Alan Pardew: "How long is Mike Ashley's long-term?
"It's difficult to say. You just want to be in there competing, and we have done that.
"Whether we get a European place will probably decided by fate more than anything. We have had a great season regardless of the European spot, and we want to do that again next year.
"By hook or by crook, in the next three years it would be nice to get some sort of European football or win a trophy. That's the goal.
"We won't get Champions League football, I just think that's too big [a gap] to bridge - five points on Spurs, and Arsenal are probably away from us now.
"It's too much, they are too good a teams to catch with eight games left.
"I think it's slightly unfair that the losing cup finalist gets a place in front of a whole season's campaign, but that's the rule at the moment.
"We are not going to change that before the end of the season, we have to accept that.
"I think it should change for next year, in my opinion, but we have still got a great chance of finishing fifth or sixth, and that's what we are going to try to do."