Transfew news: Arsenal bid of £10m for Yohan Cabaye lacked 'respect and honour' says Newcastle manager Alan Pardew

Newcastle manager upset over £10m move on eve of a game against City

Alan Pardew has accused Arsenal of lacking 'respect and honour' in lodging a £10m bid for Yohan Cabaye (Getty images)

Alan Pardew accused Arsenal of lacking “respect and honour” in lodging a £10m bid for Yohan Cabaye hours before the midfielder was due to play for Newcastle against Manchester City – which ended in a 4-0 defeat for Pardew’s side.

The Newcastle manager said that his player was unable to play having had “his head ... turned on the eve of a game”. With Steven Taylor sent off in injury-time at the end of the first half, Newcastle conceded two more after the break. The £10m bid for Cabaye has already been rejected by his club.

Pardew said: “When you do a pre-season like we have and been very thorough and prepared for three days with a team that includes Cabaye, it is tough for his head to be turned on the eve of a game. I didn’t see any reason why that needed to happen. Why they couldn’t do us the respect and the honour of waiting until Tuesday evening is beyond me

“I think it is just a very difficult situation when a player gets news like that and it wasn’t us who gave him the news. That it is very hard to get your head round to play a game of this magnitude. I don’t really want to comment anymore than that. It is pretty obvious I am upset about that and I would rather focus on what for us has been a tough day. We have 37 games to go and we need to make sure we don’t let this game emotionally scar us.”

Asked about the size of the Arsenal bid, Pardew said, “I am not sure of the exact terms of it but it is below our valuation of the player, for sure.”

He added: “This [Cabaye] is a terrific player ... there is a question about the window being closed before we kick off the Premier League season. I know the Premier League asked the European leagues to do it and they said the European leagues wouldn’t fall in line. After the summer we have had, the situations we have had, with [Wayne] Rooney as well, it is definitely something they need to put under the microscope again.”