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Pardew: "We're Pulling Together"
Written by Newcastle Utd
Alan Pardew has said that "wildfire" speculation about disharmony in the camp is "way off the mark"
By Dan King - Newcastle United Club Reporter
Alan Pardew has insisted that his team remains united despite "ridiculous" newspaper reports to the contrary ahead of Saturday's trip to West Ham.
Key players Papiss Cisse and Cheick Tiote spoke out on Wednesday night to strongly dismiss any suggestion of disharmony in the squad and Magpies manager Pardew gave his views on Thursday.
Although he admitted that he has received "feedback" from senior players following Saturday's 6-0 defeat to Liverpool, he said that the players are all focused on Newcastle's battle against relegation.
They are currently five points clear of Wigan and Pardew said: "As far as I'm concerned, the group is very much together.
"We're pulling together, trying to get a result, and the fact that we have a lot of French players and some language difficulty has been kind of torn up and made to be something else.
"There's no problem and we go to the next game.
"If you think, because the players are from a foreign countries or some of our players are not bothered, it's just ridiculous. Of course they're bothered. Our frustrations and our professionalism are on the line but we have the destiny of ourselves in our own hands.
"No-one else - we're not in the hands of anyone else. Only us can put it right. We've got a little gap so we need to exploit that and make sure we extend it.
"I haven't even looked at the run-ins of the other clubs because it's very, very important that you focus on yourself. The destiny's very much in our own hands and we need to make sure that we get the wins that we need - if it's two wins, if it's three wins, I have no idea.
"Some of the wildfire that we've had has just been way, way off the mark. But we put a poor performance in on Saturday and we need to put that right. That's the most important thing."