Alan Pardew - Poltroon sacked by a forrin team

[Happy Face 29]

 

But a house is like a share?

 

lolwut, as MT would say.

 

I thought when you said actual cash in the bank you meant actual cash in the bank. Soz bud.

[ewerk 31209]

If you or anyone has a ST subscription then a copy and paste of the story would be appreciated.

 

"Mike's put something like £273m into the club and he's not taken anything back," Pardew told theSunday Times.

"Since I've been here I have not really shouted his corner. Politically for me it's a minefield.

"I want to keep the fans in a good place but I would say to them, before they get emotional about it, that Mike has invested something like 25 per cent of his personal wealth in this football club.

"Ask me for 25 per cent of my money and you've got no chance. I don't care how good your idea is."

[ChezGiven 0]

I thought when you said actual cash in the bank you meant actual cash in the bank. Soz bud.

Are you not away to your mam's yet?

[Christmas Tree 4831]

Cheers, any chance of the full thing including the Hughton comments Chez referred to.

[ChezGiven 0]

Alan Pardew has confounded expectations by galvanising the team (Katie Lee)

A high-tempo practice game ends at Newcastle United’s Darsley Park training centre in north Tyneside and a few players begin to funnel towards the changing room. It’s been a long season, tiredness now stalks the team but there’s still much to play for. Two days before their 34th Premier League fixture — which they won 3-0 yesterday — there is the possibility of a Champions League place and it comes with the certainty that both team and club are progressing.

No longer do Newcastle burn money and accumulate debt. Last season they recorded a £32.5m profit, the highest in the Premier League. The club have cleared all external debt and there are no interest repayments on the £130m still owed to Mike Ashley, the club’s owner. But on the pitch and at training is where the evidence of the club’s good health is most apparent.

Players linger after their session at Darsley Park. Jonas Gutierrez, Ryan Taylor, Dan Gosling and James Perch play a game of football-golf where the aim is to manoeuvre a football from point to point in the fewest number of kicks. There are no winners — just an extended submersion in the ice bath for whoever finishes last.

Out on the pitch Demba Ba works on his finishing with coaches John Carver and Steve Stone. Carver describes a defender Ba will encounter: “He stands upright and if you go at him like this, you’ll get past him.” At the other end of the training pitch, goalkeeping coach Andy Woodman speaks earnestly with reserve keeper Robbie Elliot but it is perhaps the two players shooting hoops that best express the mood.

Here beneath the basketball net the 30-year-old Shola Ameobi shoots the breeze with 20-year-old reserve defender James Tavernier; they try jump shots, three-pointers, Ameobi leaps and grabs the hoop, levering himself up like an NBA star. Tavernier jumps but can’t quite get there. They laugh, they try to outdo each other and it will be a sorry day when they have to work for a living.

There is a buoyancy that has been reflected in the performances of Mike Williamson and Perch when injuries to others offered them opportunities. Through the eyes of their teammates, they have been stars.

 

ALAN PARDEW started his working life as a glazier before moving slowly through the ranks of non-league football to Yeovil Town. From there he got a £7,500 move to Crystal Palace. He scored the winner in an FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool and has been a manager at Reading, West Ham, Charlton, Southampton and now Newcastle. It is the stuff of three or four careers. Pardew is 50.

He had never met Ashley before being interviewed for the Newcastle job but felt a connection at that first meeting. Pardew admired Ashley’s business acumen and the owner liked what he saw of the out-of-work manager, though Pardew still knew he was lucky to get the job. His CV wasn’t bad and it improved on closer examination but it didn’t make him a likely successor to Chris Hughton. One poll showed only 5.5% of Newcastle fans wanted him but Pardew was ready for the challenge.

“I had a good feeling about Mike. There was nothing snobbish about his attitude to who should manage Newcastle. I am not Pardinho but he wasn’t bothered by that.” The opportunity came with strings attached. He was replacing a man who most football people saw as victim of an injustice. “Chris was doing a good job, he is a very good coach and he’s now doing a great job at Birmingham. But it was obvious that Mike and Derek [Llambias, the managing director] didn’t want to go forward with Chris; it was the same for me at Southampton, where I felt I was doing a good job. So I didn’t have any sympathy for Chris because I’d had it [the same treatment] at Southampton. That’s just how it is.”

