Pardew: £8 million won’t get you Cabaye

Reports on Wednesday suggested that the Catalan giants were preparing to move for the 26-year-old.

Cabaye only arrived at St James’ Park last summer from Lille in a deal reported to be worth £4.8m and is widely considered to have been the signing of last season.

Newcastle surprised most last year, eventually finishing fifth which has seen a number of their prized assets linked with big-money moves away from the club.

However, Pardew stated only huge offers for the likes of Cabaye, Cheick Tiote and Tim Krul would convince the club to listen.

"The interest [in Cabaye] is purely speculative," said Pardew. "We have had no contact and certainly no offer, and obviously we wouldn't even consider an offer anywhere near that region."

The Newcastle manager admitted that the club would sell key players if they received an offer they could not refuse.

"I really don't think as a manager you can beat yourself up about it because we are what we are, we can't compete with those really big guns," he added.

"If they come and they want to pay - and it's going to be very, very expensive for someone like him [Cabaye]. Trust me, he will be inflated - then we have to then go to plan B, which is to get a replacement.

"We like to think we are going to deal with stories like that about all our players. You could say [Papiss] Cisse, [Demba] Ba, Cheick Tiote, Tim Krul, Cabaye, [Fabricio] Coloccini - we have got some great players here.

"The type of club we are, where we are not in the higher reaches of European football, we haven't got that finance and our players are going to be linked to other clubs.

"It's flattering to us and to Cabaye to be linked with Barcelona."