Alan Pardew: "He is a very important leader. He is a player who is going to have a huge future on the coaching and managerial front himself.
"He has had great experience here. You have to remember, he has experienced the real heady days under [Sir] Bobby [Robson] and some disappointing days as well.
"He has seen it all and that gives him great experience for this particular club, and that's why he is very, very important in my changing room."
So "important" to Pardew's changing room, the Nigerian striker has been told he will be free to leave the club in two weeks!.
Alan Pardew: "Teams have closed in on us in this recent run and we need to get away again.
"In the last seven Premier League seasons, we have only got more points than we have this year once, so we have got an opportunity to get more than 46 points and we want to try to take it.
"It's very, very important to finish the season and make sure that we get ourselves a look at the season that has some perspective.
"Perhaps a stronger squad is the way forward and that's something that I don't think me and the board and Mike [Ashley] have any issue on. I think we are pretty solid on that."