Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has admitted that he was open to offers for Gabriel Obertan last year.
The Frenchman ended a two-year spell without a goal by scoring in the Magpies' 1-0 victory over Leicester City last weekend - their first win of the Premier League campaign.
"Let's just say that events last year, when we weren't winning and he wasn't in the frame, were such that we might have listened to offers for him," The Shields Gazette quotes Pardew as saying.
"When he came back pre-season and I had assembled a new squad, I knew he could be a part of it, and I told him that."
The 25-year-old joined Newcastle from Manchester United back in 2011.
