Alan Pardew has defended his reign as Newcastle manager

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has hit out at his critics and insisted the club are “better and stronger” since he took charge nearly four years ago.

The Magpies head for Southampton on Saturday yet to win a Barclays Premier League game this season and with the manager under fire once again after a summer transfer window which started positively, but ended with fans' favourite Hatem Ben Arfa being shipped out on loan to Hull and no last-minute arrivals.

Sources on Tyneside have denied claims that the 53-year-old has just two games in which to save his job, while speculation has suggested owner Mike Ashley is once again ready to sell in order to buy Rangers, although prospective purchasers remain as thin on the ground as they have been for the last six years.

But amid all the furore, Pardew, who this week received an 85 per cent disapproval rating in a newspaper poll of more than 5,000 people, is remaining steadfast.

"Sometimes, when you're at a club for a long time - and I'm the second longest serving manager in the Premier League now - it becomes a little more difficult, especially at a club of this size.

"People ask, 'Why haven't you won a trophy?', but we haven't won a trophy at this club since 1969. It's very, very difficult.

"I have to try to look at the bigger picture - a bigger picture than the local media and some of our fans - but I also understand there's an immediate world we live in. Immediate results are important, and I can't take my eye off that either.

"But by the same token, I do have to have a bigger vision. I think we've got better, and we're a stronger club than when I arrived, a lot stronger. I don't know how else you can gauge it."

Pardew's stand-off and subsequent divorce with Ben Arfa has provided his detractors with a cause celebre, and the France international's departure – his contractual situation means he has effectively played his last game for the club - has piled the pressure on the manager with his team having struggled for invention during the opening weeks of the new campaign.

In truth, the former Marseille player's occasional brilliance was shrouded by chronic inconsistency, while there was disquiet in some quarters within the dressing room at some of his antics.

But asked if sending the player out on loan, along with compatriot Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, represented a gamble, Pardew said: "Not in my opinion.

"It would have been an easy decision to keep him. But you have to make tough decisions and I made the decision because I think the players we have here have a love and a passion for the club, the shirt and for the fans.

"They want to win for them, and that's very important in the modern game. Both the players released on the last day were not regulars for this team."

Pardew's stance on Ben Arfa has been brought into sharper focus by the thigh injury which is likely to sideline summer signing Siem de Jong, the man drafted in from Ajax to provide the link between midfield and attack, for three months.

He said: "The decision still hasn't been made about whether he or not he has an operation. That will determine how long he is out for, but I would say it will be a minimum of three months."

As well as De Jong, the Magpies will have to do without teenage midfielder Rolando Aarons and striker Facundo Ferreyra with hamstring and back problems respectively, although Jack Colback has recovered from a calf problem and Cheick Tiote will travel after shaking off a hamstring strain which was put to too much of a test, in Pardew's opinion, by the Ivory Coast during the international break.

The 53-year-old said: "I spoke to him and thought we had an agreement with his FA that he would play part of both games, but of course he's played a full 90 minutes in both. I'm astounded by that.

"I will take him to Southampton because he is important to us, but he won't start, that's for sure. We'll be having words [with Ivory Coast]."