NEWCASTLE’S hopes of signing striker Mevlut Erdinc remained in the balance last night after the player revealed he did not wish to leave Paris Saint Germain.

Manager Alan Pardew was awaiting word from the Ligue One side once new manager Leonardo had reached a decision on the Turkish forward.

But Erdinc told newspaper L’Equipe yesterday that he was happy in Paris, and was willing to fight for his position following the signing of Kevin Gameiro – ironically a transfer target of Pardew’s earlier in the summer.

He said: “I stay in Paris.

“I want to impose myself here and I do not fear competition. I’m ready. Anyway, there is always competition, at all clubs.”

However, the decision may not lie wholly in Erdinc’s hands. Should Leonardo, who only took up his post yesterday, decide that the forward, who scored eight goals last season in Ligue One, is free to move on, then Newcastle are at the head of the queue, with the Tynesiders submitting an improved offer believed to be in the region of £7m.

Pardew has made a new attacker a priority since the departure of midfielder Kevin Nolan last month. The Magpies manager told BBC Newcastle’s Total Sport that the club were not prepared to offer a five-year deal as they were not satisfied that Nolan, at 29, could perform for the full length of the contract.

“Kevin didn’t want to stay, that’s the end of the debate. Kevin couldn’t get a contract for four or five years.

“My opinion is that we couldn’t give Kevin a five-year contract because if Kevin isn’t playing first-team football, he isn’t going to be the leader that we want, I am convinced of that.

“Kevin is so full-on as the captain of a football club and at the level he has gone to now, he will easily cope with that and he will come back to the Premier League.

“But in four or five years’ time, Kevin needs to be doing the business in the first team, and we couldn’t and I couldn’t see that possibly happening here at Newcastle, and we had to make a decision on that.”