Alan Pardew

[Yorkie]

This is old news but I need it for an article I'm writing for uni - is Pardew's 8-year contract the longest in PL history?

[Dave]

This is old news but I need it for an article I'm writing for uni - is Pardew's 8-year contract the longest in PL history?

 

Keegan signed a 10-year contract with us. Allardyce got a 10-year Bolton contract, though he signed it in the Championship.

[Jack Flash]

This is old news but I need it for an article I'm writing for uni - is Pardew's 8-year contract the longest in PL history?

 

We gave Keegan a 10 year one but I don't know the specifics of it.

[Ronaldo]

not every team in the league has a first class first 11 and bench, its utterly unrealistic

 

Of course it is. But is it unrealistic to have 2 or 3 players in the squad with proven track records of hitting double figures in a season? All of those chasing top 7 do.

 

Who in that Everton squad hits double figures a season? currently only Fellaini on 11? Swansea? West Brom?

 

That a completely invalid point. Its not even remotely true.

 

Fellaini, Jelavic and Anichebe will all do it this season. In the league alone they've got 6 players on 5 goals or more. We've got 2. Jelavic/Anichibe on 6/7 goals each. Your sure they will each get 3/4 goals more before the end of the season?! Honestly man You've seen jelavic this season right?  The reason we don't have any other goalscorers is that we play with one up front completely isolated, and hump long balls up to him.

 

Never mentioned Swansea's scorers but West Brom have Lukaku, Long and Odemwingie. All 3 would stroll into our matchday 18.

You mentioned "teams chasing the top 7" So they are in there.  VERY debateable if they would stroll into our matchday eleven at all., 

 

 

Lukaku easily would. The other two are on the bench at worst.

 

He probably would. But then  equally Colo/Debuchy/Mbiwa/Santon/Cabaye/Cisse/HBA/Sissoko would stroll into theres.

 

Its an irrelevance. The point is that we have players capable of scoring goals, but we do not utilise them. no goals from a corner all season?! how many does that account for? Crossed free kicks?

 

We only have 1 player (Taylor) is remotely good or dominant in the air in fairness.

 

Really? didn't evra score from a corner for Man Utd? It's our rank set pieces, not the personnel.

 

This guy, man.

 

Easily the most Ironic statement I've seen on here.

 

Evra scored from a corner so it's nothing to do with our players, we get it.

[Mole_Toonfan]

not every team in the league has a first class first 11 and bench, its utterly unrealistic

 

Of course it is. But is it unrealistic to have 2 or 3 players in the squad with proven track records of hitting double figures in a season? All of those chasing top 7 do.

 

Who in that Everton squad hits double figures a season? currently only Fellaini on 11? Swansea? West Brom?

 

That a completely invalid point. Its not even remotely true.

 

Fellaini, Jelavic and Anichebe will all do it this season. In the league alone they've got 6 players on 5 goals or more. We've got 2. Jelavic/Anichibe on 6/7 goals each. Your sure they will each get 3/4 goals more before the end of the season?! Honestly man You've seen jelavic this season right?  The reason we don't have any other goalscorers is that we play with one up front completely isolated, and hump long balls up to him.

 

Never mentioned Swansea's scorers but West Brom have Lukaku, Long and Odemwingie. All 3 would stroll into our matchday 18.

You mentioned "teams chasing the top 7" So they are in there.  VERY debateable if they would stroll into our matchday eleven at all., 

 

 

Lukaku easily would. The other two are on the bench at worst.

 

He probably would. But then  equally Colo/Debuchy/Mbiwa/Santon/Cabaye/Cisse/HBA/Sissoko would stroll into theres.

 

Its an irrelevance. The point is that we have players capable of scoring goals, but we do not utilise them. no goals from a corner all season?! how many does that account for? Crossed free kicks?

 

We only have 1 player (Taylor) is remotely good or dominant in the air in fairness.

 

Really? didn't evra score from a corner for Man Utd? It's our rank set pieces, not the personnel.

 

This guy, man.

 

Easily the most Ironic statement I've seen on here.

 

Oscar today too.... height doesn't matter if the movement and delivery is good..... which sadly it obviously isn't...

 

Man Yoo have scored like 12 goals from corners this season and they are hardly the biggest team.

[Ronaldo]

Evra's a quality header of the ball on the end of quality deliveries. None of that applies to our lot.

[Interpolic]

Evra's a quality header of the ball on the end of quality deliveries. None of that applies to our lot.

 

We don't help ourselves by floating each and every single corner in, would do us good to drill the odd one in with pace.

