ALAN Pardew has urged Demba Ba to make a personal statement clarifying his Newcastle United future after admitting the feverish speculation surrounding the club’s top scorer is unfair on supporters.

A whirlwind 24 hours for United has seen them agree a deal for Mathieu Debuchy, while Ba’s intentions in January remain unclear after a move to Chelsea was apparently torpedoed before it had ever really got off the ground.

Pardew insists Ba will play against Everton tomorrow and that, as of the first day of the transfer window, there has not been one formal offer for the striker. He also said that the £60,000-a-week contract offer that Newcastle made to him several weeks ago remains on the table – although it will be withdrawn soon.

It is clear that Newcastle do not want the situation to drag on into the middle of January and Pardew’s frustration at the speculation and the tactics of Ba’s agents, if not the individual, is clearly mounting.

“I think it’s difficult for our fans to really feel that Demba is solid with the team and everything else that’s going on,” Pardew admitted.

“When he’s played he’s never represented that, he’s always represented his full commitment to the team and I do think he’s slightly becoming a victim of a few sharks around him. But having said that our fans want loyalty. This is a big club and I think perhaps he needs to make a statement at some point.

“I do feel that for our fans, he needs to give a message of some description. We’re in an important stage of the season for us. We had a terrible result against Arsenal, we need to turn that around.”