Fox runs the Ruel over Alan Pardew

Posted on June 7th, 2011 | 28 Comments |

Ruel Fox praises Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew.
Foxy: 1994/1995
Former Newcastle United player Ruel Fox hands out plaudits to Alan Pardew.

Ruel Fox – our former midfielder from ‘The Entertainers’ years – appears to be a fan of Alan Pardew’s management style.

Fox scored 12 goals in 58 games for us in 94/95 before moving on to Spurs and then West Brom, and he is now a Personal Trainer in Ipswich.

Talking about our achievements last season, Fox said:

It was a decent season. I was at the West Brom game and it sort of summed the season up – some very good stuff and some not so good stuff, but on the whole I think Newcastle will be happy with the season. The main aim for most clubs when they’ve been promoted is to stay up, and they did that with something to spare.

After the last couple of seasons, what they needed was just to get a steady ship. Everyone knows how they went down, then came straight back up again under Chrissy Hughton, and even though there was some disruption when the club decided he wasn’t the man to take them forward, they still got some good results towards the end of the season.

But that season is now finished and it’s down to work for the next one.

Fox was apparently an admirer of Chris Hughton, having played under him at Spurs, but in turning his attention to Alan Pardew he said:

I’m sure Alan Pardew knows which players he wants to get – and there will be some he’s keen to keep as well.

He’s probably sat with the chairman right now, discussing how much he has to spend, what he can do and what he can’t. Last season was quite good and now they will try to move on from it.

Fox goes on to praise Pardew’s football philosophies, saying:

His football philosophies have always been good. The players seem to enjoy what they’re doing.

All I can go off is what I hear from a football perspective but he comes across as confident, which suits the way Newcastle play. You’ve got to have a confident, open style of play at Newcastle – that’s what the fans demand.

Obviously they got that when Kevin Keegan was manager and they were so spoilt in that era that it was tough when Sam Allardyce came in, with a different style of play.

They want to see good football and Pardew likes to play that way. Next season is the time to judge him but he’s made a good start.

Yes, and so will the summer. This summer and next season are what Pardew stands or falls by in my opinion. If he doesn’t produce the goods I have no doubt Ashley will simply get rid of him.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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28 Responses

  1. Pardew has done incredibly well considering he had the loss of Carroll, the team moral in the dressing room was low after that and all the injuries we’ve had Best and Ireland to name a couple. I just hope he buys quality flair players that create loads of chances and at least a proven finisher like Gameiro.

  2. Agree with that last part in the thread. If pardew has a shocker at the start of the season, he will be gone, Allardyce style

    See fulham have got themselves a good replacement for hughes…

  3. i’m not a pardew fan,didn’t like him before he rocked up here.i’ll judge him when it’s the side he has put together himself.

  4. dunno if pardew has done well or not really. i know that we sac ked CH when we were 11th, appointed AP and finished up 12th. Also since he has came in we have now got a knackered dressing room with players either being sold off, not resigning, wanting to sign but no offer etc etc. it all seems to stink a little to me. One thing for sure though, the heat will be on AP next season from the off esp saying as the squad will be a fair bit different from the one he inherited from CH.

  5. craig chisholm says:
    June 7, 2011 at 5:39 pm

    “One thing for sure though, the heat will be on AP next season from the off esp saying as the squad will be a fair bit different from the one he inherited from CH.”

    Well if he does get sacked Craig, we’ll probably end up drawing from the same pool of desperaodos for a replacement as Ashley’s name is muck in the management community. Either that or he will have to offer a ludicrously generous contract to a manager of a higher grade.

  6. JP says:

    “Pardew has done incredibly well considering he had the loss of Carroll”

    Soz JP but at Stevenage, AC was still our player although he was injured. Stevenage was the first of several joke performances we had under the Clueless One.

    I cringe when I think there are Toon army members who think this bloke is the dogs. I feel embarrassed as they couldnt possibly have seen the Tottenham charade at WHL or the Stevenage debacle which not only ended in defeat but also a 3 match ban for Tiote. Then there was the surrender to the Makems at SoS when Pardwho changed the formation and and and……

    I have to assume that those who believe Pardwho is a Premiership quality manager either need to visit a shrink, get a new white stick or are just employees of the Fatman ?

