Alan Pardew has assured Saints fans that he is fully focussed on getting the club promoted this season or next.

There has been speculation linking the Saints boss with a move away from St Mary’s in the summer with Celtic and West Ham reportedly considering moves for his services.

Pardew accepted that with Saints having had a good season so far that fans may have to tolerate such rumours and speculation but, as suggested in yesterday’s Daily Echo, the club cannot comment on all of it.

However, for his part he was prepared to state that he remains fully committed to the promotion push, hopefully starting with Carlisle at St Mary’s tomorrow.

He said: “It’s not about not wanting to comment but it’s press speculation and as your paper (the Echo) indicated we’re going to have it over the summer not just with myself but players at this club.

“You can’t get away from the fact that if you have a successful club, and we have that on the pitch and off the pitch, this is a successful club, that we’re going to get attention.

“That attention could be in any form but we can’t answer all of it all of the time.

“All I would say on a personal level is that I have a three-year contract here and the owners of this club said I would be judged in 18 months and what I think they meant by that was ‘get us out of this division in 18 months.’ “I think that’s what they meant and that’s what I intend to do."

For full story and more Saints news, don't miss today's Daily Echo.