ALAN Pardew says Fabricio Coloccini is suffering from nothing more than being a bad loser despite being linked with a move away from Newcastle United by his father.

The Argentinian’s agent issued a denial yesterday after Osvaldo Coloccini claimed his son was trying to engineer a move away from St James’ Park.

Coloccini jnr (pictured below) has cut an unhappy figure recently, dodging media responsibilities and arguing with his manager. But talking on Thursday before Osvaldo’s comments, Pardew claimed the root cause was nothing more sinister than Newcastle’s ten defeats in 13 games.

“He’s finding it difficult and I would find it difficult if I was him looking round that changing room and looking at our bench on Wednesday night,” the manager explained.

“If you’re a senior player or our captain you want the best players out on the pitch.

“He’s hurting from the defeats we’re taking and the goals we’re conceding and he’s doing everything he can to stop that.”

After the pre-Christmas win over Queens Park Rangers, Pardew admitted he had “a silly little fall-out” with his captain in the run-up to the game.

He highlighted it by making a show of going over to speak to Coloccini at full-time on the St James’ pitch, but refused to elaborate on what the disagreement had been over when acknowledging it in the pre-match Press conference.

Whether or not to rest Coloccini, who is understood to be carrying a knock, will be one of the decisions Pardew has to make before today’s televised FA Cup tie at Brighton and Hove Albion.

The back four has been ragged since Christmas, conceding 13 goals in three games. Pardew is considering introducing a few young players into the side, most notably Sammy Ameobi.

“There are one or two young players I will bring in and I might change one or two just to freshen things up a bit,” the Newcastle boss said, while also stressing the importance of victory.

Right-back Mathieu Debuchy joined from Lille yesterday (he was given squad number 26) but will not be considered for the game. Demba Ba could make his Chelsea debut against Southampton after completing a £7.5m move.

Osvaldo Coloccini is a youth director at Argentinian club San Lorenzo, where he and his son both played.