  7. Your being very selective there AndyMac…there were very good & very bad performances under both managers this season….

  8. Well unfortunately Andymac Pardwho is still our manager, whether you like him or not, and like all managers he should be entitled to be judged on his summer signings this year, and his league performances AFTER a full pre season with HIS players. He has had time to make an assessment of what we have and to implement changes to how he wants things to be.
    I would imagine he will be given a full season, provided we’re not struggling and will be judged at the end of it. By the owner and the fans.
    Until then he has my support, as that’s all we can do.

  9. AndyMac,

    “Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.”

    – Tom Cruise, Collateral

  10. Witter says:

    “You(‘re) being very selective there AndyMac…there were very good & very bad performances under both managers this season….”

    So we end up comparing one manager against another but this isnt really about that.

    1.Either we had a shite manager before Pardwho arrived or we didnt?
    2. If we had a shlte manager before Pardwho, and he was performing badly, then we should bring in another one – 100% agreed.

    However Hughton and Pardwho are not dissimilar in terms of their personal records

    Hughton 16 5 4 7 39.6 31.3
    Pardew 22 6 9 7 40.9 27.3

    The problem comes when you replace someone (Hughton) with amother person who isnt really doing that well at all like Pardwho.

    With 6 games more than Hughton, Pardwho finds himself with another win and five draws than his predeccesor yet overall his win ratio is less.

    Hughton didnt start with his “best squad” it was just a limitation put on him by Fatman. Pardwho didnt make the team his own either because his boss told him he wasnt getting any money until the end of the season.

    “Beardsleys Boots” says “Well unfortunately Andymac Pardwho is still our manager, whether you like him or not, and like all managers he should be entitled to be judged on his summer signings this year, and his league performances AFTER a full pre season with HIS players”

    WHY BB DO WE NEED TO GIVE A POOR MANAGER, WITH A POOR TRACK RECORD, A WHOLE PHUCKIN SEASON BEFORE WE FIND OUT THAT HE’S ATOOL ?

  11. Jimbob says:

    “Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.”

    Kinda says it all really JB ?

    I find myself knocking my head against a brick wall trying to explain how badly we are now and how well we could be if we brought in the right people.

    After all Gullitt fecked off and SBR came in and showed us the way forward.

    Tell me, ANYONE, how did they feel when

    Souness
    Roeder
    Allardyce
    Keegan (2nd time around)
    Kinnear
    or Shearer were appointed ??????

    WE ARE NEARLY TEN YEARS ON FROM WHEN SBR GOT SACKED AND YET WE’VE NEVER REPRODUCED THAT SAME TEAM ETHIC SINCE THE GREAT MAN WAS SHOWN THE DOOR !!

  12. “Now we gotta make the best of it, improvise, adapt to the environment, Darwin, shit happens, I Ching, whatever man, we gotta roll with it.”

    This motivated me to put Pardew through my iPhone’s I Ching calculator and it said:

    ‘Ji Ji intimates progress and success in small matters. There will be advantage in being firm and correct. There has been good fortune in the beginning; there may be disorder in the end’

    Bit worrying really.

  13. AndyMac…okay I’ll focus Pardew only.

    Inherited a squad that wasn’t his containing players that had just lost a manager they liked. He’s not done that bad at forming a relationship with players despite constraints from above.

    No money to make the team his own in January & lost Andy Carroll. Forced into the free market to boost squad & the Ireland lisn was a bit of a farce.

    More injuries to contend with in the latter part of the season.

    So with all things considered I think he deserves an opportunity to make the team his own, add sine exciting players, have a full pre-season & start a full season with his own team.

    Now I haven’t overly impressed with ours performances but realistically he’s very little opportunity to change the playing side of things…

  14. “WE ARE NEARLY TEN YEARS ON FROM WHEN SBR GOT SACKED AND YET WE’VE NEVER REPRODUCED THAT SAME TEAM ETHIC SINCE THE GREAT MAN WAS SHOWN THE DOOR !!”