[Yorkie]

Dunno if these quotes from Llambias have been referred to recently, but to those who still think there's a chance he's going to get sacked at the end of the season:

 

"The eight years gives us that stability. It's very important to us to bring that to Newcastle. It hasn't had it. Ever. So the idea of an eight-year contract is that it ties us and it ties them into the way forward.

 

"Alan basically is very happy with what we do and how we do it. He's very ambitious and he's got that drive in him, so what do we lack? We lack a trophy of some sort. And we'd love to get something in there."

 

"Football wastes so much money changing their management. Look at some of the main clubs, like Arsenal and Manchester United, there's no coincidence that their success comes with their stability. Sir Alex Ferguson has done a quarter of a century plus.

 

"You can have a bad run. Sir Alex, when he first went to Man United, the first four years was tough for them as a club, but they stuck by him and now look where they are. We have to stick by our manager - and we want to.

 

"What we're trying to say is, 'Listen guys, this is our manager, this is our backroom staff and they're tied in long-term.'

 

"If we, for instance, go through a bad period, then okay, we have to take it on the chin. We have to move with that period. You can't have roses all the way through eight years.

 

"But we need that confidence that we've got the right manager, and we have.

 

"I have a very good working relationship with Alan. We can discuss any subject. We have an honest relationship, which is nice and necessary.

 

"Alan has got vision and he absolutely, absolutely wants success. That's just part of Alan. Wherever he's been, he's always been driven for that success and that's what we want. It's a good combination."

[Alberto2005]

Fuck sake

 

Easy to say that at the time mind.

[Yorkie]

Those quotes are from The Mirror article at the time, where Simon Bird reckoned he (and Carver/Stone/Woodman) would get their full contracts paid out if sacked.

 

[Dave]

We spoke a lot after the derby because there were things we wanted to improve on from that game. You saw in the first half the improvements we made, we just weren't able to sustain it.

[Ronaldo]

Evra's a quality header of the ball on the end of quality deliveries. None of that applies to our lot.

 

We don't help ourselves by floating each and every single corner in, would do us good to drill the odd one in with pace.

 

I completely agree that the organisation is very poor, but the deliveries when well-intentioned are also usually poor and we don't have anyone bar Taylor who attacks the ball in the air. The personnel at hand just isn't conducive to scoring from them.

 

That said, you would expect us to get at least 2 or 3 from corners by default.

[TRon]

Dunno if these quotes from Llambias have been referred to recently, but to those who still think there's a chance he's going to get sacked at the end of the season:

 

"The eight years gives us that stability. It's very important to us to bring that to Newcastle. It hasn't had it. Ever. So the idea of an eight-year contract is that it ties us and it ties them into the way forward.

 

"Alan basically is very happy with what we do and how we do it. He's very ambitious and he's got that drive in him, so what do we lack? We lack a trophy of some sort. And we'd love to get something in there."

 

"Football wastes so much money changing their management. Look at some of the main clubs, like Arsenal and Manchester United, there's no coincidence that their success comes with their stability. Sir Alex Ferguson has done a quarter of a century plus.

 

"You can have a bad run. Sir Alex, when he first went to Man United, the first four years was tough for them as a club, but they stuck by him and now look where they are. We have to stick by our manager - and we want to.

 

"What we're trying to say is, 'Listen guys, this is our manager, this is our backroom staff and they're tied in long-term.'

 

"If we, for instance, go through a bad period, then okay, we have to take it on the chin. We have to move with that period. You can't have roses all the way through eight years.

 

"But we need that confidence that we've got the right manager, and we have.

 

"I have a very good working relationship with Alan. We can discuss any subject. We have an honest relationship, which is nice and necessary.

 

"Alan has got vision and he absolutely, absolutely wants success. That's just part of Alan. Wherever he's been, he's always been driven for that success and that's what we want. It's a good combination."

 

He said the same thing about Joe Kinnear, and tbf, Dekka is just Ashley's mouthpiece, it's not like what he says needs to be taken as gospel.

[Jack Flash]

"I’ve never bet in a casino; it’s just not something I do"

 

"But what I’m not is someone who just comes in and becomes a lapdog to the board. Anyone who knows my personality knows that’s not me."

 

Pardew's interviews from when he joined are full of hilarity.

[Mick]

We spoke a lot after the derby because there were things we wanted to improve on from that game. You saw in the first half the improvements we made, we just weren't able to sustain it.

 

That doesn't match the headline.

