Alan Pardew: “I am very pleased. The three games (in the USA) have been really tough, which I expected. We’re going to play Arsenal in our first game and we have to be beyond even the intensity and toughness we showed in the US.
“We have pushed the players. We were overloaded in Orlando and that was evident – we did too much work before that game.
“We learned from that in Columbus and we saw some great performances.
“There were some great performances – one from Dan Gosling, for certain. Sylvain Marveaux and Demba Ba in particular. They really make me feel that a couple more players and we aren’t far away.”
“The merry go-round will then start thick and fast.
“I hope to have them in place in time for Arsenal.
“That’s the motivation of Mike (Ashley), Derek (Llambias) and myself, to get them in before Arsenal. But you can never say for definite.”