ALAN Pardew has urged Newcastle United supporters not to pass judgement on Mike Ashley until he has had an opportunity to spend the owner's money this summer.

Ashley's motives were challenged in January when he sanctioned the sale of leading goalscorer Andy Carroll on transfer deadline day and failed to recruit a replacement.

Pardew has repeatedly insisted that the whole of Carroll's £35m transfer fee will be available to spend this summer, although the Magpies manager accepts that previous controversies mean there is understandable scepticism about his comments.

Nevertheless, he is calling on the club's fans to hold their fire until he has had a chance to live up to his words.

"No matter what I say in terms of reassurance about Mike Ashley's investment, it will be undermined until we get to the summer," said Pardew. "It is difficult to argue against some of the things that have happened here in the past. The fan base has doubted the owner and the board.

"If I was a fan here, would I be jumping up and down about Mike Ashley? No. But he genuinely wants to prove that he can make this a success. He doesn't want his investment to fail here and get criticised as a result. He wants to be here and win matches.

"But the proof will be who we bring in. My first job is to keep us as a Premier League side, and we are not definitely safe. Then, we can concentrate on the next agenda and identify the players we want to sign.

"Mike has committed that the (Andy Carroll) money will go back into the club and I am 100 per cent sure it will. He would not be paying for my staff and me to fly all over Europe to scout players if he had no intention of buying them.

"My test is spending wisely and making sure we don't make the same mistakes as previous regimes with our buys."

Along with senior members of his scouting staff, Pardew has spent much of the last month assembling a short list of targets for the summer.

The Newcastle boss was in Vienna at the weekend, watching a Belgium side that included highly-rated Standard Liege midfielder Axel Witsel record a 2-0 win over Austria.

Chief scout Graham Carr was in France, while assistant boss John Carver watched the Republic of Ireland beat Macedonia.

The focus will be on reasonably unproven players below the age of 25, who should be able to retain their value beyond the end of their contract, and Pardew is hoping the strength of Newcastle's scouting will enable them to steal a march on some of their leading rivals in the transfer market.

"You scour Europe and you hope you can bypass other clubs like Marseille, Aston Villa, Everton and Tottenham, who are maybe in the same bracket as us," he said.

"When the season ends and we are a Premier League side for next year, we will step up our recruitment, but we won't be bringing two players in straight away."We have to wait, pitch in with these teams, and see what unfolds. But from conversations I've already had with players and players' agents, I already know of players that want to come here.

"The size of the fanbase makes a difference. You can see players in Europe who could have a chance of Champions League football in Belgium, France or Holland, but they are playing in front of 10,000 people. Here, our players have an opportunity to play in front of 50,000 every week and you have to be inspired by that."

Pardew will spend the rest of the week honing his preparations for Saturday's crucial home game with Wolves, with Jose Enrique unlikely to be fit but Stephen Ireland on track for a Newcastle debut.

The Magpies have won just four of their 15 Premier League home games this season, and Pardew admits they have occasionally been too adventurous for their own good.

"I feel we go a bit gung ho at times," he said during a live discussion with fans on BBC Radio Newcastle. "In terms of the levels of expectation, the crowd can sometimes push you when really you should be seeing games out.

"That's something I've never really had to deal with at my other clubs, but I wouldn't have it any other way. We know our home form hasn't been good enough, but I'd urge all of our supporters to stick with us this weekend. We need them on our side because we know how important it is we win this game."