PineBarrens

Pardew lost the dressing room By NEIL ASHTON Last updated at 08:39 12 December 2006 When Alan Pardew left West Ham's players scratching their heads before they boarded the team bus to Bolton last Friday, some of the squad began to openly question how much longer he could remain in charge of the club. They were stunned when he announced before training that the inexperienced left-back George McCartney and rookie defender James Collins would be marking Bolton's muscular strikeforce of El Hadji Diouf and Kevin Davies, their fate was sealed before they even arrived at the Reebok. With Javier Mashcerano left behind in London with a mysterious ankle injury, their experienced centre half Christian Dailly was told he would be playing alongside captain Nigel Reo-Coker and Hayden Mullins as the holding midfielder. It was a disaster waiting to happen and after nine defeats on the road, the team rolled over and it made it ten. All three of Bolton's forwards scored - Diouf, Davies and Anelka - in their 4-0 victory, but some of West Ham's senior players confided in friends that "it could easily have been seven or eight". The manner of that defeat was certainly alien to a club that rolled their sleeves up, finished ninth in the Premiership and came within a whisker of winning the FA Cup final against Liverpool last year. Those were the days when Pardew's planning was meticulous, but senior players noticed a change in the manager when they reported back for pre-season training. Flushed with success, some of the squad felt that he was operating the team by remote control. He earned a basic salary of £1m last season, but that was inflated - along with his ego - to £1.6m after their extraordinary success story. At the time, the former Reading manager was the man with the midas touch, but when results on the pitch took a turn for the worse, the power struggle in the boardroom provided Pardew with an alibi for their failings on the field. He was hounded on his mobile phone by their prospective new owner Kia Joorabchian, a man whose disastrous business ventures have already been highlighted in this newspaper, but to his credit, Pardew kept his cool. After hailing Javier Mascherano and Carlos Tevez as "world class players" when they signed, he told friends he "wasn't sure if they are for us" within days of their full debuts in the 1-0 defeat against Palermo in the UEFA Cup. Pardew has undoubtedly missed the injured Dean Ashton, the focal point of his attack last season, but the players must also shoulder some of the blame for his demise. When the results did not go their way, the backbiting started. The players were upset that Marlon Harewood, the club's leading goalscorer last season, had been forced to make way for Tevez and Mullins, who is the most dependable player at the club, had been axed in favour of Mascherano. Reo-Coker, the club's captain, threw his shirt at the bench after he was substituted against Liverpool, but Pardew never once carried out his private threat to drop him. The influential members of the team - captain Nigel Reo-Coker, Anton Ferdinand, Bobby Zamora and Harewood - strongly lobbied assistant manager Peter Grant, who has since left for Norwich, for their return to the team. After they were beaten 2-0 at home by Newcastle, the players felt Pardew had made the lines of demarcation clear. Some of the players were still squabbling among themselves in the dressing room when the manager walked in and told them to "Shut up and listen to what I have to say". Pardew told them that he was already a millionaire and didn't need to work, but told the players that they "earned £30,000 a week and were only in it for the money". He meant that he was only in football because he loved the game, but his comments were misinterpreted and taken by some of the influential players as a sign of arrogance. A week later, Pardew axed Tevez before their 2-0 defeat at Manchester City and he was clinging on to his job when they lost 2-1 at Chesterfield in the Carling Cup. After the game, chairman Terrence Brown stormed down to the dressing room and claimed that their performance had been worse than a Sunday pub side, but they staged a mini-revival the following weekend. Pardew vowed to go back to basics the following weekend against Blackburn and it was Teddy Sheringham, who had waited to patiently for his chance on the sidelines, who inspired their first victory since they beat Charlton on the opening day of the season. A week later, Pardew appeared to have turned the corner when they beat Arsenal with a last minute winner, but three successive defeats - against Everton, Wigan and Bolton - were the final nails in the coffin. With new owners to impress, Pardew appeared to have lost his motivational skills with the team and behind the scenes, he was already losing credit with the new chairman Eggert Magnusson. He explained that the arrival of Tevez and Mascherano had upset the club's rhythm and also told the board that he was disappointed that the previous regime had not backed him in the transfer market in the summer. Although the move for the Argentinians was done without Pardew's knowledge, he personally sanctioned the transfers on August 31 and he also bought England keeper Robert Green, signed Lee Bowyer from Newcastle and Chelsea striker Carlton Cole during the summer. Magnusson pledged to make significant investment in the team in the January transfer window, but that will be someone else's responsibility after that battering at Bolton. The Icelandic business tycoon felt the team had folded and after that, Pardew was finished.

