ALAN Pardew will meet Mike Ashley and Derek Llambias this week to discuss his summer transfer plans after admitting that it will be difficult for Newcastle United to continue making progress next season.

The Magpies might have suffered a disappointing end to the campaign as they lost 3-1 at Everton yesterday, but the last nine months have still been a remarkable success.

Despite selling a number of senior players last summer, Newcastle finished in fifth position, an improvement of seven places on the previous campaign.

They have qualified for the Europa League, but with their European campaign starting with a two-legged play-off in late August, next season's schedule promises to be extremely hectic.

Pardew will have to juggle the strains of Europe with the demands of the domestic campaign, and while much more will be expected of Newcastle after they came so close to a top-four finish this time around, it would be a surprise if the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool did not prove much more competitive next term.

“We're certainly going to have a more difficult season next year,” said Pardew, who saw goals from Steven Pienaar, Nikica Jelavic and John Heitinga condemn Newcastle to defeat before a late own goal from Tony Hibbert provided a modicum of consolation.

“We've got the African Cup of Nations again, we've got the Olympics during pre-season and we've also got the demands of the Europa League. That will affect all of our players.

“We've had to wait for today's result because the Champions League obviously would have changed things, but now we'll sit down next week and try to work out a game plan where we cover all the issues that are going to arise. It's not going to be easy.”

With up to 17 extra matches to prepare for next season depending on how far Newcastle progress in the Europa League, the current squad will surely have to be strengthened.

However, while the Champions League would have brought huge financial rewards, the additional income generated by the Europa League is relatively minimal.

Nevertheless, signings are expected, with Newcastle close to completing a deal for Lille right-back Mathieu Debuchy and continuing to track long-term target Douglas, who is expected to leave his current employers at FC Twente.

With Danny Guthrie expected to leave this summer and Danny Simpson's future extremely uncertain, Pardew would like to make the majority of his signings at the start of the summer break.

However, with the European Championships due to begin at the start of next month, he accepts it could be difficult for anyone to hit the ground running.

“We're already thinking about two or three players, but I think you'll find that a lot of the clubs who might want to do early business will have to wait until the European Championships are over,” he said.

“It's going to be a bit like a roulette wheel, and I'm hoping that the players we're looking at all have awful tournaments. But there's a good chance they're going to have excellent tournaments, and all of a sudden, their price might look a bit different. I think all of us will be looking at that closely.”

For now, Pardew is simply happy to have secured a return to continental competition for the first time in six seasons.

“I'm privileged and proud to be taking the fans back into Europe next season,” he said. “They've been absolutely terrific all season and we couldn't have achieved any of this without them.

“They've always represented this country in a brilliant fashion. I'm really looking forward to taking them into Europe, and then bringing them back under the lights at the Sports Direct Arena.”