Alan Pardew

[pi_D]

I hate that word in football, stability. It doesn't even mean anything. Surely being two places off relegation with four games to go is the very definition of unstable.

 

For every Man United, there's a Chelsea, for Arsenal there's Spurs. f***ing Bayern Munich have been through a manager a year for the past six frigging years, and we think we're the clever ones for putting an idiot in charge and giving him a long contract. Jesus f***ing Christ man.

 

Nah, I disagree. All of the teams that you've mentioned there can negate stability by throwing money at the problem and can still fail, relatively speaking. Stability for us/Everton/Villa etc is clearly important to an extent if you can see things are going in the right direction, you have the right manager, or there are genuine, substantial factors that are out of control and can be attributed to under-performances.

 

I don't think there's any need to look past Pardew just simply being completely the wrong manager. Stability means something, it just means nothing if, for example, it's the equivalent of your parents fighting every day but staying unhappily married.

 

I'm not sure Spurs fall into that category.

 

Spurs have had stability for years now, mainly boardroom stability. They had a wage cap and sold their best players before getting cl and solidifying their success and spending more money. Even then they lost modric.

 

These things take time, and a vision that lasts longer than two seasons..... Only slightly longer though as I think pardew will be replaced soon enough. Ashley wants success.

[Dave]

As it was, this rot-stopping point rounded off a difficult week for the manager that at times he did little to alleviate. Calling criticism of his side's worst derby defeat since 1979 "heavy-handed" was neither helpful or accurate, with neither the press or supporters guilty of any significant movement against him.

 

For him to comment on what he obviously deemed as unfair comments directed towards him though does show the singular lack of negative coverage/abuse so far this season. For a combination of reasons he's a had a smooth ride so far, as people variously took on board calls for unity and stability, showed patience and understanding with player recruitment and availability issues and clung to the hope of an end to our trophy drought via the Europa League.

 

If he wants to know what heavy-handed means round here, phone calls to the likes of Graeme Souness (bedsheet protests at Man City) and Glenn Roeder (season tickets thrown on the pitch at home to Blackburn) while John Carver will be able to supply chapter and verse on the spectacular vote of no confidence in Bobby Robson at home to Wolves shown by the mass fan walkout.

 

And quite why he felt the need to rake over the ashes of the derby defeat in his pre-Baggies press conference was unclear, his needless comment about mackem envy of our Europa League involvement inevitably seized upon by the press.

 

It's a tricky line to get the derby games right in terms of their significance: not leaving oneself open to charges of underplaying the importance of the occasion (as Ruud Gullit did with his infamous unfavourable comparison with the Milan set-to's) or going to the other extreme and hamming it up as if the world was about to end. I don't give a toss whether we finish above them. 

 

Over-egging the pudding prompted the departure of Steve "agent" Bruce from the mackems, with his Geordie ancestry ultimately outweighed by a fixation with losing to us.

 

The manager isn't alone in talking nonsense in the wake of the mackem loss though - some crass questioning directed at Jonas Gutierrez resulting in his agreeing that this had been the worst week of his time as the club. Worse than relegation? Don't talk bloody rubbish man!

 

It's in the area of team selection though that more and more fans are expressing disquiet. There seemed little wrong with Haidara when he was dragged off here to allow Jonas another chance to reprise the left back role that had aided our demise last Sunday, while Gouffran's continuing inability to play for more than an hour just baffles us - and don't forget that he wasn't eligible for Europe.   

 

Yet again were prompted to ask, just what is Vurnon Anita's intended role? What circumstance requires his input to resolve? Chasing a goal, defending a lead, you tell us. Having failed to sell anyone in pre-season, our entire £8m transfer budget went on him. Baffling.     

 

There was some additional concern about Sissoko and Cabaye, who both lost the plot in the closing stages of this game. The former was lucky not to receive a second booking for dissent, while the captain almost downed tools before going off, hardly leading by example - or in fact, leading at all.

