ALAN Pardew is confident he will end Newcastle United's 43-year major trophy drought if he sees out the full eight years of his new managerial contract.

Pardew signed an eight-year deal along with the rest of his backroom staff on Thursday, and admits even he was initially taken aback by the length of the contract that was offered by Magpies owner Mike Ashley .

The deal ties him to the club until 2020, and while it can of course be broken, it nevertheless affords the 51-year-old a degree of long-term security that enables him to look further into the future than most of his fellow top-flight bosses.

Champions League qualification is one major goal, but Pardew claims his biggest ambition is to secure some silverware, a target he feels is attainable over the course of his new deal.

“My ambition is very much to try to win a trophy,” said the Newcastle boss, who takes his side to Reading's Madejski Stadium this afternoon. “That is what the fans want and that is what we will be trying to achieve.

“Looking at it realistically, if I am going to win a trophy as a manager, what opportunities am I going to have that are better than here? I look at this football club and in my opinion, it has a fan base and home power that gives us an advantage. I also look at the (financial) model we have got and think it is strong.

“The percentage chance of me winning a trophy at Manchester United would be a lot higher, but that doesn't mean I can't do it here.

“Expectations have risen, but I wouldn't be saying this if I didn't have a belief in the group I've got that they could win a trophy. I think they can. I think they can win a trophy this year, although you still need a bit of luck here and there.”

Ashley first approached Pardew a couple of months ago to suggest that any new contract should span an eight-year time frame.

The move was a considerable vote of confidence from a board that previously oversaw the departure of five different managers in the space of just 17 months, yet agreeing to it meant Pardew reaffirming his commitment to a project that has proved too much for some of the biggest names in the game.

Countless managers have left Newcastle broken and dejected, yet Pardew has seen enough in his 21 months on Tyneside to convince himself that he is on the right track to reverse the trend of failure.

He began in the most difficult of circumstances, having been a controversial choice to replace the popular Chris Hughton , yet has gradually won the supporters around despite some testing moments, most of which have involved player departures or a lack of new recruits.

“I love it here,” he said. “I have never enjoyed football on the management side as much as I have enjoyed it here.

“After the circumstances I arrived in, I would not have assumed it would have gone as well as it has gone. I want to make sure it continues.

“I'm genuinely proud to be manager of this football club – I can't tell you how much. Since I signed about three or four days ago, I've had a kind of realisation of what a position I'm in in terms of being the manager. It's a really proud moment for me. Now, I've just got to do it justice.”

This month's discussions resulted in Pardew's extended backroom staff receiving similar long-term deals, something he felt was extremely important if he was going to commit for such a lengthy period of time.

However, they did not result in any guarantees over future levels of investment, with Pardew having accepted that Ashley's preferred business model for recruiting and selling players will not change.

“I can't see Mike changing a model he thinks works,” he said. “I know the type of animal he is and if he thinks the model works, he'll stick with it.

“So our model is quite clear and we have to make sure that if we do lose a player, we bring in two who are better. That's not easy to do, but we haven't done a bad job of it so far.”