Alan Pardew: "I wouldn't say he got away, but I knew about him, because Malky had tipped me off.
"We just didn't have enough on him. We couldn't do enough work in terms of whether he was going to fit the bill for us.
"He's had a marvellous season. He's done really well. We will have to be on our guard against him, because he's their out-and-out finisher.
"All that clever stuff they do when they keep the ball all ends with him scoring. So if you stop him scoring, it makes it difficult for them to score.
"Who knows? There might be a day when he comes back to the North East."