 

And while we're not suggesting that Gabriel Obertan's treble for the reserves on Friday night should have resulted in his recall (the expression too little, too late comes to mind), it does raise the question of quite what benefit rookie Adam Campbell is getting from his perpetual role as an unused substitute, aside from filling the bench.

 

A cynic could be forgiven for wondering whether the young forward's Geordie roots mean that he's serving some sort of obscure purpose for the manager by being bracketed in with the first team. A lack of reserve team games in the last two months though seems like stagnation to us, enforced idleness a rather odd reward for earlier endeavour. 

 

It's beyond doubt that injuries and an increased workload have adversely affected our season. Having established those factors however, other questions over selection, training, coaching and fitness remain unanswered - with an increasing cynicism over the level of injuries and the variable accuracy over return dates (poor Ryan Taylor excepted).

 

As we've written on these pages too often over the years, we're on the final lap and in some distress, staggering towards the finishing line. This season is proving to be no exception.

[loki679]

Spot on from .com there.  The Gouffran one is baffling considering he keeps banging on about our players being tired and the Gouff should be one of our freshest having missed the EL campaign.

 

Gotta have a bit of Shola though I guess.....

[mattypnufc]

Maybes they should install one of these...you know...just to get the basics right such as passing the ball 10 yards accurately.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oU9EzFBBCiA

 

[Disco]

Not a single piece of that .com article I don't agree with.

[joeyt]

Aye, thats a good piece

[Beren]

Excellent from .com

[Skeletor]

Was reading the .com match report for the 2-0 over Liverpool last year and found this gem:

 

"If someone said, ’You are going to be in the Europa League’, I would snap their hands off. We've been 10 points ahead of the group below us all season and we need to see it home, we want to take this club into Europe - the fans deserve it. It will be a disappointment if we don't get there now.

 

How quickly things changed the minute we were actually in Europe.

[Ronaldo]

He contradicted himself a short time later when he said that he was torn over whether he wanted us to get into Europe. Maybe he was told there'd be fuck all to spend on making the squad bigger?

[Dr Venkman]

I doubt they'd tell him whether there was or not.

[Cronky]

As we've written on these pages too often over the years, we're on the final lap and in some distress, staggering towards the finishing line. This season is proving to be no exception.

 

... is food for thought.

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Was reading the .com match report for the 2-0 over Liverpool last year and found this gem:

 

"If someone said, ’You are going to be in the Europa League’, I would snap their hands off. We've been 10 points ahead of the group below us all season and we need to see it home, we want to take this club into Europe - the fans deserve it. It will be a disappointment if we don't get there now.

 

How quickly things changed the minute we were actually in Europe.

 

Happens to almost every club in our position.

[Hanshithispantz]

As we've written on these pages too often over the years, we're on the final lap and in some distress, staggering towards the finishing line. This season is proving to be no exception.

 

... is food for thought.

I'm guessing you mean this in a "This is just us, it'll be the same if we get rid of Pards" kind of way?

 

The shape of the club is one of the best it's ever been in, the owner in spite of being an apparently sadistic bellend has actually done wonders with us, a very good manager is the final piece of the puzzle that we need imo (maybe a new coaching staff too). In the past when we've limped over the line the whole club has been surrounded with turmoil, there's none of that now, everything is strangely calm.

[Zero]

.......Hans, I sincerely hope so, I am not that optimistic to be honest.  I sincerely hope you are fucking correct..........just I don't think we could really get a better manager this summer, given Ashley's reputation.

[Wullie]

Was reading the .com match report for the 2-0 over Liverpool last year and found this gem:

 

"If someone said, ’You are going to be in the Europa League’, I would snap their hands off. We've been 10 points ahead of the group below us all season and we need to see it home, we want to take this club into Europe - the fans deserve it. It will be a disappointment if we don't get there now.

 

How quickly things changed the minute we were actually in Europe.

 

Happens to almost every club in our position.

 

What does?

 

EDIT: someone fix that quote will you? Fucking phone.

