Paris St-Germain agree £20m fee with Newcastle United for Yohan Cabaye

London: Yohan Cabaye is on the brink of returning to Ligue One after Newcastle United agreed to sell the midfielder to Paris St-Germain for around £20 million (Dh122 million) on Monday night.

With personal terms unlikely to present a problem, Cabaye is set to fly to Paris to undergo a medical on Tuesday morning as Alan Pardew prepares for life without his best player.

The France international had told Newcastle’s manager he wanted to leave Tyneside this month, preferably for PSG, and Pardew accepted, albeit relucantly, that he would almost certainly be Laurent Blanc’s property by the end of this week.

Although Mike Ashley, Newcastle’s owner, rejected a £14 million bid for the playmaker over the weekend, hours of subsequent negotiations with PSG took place on Monday after Olivier Ltang, PSG’S assistant sporting director, arrived at St James’ Park. Those talks concluded with a second, acceptable bid in the region of Ashley’s £20 million asking price.

Pardew had made it clear that he wanted any deal concluded by Thursday at the very latest, leaving him time to recruit a replacement before the transfer window’s closure on Friday evening.

It is thought highly unlikely that the move will collapse — although Cabaye has suffered recurring groin problems in recent seasons — or that Manchester United will make a late attempt to hijack the transfer.

Were things to fall through, Newcastle are confident their 28-year-old creative midfielder, who arrived from Lille for a bargain £4.3 million in 2011, will not stage a repeat of his strike last August, when he refused to play for Newcastle in the forlorn hope of forcing through a mooted move to Arsenal.

“I’m not confident of keeping Yohan,” said Pardew on Monday. “You are talking to someone who lost Andy Carroll with eight hours of the January 2011 transfer window remaining. I don’t think any team not in a Champions League position or fighting for a Champions League spot could be confident. We know we have got a club interested in Cabaye, a very wealthy club and a powerful club and we are conscious of that.”

Cabaye has flourished this season since being shifted from a deeper role to a more classic No 10 position in the centre of the attacking midfield element of a 4-2-3-1 formation.

His stellar passing skills, set-piece execution and touch of aggression have long been much admired by Blanc. During Blanc’s time as France coach, Cabaye proved one of his favourites, starting regularly for the national side.

Replacing an immensely influential figure in a largely Francophone dressing room at St James’ Park will not be easy and Pardew concedes Cabaye’s departure could leave Newcastle “vulnerable” to a slide down the table from their eighth position.

“Our team is centred around Yohan and he plays a vital role for us,” he said in advance of Tuesday night’s game at Norwich City and before Cabaye was released from the squad travelling to Carrow Road in order to travel to France for his PSG medical. “If you take him out you leave us vulnerable. But we are doing our best to protect Newcastle United.

“We need to bring someone in for sure. You can’t lose a player of that quality and not replace him. But we are going to need some time to do that.”

The manager’s fear must be that Ashley will not deem signing a replacement this month imperative. Nonetheless, Newcastle are understood to be lining up potential moves for two midfielders: Montpellier’s Remy Cabella and Lyon’s Clement Grenier.

Pardew also covets a striker and hopes to see a loan deal completed for the Netherlands’ Luuk de Jong by Friday. Negotiations with Borussia Mnchengladbach, De Jong’s club, are at an advanced stage.

“We’re a little closer,” said Newcastle’s manager, who remains reluctant to sell Papiss Cisse and Steven Taylor this week.