ALAN PARDEW hopes to hear Newcastle United have made progress on the transfer front this week with Montpellier expecting a fresh round of talks for key playmaker Remy Cabella.

After teeing up a £1.8m deal for Tenerife’s young striker Ayoze Perez, the Magpies are pressing ahead with attempts to make early moves in the summer transfer window.

Long term target Cabella has been identified by chief scout Graham Carr as the ideal player to bring some creativity to the Newcastle ranks and sources in France suggest there will be discussions later in the week with Montpellier.

Montpellier continue to demand a fee of around £13m for the France international and he has hinted he could be interested in a move to the Premier League.

A deal with Newcastle, however, is some way off and it has been claimed the reasons for face-to-face talks between the two clubs – and a representative of the player – is to try to broker an agreement.

Carr’s research in to the transfer options around Europe continues to be seen as the cheaper option in the boardroom at St James’ Park and appeals to owner Mike Ashley.

However, the Newcastle owner is also understood to have given Pardew indications he can target players with Premier League experience.

The Newcastle manager has given managing director Lee Charnley a list of targets he would like to have at his disposal next season and a fresh name under consideration is Fulham’s Steve Sidwell.

Pardew has long been a fan of Sidwell and he was the Reading manager when the Royals signed him from Arsenal in 2003. At 31, he does not fit in with Newcastle’s usual ‘buy young’ policy but as a free agent he offers top-flight experience for no fee.

There is other Premier League interest in Sidwell, who has previously been targeted by Newcastle but he has always preferred to stay closer to his southern roots.

Pardew is targeting players to fill a variety of positions across the pitch. While he is particularly short of attacking options, he also knows the midfield is a key area to strengthen and Sunderland's Jack Colback is also wanted..

Defensively Newcastle are not too badly off, although the need for adding a centre-back would heighten further if Lille follow up tentative interest in taking Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa back to France.

Yanga-Mbiwa’s career has gone stale since moving to Tyneside 18 months ago. Prior to arriving in the North-East in an £8.5m deal, the 25-year-old was viewed as one of the most promising French defenders around after captaining Montpellier to the Ligue 1 title in 2012.

He had hoped the Premier League would propel him to this summer’s World Cup but he was not even included as one of Didier Deschamps’ seven reserves for the Brazil finals.

Newcastle Under-21s side have reached the last four of the Hong Kong Football Club Citibank Soccer Sevens after beating Rangers 3-0 yesterday. Macauley Gillesphey, Greg Olley and Rolando Aarons got the goals.

And Newcastle teenager Lubo Satka made his first appearance for Slovakia’s Under-21s over the weekend. The 18-year-old came on as a late substitute in his country’s 1-0 win over an England ‘C’ side.