 

[AyeDubbleYoo]

Was reading the .com match report for the 2-0 over Liverpool last year and found this gem:

 

"If someone said, ’You are going to be in the Europa League’, I would snap their hands off. We've been 10 points ahead of the group below us all season and we need to see it home, we want to take this club into Europe - the fans deserve it. It will be a disappointment if we don't get there now.

 

How quickly things changed the minute we were actually in Europe.

 

Happens to almost every club in our position.

 

What does?

 

EDIT: someone fix that quote will you? Fucking phone.

 

 

Getting into Europe then complaining about the stresses it puts on the squad.

[littlelunchbox]

ok own up, who wrote this for espn?  clearly a member of this forum. 

 

In my opinion the problems began in the Boardroom when they failed to strengthen on a squad that everyone knew was weak. The club's 'purples' signing policy left Alan Pardew short on quality. The signing of Vurnon Anita was also a strange one -- quality footballers are always welcome additions, but anyone could see that other positions needed to be strengthened before another midfielder came in. It is widely assumed that Pardew has little say in who comes in with Chief Scout Graham Carr identifying signings. Anita may well have been a signing that Pardew did not want when you consider how little he has used him throughout the season.

 

The board finally strengthened the squad in the January transfer window but by that point the league season was a battle for survival rather than something to build on after last year.

 

Pardew's 'Manager of the Year' titles seem to have changed how the manager thinks and operates. Time and time again this season Pardew has tried to make himself look clever -- the season has been littered with bizarre team line-ups, mental tactical reshuffles at strange times in matches and players playing out of position.

 

The most criminal of these is Pardew's use of Moussa Sissoko. Sissoko arrived in January and made an instant impact with a superb through ball for a Papiss Cisse goal at Aston Villa followed by an all-time great individual performance at St James' Park in the 3-2 win over Chelsea. Since then Pardew has opted to use the dominant French International midfielder as a Number 10 (someone to aim long balls at in Pardew's setup) or as a wide man. Unbelievable. Even French manager Didier Deschamps felt the need to scorn this.

 

It's not just Moussa though -- Cisse played the opening months of the season as a wide man, Jonas Gutierrez has played all the way across midfield as well as at fullback, Cheick Tiote has played some games in a more advanced position than Yohan Cabaye which is totally baffling. Even if Pardew sees Cabaye as a 'Quarterback' with the ability to spray passes around, his tactics often totally miss out the midfield making this role redundant.

 

There also look to be some other coaching deficiencies. We all now know that Newcastle haven't score a goal from a corner in 18 months and over 200 games. We all know that the next time Newcastle get a free kick anywhere between 35 and 70 yards from goal they will aim to Mike Williamson or Steven Taylor at the back post to no avail. Why? Do they not practice these things? Why so predictable and so unsuccessful? It's not good enough.

 

Newcastle supporters have spent most of the season watching ugly football. Their 'long ball' count has consistently exceeded all other Premier League teams. Players like Cabaye, Sissoko and Hatem Ben Arfa cannot enjoy playing in such an ugly, underperforming side.

 

Then again, the players have to take their share of responsibility too. Perhaps some Newcastle supporters overrate their players? The majority of Newcastle supporters rated Tiote as a £20million footballer only 18 months ago -- don't deny it! I was one. Did we overrate Tiote or is this another sign of coaching deficiency? How can a player who was so dominating and vital become such a liability? I can't speak for supporters of other clubs but at Newcastle there is a culture of footballers being regarded as either 'world class' or 'absolutely shocking' when in reality the majority of them are neither.

 

Pardew has bemoaned bad luck or, to quote a Pardewism, "we just didn't have the rub of the green" a few times this season. Newcastle have also enjoyed a fair amount of good luck -- look at Demba Ba's unspotted handball goal at Reading or the late, deflected winner against West Brom.