[Mick]

"I’ve never bet in a casino; it’s just not something I do"

 

"But what I’m not is someone who just comes in and becomes a lapdog to the board. Anyone who knows my personality knows that’s not me."

 

Pardew's interviews from when he joined are full of hilarity.

 

He probably followed both with "trust me."

[Dave]

We spoke a lot after the derby because there were things we wanted to improve on from that game. You saw in the first half the improvements we made, we just weren't able to sustain it.

 

That doesn't match the headline.

 

That's all I could make out from the back page image, it continues inside. It's in the Mirror too but that doesn't mention the fatigue thing.

[Dave]

By the end of the afternoon Newcastle United were a point closer to safety, yet Alan Pardew looked genuinely taken aback at the suggestion that he was confident about avoiding relegation. "I'm not being confident, and I'm certainly not being arrogant about it," the Newcastle manager said.

 

"We've still got work to do, we've still got tough games to come. That's why the point today was so important. They're gold dust at this time of year, especially when you're away from home."

 

[Guest neesy111]

He's trying to lower expectations with his comments.

[Interpolic]

Mannnn.  No comment.

[Pilko]

They're gold dust when you've only won once away from home in the league all season. If we'd posted five or six away wins before now then suddenly they aren't fucking 'gold dust' at all

[Ronaldo]

I thought Harry got an easy ride from the press. Looks like par for the course next to this nonsense.

[TRon]

Evra's a quality header of the ball on the end of quality deliveries. None of that applies to our lot.

 

We don't help ourselves by floating each and every single corner in, would do us good to drill the odd one in with pace.

 

I completely agree that the organisation is poor, but the deliveries when well-intentioned are also usually poor and we don't have anyone bar Taylor who attacks the ball in the air. The personnel at hand just isn't conducive to scoring from them.

 

That said, you would expect us to get at least 2 or 3 from corners by default.

 

How conducive were Oscar or Suarez to scoring from aerial crosses, yet both managed to do it in the space of 90 mins today. Even our own little Gouffran scored from a clever cross from that brainless moocher Cisse yesterday. Being abnormally tall isn't a massive asset among the top strikers in the game today.

[Jack Flash]

yet Alan Pardew looked genuinely taken aback at the suggestion that he was confident about avoiding relegation.

 

In isolation that's incredible

[Ashley17]

Warning: Turbo post, don't read if easily bored.

 

Over the past few days, I've seen Pardew getting the blame for everything. Some of it justified, some of it no more than speculation as means to meet the agenda. I get it, Pardew is public enemy number 1. And rightly so - last week was a sour one for us all, it's going to take some getting over. But beyond last week, we haven't been up to it all season. We've barely won games by more than 1 goal, and some of them have been last minute goals. Without being bothered to do the maths, I think we've probably spent the least minutes in front in games this season. It's been turgid to watch pretty much all of the time, we've gone out of cups at the first round and other than a couple of 1-0 wins in the KO rounds of the Europa, there's been nothing good to say. So why are we so much shitter than last season?

 

Firstly, let's not kid ourselves. Last season we didn't play well in a lot of games but we found a way to win. There's a lot to be said for momentum - the pre-season plans were disrupted, but the majority of the squad still got away. Those that didn't played for the reserves, which wasn't a disaster. This meant players were, for the most part, fit, with the exception of Ben Arfa who got destroyed in the USA. The new lads were incorporated and everything was rosey. This season, there were no new lads to incorporate bar a few kids, and Anita signed shortly before the Spurs game. Cabaye & Ben Arfa were away at the Euros and got minimal pre-season action, as a result both have had fragmented seasons. Beating the mackems early on last year gave us a big boost and we managed to muddle our way past Fulham & Scunthorpe. Without going through the whole fixture list, great peformances at home to Blackburn and away at Stoke were our only wins by more than 1 goal as we relied on a great defensive resistance, particularly Steven Taylor. The back 4 was pretty much unchanged - something we haven't been able to replicate this season. Once Taylor got his injury we started to ship goals left right and centre leading to a very lean December.

 

In the games at Wolves, home to Everton, home to Fulham, home to QPR..I could go on, we held on for 3 points after withstanding heavy pressure as we sat back after getting the goal(s). This is not a new thing, and as we found out away to Fulham, the opposition making a big change left Pardew flat footed and we got fucked over, conceding 5 second half goals to average opposition. Once we reached 40 points, we finally started to relax and play a bit, which came in March and lasted a month. In this spell, Cabaye was played pretty much behind Cisse with devestating results, which can be best summed up by the goals against Swansea and Stoke. When Ba was sold this season, Pardew spoke of his will to play Cabaye in the "number 10" role, but we have yet to see it. As a result there is nobody feeding Cisse, and we're relying on lumps into the box. Cabaye is playing in front of the back 4, but from there is he doing anything that Anita cannot do? I doubt it.

