Bastia have announced the signing of goalkeeper Mickael Landreau on a deal until the end of the season.
The 33-year-old was out of contract after leaving Lille by mutual consent on December 6 following an apparent falling-out with general manager Frederic Paquet.
Landreau, who began his career at Nantes before joining Paris St Germain, spent three years at Lille, winning the league and cup double in 2011, and was under contract until 2014.
The France international will officially join Bastia on December 31.
Speaking in the wake of his departure from Lille earlier this month, Landreau said: "The most important thing is to blossom on the pitch. I could not anymore. And a year and a half is a long way to go when you have hard days.
"I have freed myself both sportingly and psychologically."
Landreau could make his debut for his new club in their Coupe de France derby encounter with Championnat National side CA Bastia on January 6.
The Senegal striker's future is once again the subject of intense speculation with a series of clubs reportedly ready to activate the release clause in his contract when the transfer window opens next month.
Pardew is in the process of identifying potential targets of his own in several positions, and has confirmed that Marseille frontman Loic Remy is among them.
Whether or not a striker will remain a priority should Ba stay, as his manager would dearly love him to do, remains to be seen, but in the circumstances, Ameobi's match-winning intervention against QPR on Saturday could hardly have come at a more opportune moment.
The 31-year-old said: "It's been frustrating, sitting on the bench every week and watching the lads out there doing their best to try to win.
"As a player, you want to be involved and help in any way you can. At the moment, that's me coming off the bench and I just have to do what I can.
"Hopefully, I can make an impact like I did on Saturday. I'm just really delighted that we sent everyone home happy for Christmas."
Ameobi's contribution was the only goal in a contest the Magpies dominated without ever making the pressure tell until the closing stages.
Papiss Cisse's 61st-minute removal, rather than the Nigeria international's introduction, was greeted by boos at St James' Park, but the jeers turned to cheers 20 minutes later when he ran on to fellow substitute Sylvain Marveaux's pass and stepped inside before shooting left footed across keeper Rob Green and into the bottom corner.
Any win is greeted by raucous celebrations at St James', but the fact that this was just the club's second in eight Barclays Premier League outings made for even more joyous scenes in the stands.
Ameobi said: "Sylvain, who has got great vision, spotted me and I managed to cut in and hit the side-netting, so it was nice.
"I haven't scored too many goals this year so far, so it's great to get on the scoresheet and because it was so valuable, it obviously means so much more. I'm really delighted with the finish.
"Obviously, we have been through quite a period of not winning many games, so this game was massive.
"With the two sides being so close together at the bottom of the table, it was a must-win game.
"There was a huge sigh of relief and we are delighted that we could get all three points."
For all that Newcastle were in control for much of the game, Green was largely untroubled until Ameobi struck with the invention of injured duo Yohan Cabaye and Hatem Ben Arfa painfully conspicuous by its absence.
However, a rare clean sheet provided the basis for a narrow, but precious win, and Ameobi is hoping that will finally kick-start a season which has rather limped towards the halfway point.
He said: "Something we felt as a side has been very frustrating is the fact that we haven't really looked like keeping clean sheets, we haven't looked solid, and that was the basis of our success last season.
"But you can't underestimate how much a win does for confidence in this game, and that's hopefully going to give us a lot of confidence going into the Christmas games."
The Magpies head to leaders Manchester United on Boxing Day having not won a league game at Old Trafford since 1972, and they will do so without midfielder Cheick Tiote, who collected his fifth booking of the campaign on Saturday.
Ameobi said with a smile: "Hopefully they will eat a lot more than we do and we can nick a result down there."
Hammers boss Allardyce insisted he could not risk losing any more players during the festive period as he faced up to the prospect of Carlton Cole being banned for three matches after Saturday's controversial 2-1 Premier League defeat to Everton.
Referee Anthony Taylor infuriated Allardyce and West Ham's fans by sending off Cole for catching Leighton Baines with a raised boot while making what appeared an innocent attempt to control a dropping ball.
Taylor completed his conversion to pantomime villain by dismissing Everton's Darron Gibson for a similar offence in stoppage-time, Hammers supporters pouring scorn on what looked to them an obvious attempt to even up the score.
Allardyce and opposite number David Moyes confirmed they would appeal their players' red cards but the former was equally concerned about how to manage the rest of his depleted squad.
Andy Carroll, Mohamed Diame, Yossi Benayoun and Ricardo Vaz Te were joined on the sidelines by the ill Guy Demel on Saturday, with Allardyce forced to select an 80% fit Gary O'Neil in his starting line-up and long-term injury victims Alou Diarra and Jack Collison on the bench.
"We had 10 players who were fit and one was about 80% fit and that was all we had," Allardyce said.
"We had Jack Collison, who hasn't kicked a ball since the play-off final and Alou Diarra, who hasn't kicked a ball in three months, that is how bare bones we are at the moment."
West Ham's Boxing Day match at Arsenal has been postponed because of a planned tube strike, with their next game at Reading on Saturday, and Allardyce added: "Medical staff are busier than us as coaches at the moment. We can't afford any more contact or any more injuries, so we can't even do any training.
"If we try to do any training and try to do any shape or build-up for Reading, we will get contact between players and, if you get contact between players, you risk injury and we can't do that.
"We can't even get out on the field and do a bit of coaching at the moment."
