Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has signed an eight year contract with the Magpies and the simple goal of winning every match. Asked what the owner Mike Ashley's remit was, the 51-year-old replied: "Win every week.
"Regardless, there's always pressure when you are Newcastle manager. I am just privileged to be the manager, really, and proud to be the manager of this football club.
"To be given an eight-year contract - it hasn't quite sunk in, if I am honest.
"But my focus, ever since I entered this game, was to win. I came pretty close at West Ham and I won what you might call a minor trophy at Southampton, but I want to win.
"I have won a couple of promotions, I want to win silverware." If yesterday's announcement raised eyebrows across the country, it prompted a similar reaction from Pardew when it was first mentioned to him.
He said: "When it was first suggested by Mike, eight years, I was a bit shocked myself.
"To try to foresee what's going to happen in the next eight years is difficult.
"On the other side of the coin, when I looked at my career so far, this is probably the best chance I have got of winning a trophy, and that's really what I want to do.
"Sometimes I have put my own personal ambition in front of what's best, maybe, for the club I was at, but you get older and wiser.
"But I want to win a trophy and I think this club gives me a great opportunity to do that.
"We have a great team, great players, great staff - and I am glad they have got the same reward, which I thought was very important.
"It was no good just making sure that the manager was okay, everybody was looked after in terms of that length of time, and now we move on and try to secure that first trophy, which has been some time coming."
