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Chief Executive Nigel Howe cannot understand why Pardew would even consider a move to Stoke, a club no bigger than Reading.
"Why would Alan want to go to Stoke, a club that in my opinion is not as well placed as ours?" said Howe, speaking to the Reading Chronicle.
There could be wholesale changes at the Madejski Stadium next summer with twelve players, Alan Pardew and the majority of his background staff in the final few months of their contracts.
Despite the somewhat alarming scenario Howe is not ready to sit down with anyone to discuss new deals just yet.
He added: "I hope Alan doesn't feel vulnerable. The issue will be addressed in time. He has a contract until June and we have players to sort out too.
"We're only 12 games into the season.We need a bit more time to see how things go. But there's no need for all this speculation. We're happy as we are.
"There's no point in players getting excited about contracts. We'll leave that to the manager to sort out. His contract will come first then we can deal with them.
"I know Alan is very happy here. He's doing a good job but football has gone through a tough period and to ask the board to hand out new contracts right now is wrong.
"We don't want to get into any pre-contract issues so our board won't miss the opportunity."