 

Tiredness has also been a regular excuse for the manager. While I am sure it has played it's part off the back of a Europa League campaign, Newcastle only played in two domestic cup games. Compare that to Chelsea -- Cabaye and Sissoko were said to be tired in the 3-0 capitulation to Sunderland but Chelsea's Juan Mata and Eden Hazard have played 114 games between them this season -- a lot more than our French duo, and they still look in great shape. Chelsea obviously have a superior player conditioning programme. Injuries have severely plagued Newcastle all season and far too many of them have been muscular.

 

The spirit of the players is a strange one. How can you explain so many late, late winners while also considering the absolutely pitiful displays at Southampton, Manchester City, the second half at West Brom on Saturday or the capitulation to one of the poorest Sunderland sides in years? Some of this is down to a lack of leadership on the pitch. The appointment of Fabricio Coloccini as Captain was a strange one -- Everton demonstrated how players can influence the officials when they won at St James' Park in January with Leighton Baines and company constantly in the referee's ear – Coloccini, on the other hand, is far from fluent in English. This has to have an effect. Quite what Pardew has said in the dressing room at times is also a concern -- his 15 minutes with the players at halftime can completely ruin performances.

 

This has been a long, unpleasant season. Newcastle will survive but a lot of things have to be addressed in the summer on and off the pitch.

[Guest Roger Kint]

'Then again, the players have to take their share of responsibility too.'

 

Na cant be anyone on here 

 

Fwiw i pretty much agree with everything in that though

[Ronaldo]

Leighton Baines in the referee's ear ffs. How does such rubbish get published?

[David28]

Who complained about Coloccini being captain when things were going well last season? I can't remember (m)any who thought it was an issue...

[Guest Roger Kint]

Leighton Baines in the referee's ear ffs. How does such rubbish get published?

 

Didnt even read that part, bloody hell

[Disco]

'Then again, the players have to take their share of responsibility too.'

 

Na cant be anyone on here 

 

Fwiw i pretty much agree with everything in that though

 

TBF, there are a loyal band of player critics in here too. Myself included.

[Guest Roger Kint]

'Then again, the players have to take their share of responsibility too.'

 

Na cant be anyone on here 

 

Fwiw i pretty much agree with everything in that though

 

TBF, there are a loyal band of player critics in here too. Myself included.

 

Same here, tend to get shouted down for saying it though as if its a defence of Pardew in some way to suggest it.

[Ronaldo]

'The personnel aren't to blame at all.'

[Dr Venkman]

As we've written on these pages too often over the years, we're on the final lap and in some distress, staggering towards the finishing line. This season is proving to be no exception.

 

... is food for thought.

I'm guessing you mean this in a "This is just us, it'll be the same if we get rid of Pards" kind of way?

 

The shape of the club is one of the best it's ever been in, the owner in spite of being an apparently sadistic bellend has actually done wonders with us, a very good manager is the final piece of the puzzle that we need imo (maybe a new coaching staff too). In the past when we've limped over the line the whole club has been surrounded with turmoil, there's none of that now, everything is strangely calm.

 

Personally I think this unreserved praise for Ashley/criticism for Pardew angle is a bit off.

 

It can't be denied that the books look better than have in a while (yippee) but when you look at what Ashley's actually implemented since he's been here the two stand outs for me are sensible spending and advertising for his company (which he's entitled to do). I don't necessarily think that he just spends the bare minimum (as I used to think) otherwise I don't think we'd have seen new long contracts for Tiote/Krul or recruitment of Sissoko/MYM etc who must be on decent wages even though they were brought in for relatively cheap, but I still feel his priority is SD and always will be.

 

Ashley has backed a great scout and well done to him for that, but lets not forget that Pardew is their man and he was specifically brought in to be their mouthpiece as well as the guy who picks the 11 on a Saturday. They want a 'stable' set up in the club so they can do what they want, when they want, footballing success is not the priority (I said all of this when Pardew was appointed and I still believe it). The reduction in expectation exercise that Pardew is always on comes right from the top.

 

The club may be in the best financial  shape it's been in for some time, but the ambition to do well on the pitch is arguably the lowest it's been in 25 years.