Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew appeared on BBC Radio Newcastle on Friday night and made some revealing comments about the club’s summer transfer plans.

Although he tried not to give too much away, Pardew did reveal in a possible slip of the tongue that Newcastle were looking closely at the possibility of signing a player who is a good friend of Yohan Cabaye. That of course is a cryptic comment but one that isn’t too complicated to work out when you consider that Cabaye has spoken in glowing terms recently about his former Lille team-mate Mathieu Debuchy, a right full-back who Manchester United have been linked with lately as the long-term replacement to Gary Neville after the experiments of Rafael, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling didn’t really work out.

With Pardew admitting that United’s current right full-back Danny Simpson could depart for pastures new this summer as he refuses to sign an extension to his contract that runs out next summer (Pardew hinted that the problem was over money, Simpson wanting a few grand more per week on his deal), Debuchy could be an obvious replacement.

26-year-old Debuchy has played over 200 times for Lille, scoring 15 times for the club he joined at just eight years old and matured through their youth academy. He is 1.77 m (5 ft 9 1⁄2 in) and is a good old fashioned deep-lying playmaker who has also played in midfield. He has been capped three times by France and Pardew mentioned the possible signing of a close friend of Cabaye when he remarked how good it was to have Senegalese team-mates Papiss Cisse and Demba Ba as a striking partnership.

Debuchy would likely cost Premier League suitors anything between £5 and £7 million, closer to the latter if there is a bidding war.

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