Pardew’s first game as Newcastle manager was Liverpool at St James’ Park. It felt like the game of his life. His team won 3-1; Kevin Nolan, Joey Barton and Andy Carroll got the goals but Pardew already knew that Ashley and Llambias weren’t keen to keep Barton and Nolan at the club any longer than was necessary. He didn’t know that within three months Carroll would be sold to Liverpool.

“Andy Carroll was a blow to me when he left,” Pardew says. “My ambition for Andy was to mould him into the England centre-forward and I couldn’t wait to work with him but the fee was . . . . well, we were all looking at each other and saying, ‘What can we do? This fee is ridiculous for the experience he had, 16 Premier League games’. But it left us so vulnerable, last day of the window, no striker, and we weren’t safe.”

But the team got wins when they needed them and managed to stay beyond the reach of the octopus that drags unfortunates into the land of relegation. “The players done marvellous jobs to get us over the line, Kevin and Joey played a big role in that,” says Pardew. “All the time I was putting little things in, drip-feeding changes and the two lads bought into that but it was evident the board didn’t want to renegotiate their contracts and my hands were tied.”

Perhaps he didn’t try too hard to wriggle himself free. Were Barton and Nolan oak trees, tall and strong but in whose shadow others couldn’t grow? “That’s a clever way of putting it but I would put it differently. They are two giant characters but they’re winners as well, right up my street and I had a good relationship with both of them. Down through the years, I’ve had a member of staff say, ‘We can’t lose him because in the dressing room, he’s the funny one and everyone loves him’.

“And I say, ‘No, he’s gotta go and when he goes, a new comedian will emerge’. It’s just natural, you have the comedian, the sulky one, the moody one, the funny one, the one who farts a lot, the one who plays the practical jokes, the one who sleeps around or whatever, all that. Take one out and someone replaces him, automatically. It’s just the way of the group.

“And that is what happened here. It was a gamble because if we didn’t have somebody to replace them big characters we would have been in trouble. We had a ready-made leader in [Fabricio] Coloccini, who just needed that armband to take on the role and I didn’t hesitate on that one. And in attracting Demba Ba to the club, not only did we get playing ability but we’ve got leadership as well.”

Pardew doesn’t want to compare his new captain to his former leaders but around the club, there is a belief that the Argentinian’s leadership is more inclusive and better for the squad.

The manager has got much else right. He has managed to draw the best from Hatem Ben Arfa — “I watched and re-watched that goal against Everton [last season] and thought there won’t be many times in my career that I get to work with someone this talented,” says Pardew. “I’ve had to work hard with Hatem, he had a terrible injury, I pitched him back in a bit early and felt the second time I brought him back that it had to be right.

“He felt a little bit let down by me initially. I understood that, and I handled that better than I would have when I was younger. Hatem puts a barrier up, keeps people out, lots of very good players do that. Teddy [sheringham] used to do it but if you can get inside the wall, you’ll find a strong and likeable character. As well as that, Hatem’s got some good people around him and that helps.”

Pardew’s ability to man-manage has been needed since the arrival of Papiss Cisse, a £9m signing from Freiburg in the Bundesliga who has fitted in well, scored plenty of goals. Meanwhile Senegalese compatriot Demba Ba has lost his scoring touch. “I’ve got to make sure this works, they’ve both got great ability but they are very different,” says Pardew. “Demba is more creative, can link play well and make lots of good passes. Papiss just lives for getting on the end of things, putting the ball in the net.” Ashley backed Pardew on Cisse even though the owner carries the scars left by overpriced signings and is against paying big money.

Pardew understands the caution. “We can’t put ourselves at risk. Leeds, Portsmouth, Rangers: heads in the sands, decisions based on emotion, there’s no way Mike and Derek are going to do that. Mike’s put something like £273m into the club and he’s not taken anything back. Since I’ve been here I have not really shouted his corner. Politically for me it’s a minefield. I want to keep the fans in a good place but I would say to them, before they get emotional about it, that Mike has invested something like 25% of his personal wealth in this football club.

