Pardew denies Newcastle rift reports

Newcastle manager Alan Pardew says that reports of a dressing room rift between the French players and the other members of his squad are totally inaccurate. The Magpies lost 6-0 to Liverpool at St James’ Park last Saturday, and were beaten 3-0 at home by local rivals Sunderland two weeks before that game. It was reported after the loss at the weekend tensions had flared up between the new signings that were brought in in January from France’s Ligue 1 but Pardew has denied that any problems exist. He told a press conference: "As far as I am concerned, the group is very much together, pulling together trying to get a result. "The fact that we have a lot of French players has been torn up and made to be something else. There is no problem. "There have not been words that were out of tone or were in a different place. We talked about football, what it is about and how important it is to this football club to get a win quickly. "I think everyone is focused on that. Some of the reporting has been terrible really, but there is nothing we can do about it.