arsenal, who were unable to keep Samir Nasri and Cesc Fabregas from signing for Manchester City and Barcelona respectively last summer.“Forget about Everton and Aston Villa, we have put ourselves in a similar position to Arsenal,” he added.“The one security I have is that [owner]Mike Ashley is a difficult seller. He is not going to let someone go for £7m, he is going to want top, top money.“But if Yohan Cabaye gets a call from Manchester United and they tell him he is going to be the next Paul Scholes I am not going to be able to stop him.