“Ask me for 25% of my money and you’ve got no chance, I don’t care how good your idea is.”

[Park Life 71]

"Mike's put something like £273m into the club and he's not taken anything back," Pardew told theSunday Times.

"Since I've been here I have not really shouted his corner. Politically for me it's a minefield.

"I want to keep the fans in a good place but I would say to them, before they get emotional about it, that Mike has invested something like 25 per cent of his personal wealth in this football club.

"Ask me for 25 per cent of my money and you've got no chance. I don't care how good your idea is."

 

The bascis are wrong here aren't they? Personal wealth (as the likes of us know it) and business wealth/assets are different things. In the case of MA he's always been a bit of a gambler, hence the mind sets are also poles apart. In saying that the club has so much potential anyway for MA it was an educated gamble.

Edited April 22, 2012 by Park Life

[ewerk 31209]

So I didn’t have any sympathy for Chris because I’d had it [the same treatment] at Southampton. That’s just how it is.”

 

Ruthless.

[Park Life 71]

Positive PR for the club is another front that needed fighting and I'm happy the overall brand is being re-invented.

[Happy Face 29]

 

Are you not away to your mam's yet?

 

I'm in the car. Just made a stop at maccy d's to sort me hangover.

[ChezGiven 0]

It doesnt read well but i dont think he means it like 'fuck him', more reflecting on the ruthless nature of football.

[Park Life 71]

Ruthless.

 

Watching the Classico in the bar last night it was interesting hearing there was fear amongst our Barca group of Mourinho and the lengths he goes to to win.

[ChezGiven 0]

I'm in the car. Just made a stop at maccy d's to sort me hangover.

Glad to hear you're not letting her down. Say hi to your kid if he's there.

[ChezGiven 0]

From the comments section.

 

• Paul Stothard
  
• Dubai
  
• Recommend (0)
  
• [ 5 hours ago ]
  

Mike Ashley should be spending 150% of his personal wealth on the club.

 

If he doesn't (or indeed, even if he does) I reserve the right to sing unkind chants at him and to question every aspect of his business and personal life.

[PaddockLad 17660]

Ruthless.

 

Which member of staff was Hughton shafting then?

[The Fish 10970]

 

[Lake Bells tits 1]

Ruthless.

 

I can understand how these thing work, but its not the most pleasant thing to say.

[@yourservice 67]

[Monkeys Fist 43075]

[Tooj 17]

These past few months have been the most I've enjoyed supporting us for a very long time. Hats off to Pardew.

[Dr Gloom 22156]

i fucking love pardew. he's a smarmy and cocky cunt but he's won me over. just watched the post match interview. i like his style - he speaks honestly but he's got a bit of arrogance too and i like that ... it's obviously rubbing off on the players. he's built a quality squad of players on the cheap, he's got them performing well in different systems, beating the top sides and playing with flair and belief. best manager since sir bobby.

[Christmas Tree 4831]

These past few months have been the most I've enjoyed supporting us for a very long time. Hats off to Pardew.

 

Yup

[Christmas Tree 4831]

i fucking love pardew. he's a smarmy and cocky cunt but he's won me over. just watched the post match interview. i like his style - he speaks honestly but he's got a bit of arrogance too and i like that ... it's obviously rubbing off on the players. he's built a quality squad of players on the cheap, he's got them performing well in different systems, beating the top sides and playing with flair and belief. best manager since sir bobby.

 

Had to watch that in the pub with the sound off because the quiz had started. Was dying to know what he said.

[themags 0]

Alan Pardew - Got it right tonight

[Flair 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1D3EWzCX48&feature=related - The second guy on this speaks exactly like Pardew.

[Brock Manson 0]

He's come a long way from signing Shaun Goater for £500k. He's doing a terrific job and it looks like we'll finally have a consistent tenure of management for once since SBR.