The pressure on Charlton to sack Alan Pardew increased when the Supporters Club gave the manager a vote of no confidence. It is believed only Charlton's dire financial situation is keeping Pardew, who has 18 months to run on his contract, in his job as the cash-strapped Addicks cannot afford to pay him off. But with Charlton in the bottom three of the Championship, Paul Nottage, chairman of the Supporters Club said: 'It is depressing. Four years ago we were established in the Premier League. 'We are stuck with him at the moment. If he was sacked it would mean less money for new players which the squad needs. 'He's not the sort of man to walk away but he seems bereft of ideas. 'I know the Championship is very tight and three wins could see you move near the play-off places but I cannot see where those three wins would come from.' Sounds familiar...

You do realise they play completely different roles right. Anita and colback in mid? Weak as p*ss. And I like Anita Liverpool have played Gerrard and Henderson in CM for the past ten games. They've won them all. The days of 'strong' central midfielders who can only tackle and contribute nothing offensively are done. Players like Tiote are an anachronism. and they're not that good defensively shock horror, the difference is we won't have a world class striker and a very very effective striker to bail us out like that. No, the real difference is they have a very good football manager and we have Mike Bassett.

Sissoko more often than not has been s**** in CM, best games have been on the right for us. And Tiote's done a lot more than Anita. The annoying thing is those three should all start together in a three man central midfield, Pardew for reason only known to his cuntsbrain refusing to do it. It is because Alan Pardew is a cunt, a coward and a negative shitbag of a manager.

There was an own goal in the Hong Kong league a while back that was so good that if it had been against the opposition would walk into the top ten goals ever scored.

Fantastic to see and long overdue, one of the most important figures in the history of NUFC.

Asking a Newcastle United supporter if they're a Keegan fan should be like asking someone if they enjoy music, fun, sunshine and blowjobs - anyone who doesn't is a f'king weirdo.

Moyes would be a massive upgrade on that festering arse-wart in every possible way.

The Guv 1 Chubby loser who embodies everything wrong with the club at present 0

The introduction of the metric system.

John Beck, Gary Megson, Sammy Lee, Howard Wilkinson, Peter Reid - anyone but this turd.

Aside from being a negative, clueless, preening ninny, it's noticeable how no player has came out in support of him in recent weeks. He's surpassed Allardyce and Souness in the list of hated NUFC managers, which is some going.

I'd agree with this, for as bad as Gouffran's been since boxing day (and it's been Fumaca turboshit as well), a large portion of blame has to be laid squarely at the feet or Mr Logic.

'Too often teams are governed by the fear of losing and play cautiously. I promise that teams of mine will never die wondering.' - Guardiola. This man and our prickstick are both in football management in the same way that Brian Wilson and Daphne and Celeste both make music.

A goal nearly every 5 games for us and one in 4 in his career overall - Gerd Muller-esque.

He's now worse than Jack Charlton, Souness and fat Sam combined.

He makes Wayne Fereday look like Garrincha.

Doesn't matter if you're from Elswick or Estonia, if you're shit you're shit. Dummett is shit.

Were there any Sunderland fans at Anfield tonight? All Liverpool fans where the away fans are usually housed.

Negative trumpet.

Gouffran with the worst individual performance since Fumaca/Chewbacca/Youknacka.

This post is so full of unfounded, evidenceless generalisations that it hardly warrants a reply, but I'm polite, and I enjoy a debate, so here goes......... I'll start on the parts which I agree with. Newcastle is a better city. It has better infrastructure, architecture, museums, nightlife, hospitals and university. Now to the rest. There is not a huge anti Newcastle bias in Sunderland. I live here, and have done for all of my life. As with many of these things it's magnified because it's a vocal minority who spout off. Sadly the vast majority of Mackems, like me, are rarely heard, or worse, conveniently ignored. As for the Toon Ale. If I was to produce an ale called Mackem Magic, and tried to retail it in Newcastle how do you think it sell ? Nothing to do with the people of Sunderland being petty, simply our puerile rivalry rearing it's childish head once again. Sunderland a run down area ? The area I live in is anything but ran down, and by typing such ludicrous, generalised statements simply undermines the relevant parts of your argument. As for wearing rival tops in other cities ? Have you been to the Sunderland Airshow ? There's hundreds of Newcastle tops on show, and no one gives a toss. I go there every year and I think it's quite refreshing to see all the different fans, with their families, mingling without any trouble. As for your last rant. You began by saying you didn't want to sound arrogant, which is never a good start (it's a bit like saying "with all due respect") you then come out with this :- "And that's because yous are s***, a s*** club, s*** city, s*** fans, s*** s*** s***. NUFC are s*** btw but Geordies are recognised as decent people the world" Baseless, ignorant nonsense, akin to saying all Scousers are thieves, or all Yorkshiremen are tight. It's simply not true. Sensible, thoughtful stuff. You'll never fit in on RTG with that attitude, mind.

Cheers

If you bet on a team having a two goal handicap head start, If the other team wins by two goals is the bet lost or void? - A.Novice-Gambler

Good point, and if Cisse has been written off by the majority of fans as now having spent longer out of form then in, then surely the same applies to Alan 'cotton ball mouth' Pardew, only more so.