Alan Pardew: "I understand their (the board's) point. Not just under Mike's tenure as the owner of this football club, before that, big players signed here, and at other clubs, and have not been a success.
"I don't really like putting tags on players because that doesn't mean to say we can't buy an expensive players, we just need to buy the right players for this football club.
"I understand their point. They have been hurt, and if you have been hurt with a big, big signing who hasn't produced anything on the pitch, you are going to be slightly wary of that type of player."
"Chief scout Graham Carr and our scouts here, like any football club, work hard. There's a lot goes on in the Premier League and all through the divisions which goes unseen by the general fan.
"We must have 15, 20, maybe more than that, scouts who go out every week covering games and making sure we are covering all the bases.
"But you also need to think outside the box and I think we are pretty good at that as well.
"Derek understands how to deal with agents now and how to make sure we don't miss out on a deal or a player who might be of interest to us.
"Communication and information are very, very important.
"I'm not going to talk about transfers in October because it's irrelevant."