GABRIEL Obertan will sign for Newcastle early next week as United look to finally rediscover some momentum in their summer recruitment drive.
The Manchester United winger will undergo a medical tomorrow prior to signing a permanent deal with United, which will move the focus onto bringing in another striker.
And the Sunday Sun understands that striker could be Spurs hitman Roman Pavyluchenko.
?(Obertan) is almost there. He has to come through a medical, which he?ll probably have on Monday now,? United boss Alan Pardew said.
?I?m looking forward to him joining the club and hopefully it all goes smoothly. It?ll be a permanent deal.?
There is nothing imminent on the striker front but Newcastle have added Russian hitman Pavyluchenko to a list of strikers being considered ? plus a few Continental names.
The Sunday Sun understands that the club have changed tack in the market from the start of the summer after many of their targets moved elsewhere ? with British-based alternatives now coming into play.
The blow of missing out on Mevlut Erdinc has influenced that re-think, and while moves for Peter Crouch and Jermain Defoe look unlikely, it is understood they ARE still being discussed.
Meanwhile, Pardew will seek talks with Joey Barton early next week to resolve the issues that have festered since last week?s Twitter row.
?Joey?s situation is where we were on Friday. We?re all taking a deep breath and seeing where we go,? pardew said.
?You want to have your best players and I?m a manager who wants my best players playing for the club.
?Joey needs to buy into what we?re doing ? if he doesn?t see that then he?ll probably go.
?But you never know ? we?re all taking some time out. We?ll assess it next week.
?Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday me and Joey will have a couple of texts and we?ll take it from there.?
