After Kinnear's 2nd departure from the club Pardew said he'd be getting more directly involved in transfers. He did bring in Obertan before as you know, but Colback had Pardew written all over him also.
Although it's unlikely, he could have wanted Riviere too.
Colback has opportunism written all over him: Free, young and decent.
Yep can't begrudge him that ^_^ Regardless, Riviere was handy in Ligue 1 as a foil for Falcao/Berbatov, so someone took a punt on him to do the same for Cissé here like Best did for Ba and what Bad did for Cissé. Can see the logic, on the face of it a better chance of doing well than a combative midfielder in the reserves of a Dutch Eredivisie team imo... they don't all work out. Hopeful unknowns are the best we can ever hope for, to get Janmaat in for <£10m for me was unbelievable. Was genuinely shocked.