Alan Pardew: "If you are asking me what do I want in the next two years, I would like us to win a trophy. That's something that needs to be ticked here.
"If I can do it, it will be absolutely magnificent with the team; if I can't, we want to get as close as we can, to be competitive in the Premier League and keep pushing for a cup, because they are not easy to win.
"One or two of the top, top teams start focusing once they get nearer the final. The best team comes out and it gets harder to win.
"That will happen in the Carling Cup, of course, the further you go, the better the opposition are going to be.
"We are desperately trying to bring success here under the financial plan we have, and I think we can.
"That's the important point: it's not a financial plan for non-success, for mediocrity. It's not.
"It's to try to win a trophy, to try to be competitive and try to keep our best players once we have got ourselves in a good financial position.
"That's where we are and we are doing a super job.
"The financial position we are starting to get ourselves into gives us a chance to maybe compete a little bit stronger for those players who are threatened.
"That's why this season is very, very important.
"At football clubs, when you get the feeling we have at the moment, if we can keep that, then we are going to have a successful year, I don't doubt it."