 

There's also no doubt we had players in a real purple patch last season who played well above themselves. Perch & Williamson kept a couple of cleansheets, somehow, whereas this year Williamson has looked every inch a total waste of space. Players like Ryan Taylor came in and played multiple positions to good effect. This season, players have been badly out of form, Tiote, Cisse for the most part, Cabaye to an extent, the usual candidates like Obertan & Shola, Colo's obvious problems. We've also missed a Leon Best type character, scoring a handful of goals and occupying defences - although who knows if his injury would have happened had he stayed. We have had a lot of injuries, especially compared to last season. Whilst we should be able to deal with standard injuries, you can't deny we've had more than the average. This is a failing of the club though - why is the conditioning so poor? Especially when it was pretty good last season. It's definitely something the club needs to look at as we can't go on like this.

 

Even in Pardew's first season, when he took over from Hughton, we were better at everything then than we are now. Set pieces? Easily one of our biggest threats, Steven Taylor got 3 in 3 ffs. Winning well? We fucked Wolves 4-1, beat Liverpool 3-1, Birmingham 2-0..there was plenty to be optimistic about although there were horror shows like Stoke & Fulham away, but with the loss of Carroll it could be forgiven a little. That is without mentioning the 4-4.

 

So, so far we've got a poor pre-season, bad "luck" with injuries and out of form players. There's reasons for all of them but the next thing to consider is the Europa league. The first thing is that being away for another game during the week obviously gives you less time to prepare for a game, you can't deny that. But how do other clubs manage? How have we managed previously? Typically, clubs competing in the Europa league will come close to getting back into it - or better - the next season. Liverpool, Spurs and latterly Chelsea are pretty close. We're nowhere near. So whilst our squad isn't as strong as those teams, you'd have to question why that is. The lack of investment in the summer really left us under prepared, but many of the first teamers didn't play in the EL group games, so I don't buy tiredness as an excuse. Hopefully without the Europa League Pardew can do some proper preparation, and we'll see some well executed game plans, such as Stoke & WBA last season.

 

The quality of football has been heavily criticised too - it wasn't brilliant for most of last season until the spell I touched upon earlier, but it was effective. We scored a lot of "ridiculous" goals, something we've rarely seen this season. Ryan Taylor against Everton and Jonas down at Wolves being decent examples before even going to Cisse territory. We have generally tried to play from the back at home since January, the only problem is it gets to the final third and a hopeless cross is fired in. This is where we'd benefit from Cabaye being 20 yards further forward. I'm not sure Pardew knows how to get the best out of what he's got - the problem is we don't know if Sissoko can play deeper, but he certainly isn't a number 10 and his ball carrying skills could be pretty useful still from a bit deeper. I'm fairly sure Coloccini will leave and I wouldn't be surprised to see Jonas follow him as we move to an even more French line up.

 

The more you consider it, the more you have to say last season was  the fluke rather than this season being a one-off. You can't fluke your way to 5th place though, there were some very well thought out game plans and the shape of the team in "that" run of games was great. I hope Pardew has plans to replicate it but it's going to rely on players being fit and on form. Looking back on these 2 and a half seasons under Pardew there are some things that he has only done this season, but also some worrying traits. It seems to me that his main aim is to get us "safe" and then expand a bit, but until then we'll see more of what we've seen this season. Nervous football where we sit back on 1 goal advantages. It's no surprise we've come back from behind so much at home recently, as we have to attack more and show some flair, which otherwise we wouldn't see I bet.

 

I'm not in the Pardew out crew just yet, for some reason the players seem to quite like him and the structure of the club is based around him. I think we need some more staff, as we seem light on those numbers compared to a lot of clubs, and the conditioning needs a serious overhaul. But the recruitment structure we have is decent, we've got good calibre players and the optimist in me hopes that we can get a settled team over the summer and build a team that can finish where it deserves, which is about 8 places higher than where we are now. If you look at how we played in the first half yesterday - that's more like it, we need to do it for a whole game though. What I do fear is that we'll get off to a bad start and he'll be canned in October, and we're thrown into another transition season. I hope Pardew turns it round - I have no hope of us being brilliant in these remaining 4 games, but we must stay up by any means necessary and get back to "normal" next season. I just hope normal is last season rather than this.