AYOZE PEREZ will attempt to put interest in him from Champions League chasers to the back of his mind by trying to create a Wear-Tyne memory to savour with Newcastle United this weekend.

The Spanish striker is being targeted by a number of teams across Europe, with Manchester City and Arsenal among those keen to keep him in the Premier League by landing him in the summer.

But Perez, who recently hinted that he is focused on life on Tyneside after being grateful for the St James’ Park decision makers for giving him his move to England last July, only has designs on making his mark on Wearside this Sunday.

Perez was part of the Newcastle team left frustrated before Christmas when Adam Johnson’s late winner sealed a fourth successive win for Sunderland over their fiercest North-East rivals.

There is a desire within the Magpies camp to make up for such an awful run against the Black Cats and the 21-year-old has the memories of a previous derby at his former club spurring him on to turn on the style again this weekend.

Two of his 16 goals last season in the Spanish second division arrived in Tenerife’s Canary Islands derby with Las Palmas at the Estadio Heliodoro Rodriguez Lopez in what was the biggest game of his embryonic career at that stage.

And after the frustrations of St James’ Park 12 months later, Perez would love to ensure Newcastle’s supporters have something to cheer about by the River Wear on Sunday evening.

“A derby is always a special game,” Perez told the club's website. “It means more than three points. The fans live it with passion.

“My memories of the Canary Islands derby couldn’t be better. It was an unforgettable day for me and I hope to repeat this match on Sunday in the Tyne-Wear derby.

“I know a derby is a special game for the team and the fans. It’s a different game, a game that the players love to play. The derbies are for the fans. We want to make our fans proud of the team.

“The best thing after the derby would be to see the kids wearing their Newcastle jerseys at school with pride. That’s what we want and we are going to get it.”

The build up to Newcastle’s latest trip to the Stadium of Light has seen further talk about Steve McClaren being at the top of the Tyneside club’s wish-list to replace Alan Pardew for the long term.

John Carver takes charge of his first Wear-Tyne derby on Sunday but McClaren is still one of the main contenders to take over the role on a long term basis beyond this season.

But the former Middlesbrough manager, who is trying to lead Derby to promotion, has insisted once again that his sole focus is to seal a Premier League return for the Rams.

McClaren said: “I only hear it occasionally from people who tell me, but not many people do. It is football, it’s newspapers and it’s that time of the season.

“Our focus is Watford on Friday, and then Wigan on Monday, and the big April we have got ahead.

“We are focusing on doing a job here, we know where we want to go, and that is the main aim. We said from day one we have got a job to do here, we are focused totally on that. Everything else is irrelevant and speculation.”

Newcastle, meanwhile, are one of a number of clubs to have shown an interest in Caen midfielder N’golo Kante. The 24-year-old, rated at £5m, is a defensive midfielder and has caught the eye of Arsenal and Marseille. He would be a ready-made replacement if Cheik Tiote was moved on this summer.