Maybe you're right. I mean I'd love nothing more than to like the bloke but he's just not likeable for me and although as a Toon fan I'm enjoying our decent results I am not so much enjoying our football and worruy that we'll come unstuck soon and will linger as a mid-table side which the appointment of Pardew was meant to help us overcome.
I never used to rate him at all as a manager before he came here and as recently as a couple of weeks ago I still was a million miles away from being convinced. I thought he'd be an unmitigated disaster tbh but the more the games go by the more I am starting to like him.
I read an article fairly recently that spoke about the fact he's apparently very maticulous with his preparation in terms of tactics and drilling of the players. That and when he speaks about his plans for certain players (Cabaye and Ben Arfa in particular) it makes me think that he might have a bit more about him than the bog standard coach. Infact, the only thing I can really fault him on this season is his use of substitutes and as of yet they haven't really cost us. I think the football is gradually improving too and that is without a few pieces of the jigsaw yet to fall into place (including the most important of them all in Ben Arfa). I know some people like to criticise him because it's their default setting but I'm honestly finding it very hard to fault the job he's doing. As a person, well, he may be a cunt. Even if he is I personally couldn't care less so long as the results and progress on the pitch hold up.