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Crystal Palace manager


Mick

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It was large, it was professionally stitched and it was clearly a Che Guevara “Hope” banner. Except that on closer inspection the face beneath the iconic beret did not belong to the late Argentinian Marxist revolutionary but a French footballer.

 

When Alan Pardew spotted it catching the breeze high in the Gallowgate End and the chants of “Hatem Ben Arfa” began echoing around St James’ Park, Newcastle United’s manager muttered to himself, turned sharply on his heel and returned to the sanctuary of his dugout.

 

Within 48 hours of that 3-3 draw with Crystal Palace, Pardew had taken one of the higher-stakes gambles of his career and loaned Ben Arfa to Hull City for the remainder of the season.

 

Now he must hope Newcastle fans will swiftly forget their mercurial favourite who, in the wake of his banishment from first-team involvement last spring, became a cult figurehead of the anti-establishment “resistance” movement against Pardew’s regime.

 

Ben Arfa’s emergence as a cause célèbre was not only a mere difference of opinion between a manager and a gifted, if high maintenance, creator. It amounted to much more than a row about Newcastle’s dependence on long balls and an individual’s fitness and willingness to track back.

 

The failure of a potentially brilliant No10 dubbed a “genius” by Gérard Houllier to maximise his talent on Tyneside has become symbolic of a much deeper, far wider, malaise. This depression has resulted in Pardew’s side losing 14 of their past 22 Premier League games amid the regression of a number of promising players.

 

That run of only five League wins and three draws since 1 January, explains why 85% of 5,078 fans polled by the city’s Evening Chronicle this week said they wanted the manager replaced. And why the team’s next two fixtures – at Southampton on Saturday and then at home to Hull – appear pivotal for the man in the dugout.

 

Anonymous supporters have even established a website, sackpardew.com. While it seems Mike Ashley lacks real appetite for taking their advice, any repeat of the vitriolic jeering that left the manager penned in the dugout, unable to venture into his technical area during last spring’s 3-0 home win over Cardiff will surely leave Newcastle’s owner no alternative. Curiously rumours that St Etienne’s Christophe Galtier has been pencilled in to replace the 53-year-old have resurfaced in France.

 

On the back of some appalling results, including a six-game losing streak, the atmosphere at the game against Cardiff was toxic and the abuse intensely personal. Pardew’s problem is that, just as Ben Arfa has come to represent a set of ideals and a style of football mislaid when Kevin Keegan last flounced out, the manager is now regarded as emblematic of the entire ills of the Ashley regime.

 

At a time when both Ashley and the club’s extraordinarily low-profile managing director, Lee Charnley, are successfully dodging criticism he is serving as a lightning conductor or perhaps even a human shield, diverting flak away from his bosses.

 

Sympathy should be diluted by Pardew’s manifold mistakes – the overly direct tactics, permitting pride and ego to block a rapprochement with Ben Arfa, head-butting Hull’s David Meyler and the lack of a coherent football philosophy or vision – but a little does appear warranted.

 

Although Newcastle signed nine players for more than £35m this summer – with two, Jamaal Lascelles and Karl Darlow, immediately loaned back to Nottingham Forest – that generous figure is misleading.

 

After all, many of Pardew’s problems stem back to January when Yohan Cabaye was sold to Paris Saint-Germain for £20m but no reinforcements were recruited, while the close season spend was offset by the £12m sale of Mathieu Debuchy to Arsenal.

 

Moreover, Ashley’s policy of recruiting primarily from cheaper overseas markets raises the bar for his manager. Of this summer’s seven new faces on Tyneside, only Jack Colback, a free transfer from Sunderland, arrived with Premier League experience and it is surely no coincidence that the midfielder looks the most impressive newcomer. The greatest excitement has been generated by the emergence of Rolando Aarons, an immensely exciting 18-year-old left-winger from the academy.

 

Siem de Jong was bought for £6m from Ajax specifically to fill the No10 role behind a lone striker in Pardew’s preferred 4-2-3-1 formation previously occupied by Cabaye. De Jong, though, missed much of last season through injury and has now suffered a groin tear that could sideline him until January.

 

With France’s Rémy Cabella still acclimatising, the Dutchman’s absence leaves quite a gap – particularly as De Jong’s goalscoring ability had promised to ease the pressure on Emmanuel Rivière, struggling in the lone striking role after a £4m move from Monaco.

 

With a broken kneecap sidelining Papiss Cissé until October, the on-loan Argentinian Facundo Ferreyra having barely played for Shakhtar Donetsk last season and young Ayoze Pérez still a novice, Newcastle look alarmingly lightweight up front. The argument suggesting Shola Ameobi should not have been permitted to leave in June looks increasingly compelling.

 

Almost equally concerning is the lack of defensive strength in depth. Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa’s puzzling departure for Roma on loan has left Newcastle with only three senior centre-halves, Fabricio Coloccini, Mike Williamson and Steven Taylor.

 

Pardew has been dealt a consistently tricky hand by one of the game’s more awkward owners but he has also been his own worst enemy. Now such self-destruction has weakened his position to the point where it is hard to envisage him recovering from adverse results against Southampton and, especially, Hull.

 

Ben Arfa may be no Guevara but revolution is most definitely in the Gallowgate air.

 

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/10/newcastle-revolution-alan-pardew-hatem-ben-arfa?CMP=twt_gu

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The tide is most definitely turning, and the journos are actually taking time out to read the stats on that site by the looks, everything is starting to cone together for a vicious st James v Hull. Come on Southampton

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With the publicity and momentum generated by the resurfaced banners and sackpardew.com, this could possibly be a good time to force him back into the dugout like we did end of last season. Hopefully we'd see some reaction from the fans this Saturday

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Missing the point a bit. Ashley may supply Pardew with the tools but its up to him how he chooses to use them. Could be free of him in two games regardless of results if the crowd keep the pressure up at the Hull game. I could actually see him packing it in if he gets the Cardiff treatment after only the 3rd home game of the season. Needs to get it big style though.

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