ALAN PARDEW thinks the Newcastle United production line has slowed and thinks the challenge is to ensure further promising players fulfil their potential on Tyneside.

St James’ Park has given the likes of Andy Carroll, Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Debuchy the perfect platform to prove themselves in the Premier League and the Magpies made sizeable profits on all three.

There have also been those players such as Cheik Tiote and Tim Krul who have remained in the North-East to showcase their talent and shine in the English top-flight, seeing their transfer values soar.

But a pretty dismal 2014 has left Newcastle wondering which players will be the next to shine, with Pardew intent on making sure that more of his squad become household names on the domestic stage and beyond.

Newcastle’s ‘buy young’ policy has been under severe scrutiny in the last few weeks because of the time required for a number of the club’s summer recruits, mainly from abroad, to adapt to life on these shores.

Remy Cabella, Emmanuel Riviere, Daryl Janmaat, Ayoze Perez and Facundo Ferrerya are all struggling to hit the heights that they had been hitting with their previous clubs in mainland European leagues.

Newcastle’s failure to win any of their opening seven league games this season has only increased the frustrations built up from the first half of the year, given that a meagre 20 points had been recorded since New Year’s Day.

Pardew, who has given academy players such as Paul Dummett and Rolando Aarons a chance this season, said: “Our policy here has been the same since I’ve been at the club - we have bought players we think have good market value and that means mainly the younger players.

“I’ve had to deal with younger players and some have been massively successful and some haven’t. At the moment we are not having as much success as we’ve had. We’ve produced some fantastic players for this club and we need to start producing a few more.”

A hard-earned point at Swansea last weekend has given the players a lift after a frustrating run of results which have increased the pressure on Pardew to step down.

Newcastle have struggled to find a run of decent form since losing Cabaye to Paris St Germain last January in a deal worth £20m – and the boss wants existing members of his squad to show greater leadership on the pitch to take the club forward.

Pardew said: “I didn’t think we were strong enough in the last part of the season and that’s been held against me that I’ve been making excuses. But I just felt that we needed more and we didn’t have it after the loss of Cabaye.

“This club needs big players because we are a big scalp for any team. For Swansea we are a big scalp. Forget where we are in the league. We need big players and our big players need to stand up. We also need to create more big players and that’s what we are trying to do.”

Cabaye has struggled to make an impact in France since his switch to Paris St Germain and yesterday he admitted he is unhappy with his role at the Parc des Princes.

The French international only played 15 minutes in PSG’s draw with Monaco last weekend and he had envisaged playing a greater role after deciding to leave Newcastle. Arsenal and Liverpool are among those keen on him.

Cabaye said: “I need to play, it’s true. I know the staff have choices to make and I respect them. But it’s true that this situation does not suit me.

“I am 28-years-old and not just starting out. I won’t change my style now. The coach’s choices must be respected but I won’t quit. I have the character and my goal is to show what I can do on the pitch. I know I must play very well in order to keep my place in the team.”

Newcastle owner Mike Ashley, meanwhile, appears to be edging ever closer to taking over at Rangers.

The Ibrox club have indicated that it is “currently verifying” that the call for a shareholder meeting by Ashley’s private MASH Holdings Limited was “properly constituted”. Just days after doubling his stake to nine per cent in the Scottish Championship club, Ashley is said to have called for a meeting to eject directors Graham Wallace and Philip Nash.