Exactly this.
I don't believe for a second that Pardew has no say in who comes in. He obviously has no say when Ashley decides to cash in on our best players, that's what he signed up for, he was brought in as a yes man. But, he was clearly involved in bringing in the players we did this summer.
If he had his way we'd be buying mediocre English players rather than foreign bargains just for resale value purposes. Not saying we would be better off mind.
Edit: what KaKa said