Alan Pardew: "When you interpret one language from another, while the words can look the same, the interpretation can be slightly different and I think the interpretation of that was slightly lost, if I'm honest.
"It's his home-town club, of course, and he's got friends and family there, and I think he just wanted to say, 'Thanks for your offer of help if I needed it'.
"Unfortunately for them, it hasn't happened; fortunately for us, he remains our captain and committed to the cause, make no mistake about that."