    God bless you Bobby you were so much more worthy than the shlts you worked for as well as a large section of the fans (at the time) who hadn’t got a clue !!!!!!

  15. Hugh de Payen says:
    June 7, 2011 at 8:58 pm

    “There has been good fortune in the beginning; there may be disorder in the end’”

    That’s exactly what the workyticket calculator said too Hugh, but I divven’t have an IPhone.

  16. Andymac –
    “WHY BB DO WE NEED TO GIVE A POOR MANAGER, WITH A POOR TRACK RECORD, A WHOLE PHUCKIN SEASON BEFORE WE FIND OUT THAT HE’S ATOOL ?”

    He may well be a tool, but like I said we are lumbered with him……for now. Ashley appointed him and will stick by him until it is too late more than likely, but he certainly wont take a blind bit of notice of your rantings mate.
    Just for the record, the last time a chairman took notice of the fans, he sacked Sir Bobby Robson. So you could say what the phuck do fans know anyway?????

  17. Witters says:

    “Now I haven’t overly impressed with ours performances but realistically he’s very little opportunity to change the playing side of things”

    The real opportunity to change the playing side of things was when he first arrived. He could have brought new methodologies, experiences, training methods etc etc.

    I have a background in “Psychology” and I also work in the “Sports Awareness” market.

    The first time you meet someone is the first time you have to make a perfect impression. Pardwho had at least twelve months to prepare for his first meeting with a new team and yet he flunked it.

    He’s a middle manager floundering in the mainstream. He’s the type of guy who knows he’s not ever going to make it but he struggles to make it look good.

    Make no mistake the team helped him through the rest of the season but I’m not sure (with all the changes going on at SJP) they’ll be able to do the same next season.

  18. God bless you Bobby you were so much more worthy than the sh!ts you worked for as well as a large section of the fans (at the time) who hadn’t got a clue !!!!!!

    Agree 100%.
    Be careful what you wish for then I guess.
    Or maybe better the devil you know.

    I’m not argueing with you, just see it as having nay choice or not going to matches is all.

  19. Andymac @ 18

    Agree your last two sentences.
    I just dont want the press reporting the fans have turned against the manager/owner and caused unrest in the dressing room etc. Not again.
    Ashley has made his bed with Pardwho? Let him sleep in it.
    But they cant blame the fans this time.

  20. AndyMac, what I said at post 9 is really all we can do. We have had a horrible time with owners, shepherd and now ashley. We all want newcastle to be at the top, I dont think any fan wants all this crap going on, problem is nothing can change. I didnt want pardew here, but he is, and as long as ashley owns the club he will call the shots.

    Hughton did a fantastic job, but if we are ever to head back to the higher level of the league, would he still be the man to do it? I dont think either pardew or hughton are the right ones to get us that far.

    The time in which most people thought we got it right was when allardyce came in. He came in with a good reputation, and was the type of man people would say ‘he’s the one to sort out newcastle’…..look how that turned out!

    I agree about sir bobby, there is not enough hours in the day to praise that man, but he wasnt good enough for some when we finished 5th! Crappy owners have halted the progression of the club.

  21. AndyMac says:
    June 7, 2011 at 9:19 pm

    “He’s the type of guy who knows he’s not ever going to make it but he struggles to make it look good.”

    I diven’t knaa Andy. If you have a background in “Psychology”, then you should know that the human capacity for self deception can be almost limitless sometimes. ;-)

  22. Jimbob says:
    June 7, 2011 at 9:34 pm

    “AndyMac, what I said at post 9 is really all we can do. We have had a horrible time with owners, shepherd and now ashley.”

    Jimbob, when it comes to shite owners, I can gan back further than that, sadly.

  23. AndyMac

    I’m not by what measure he flunked his first impression?!? If memory serves me correctly the players came out, Nolan & Barton especially and praised Pardew for coming in and maintaining the status quo.

    Whilst he had time (I assume you mean between jobs) to prepare for the next job you don’t actually know the current methodologies, training etc so that takes time to evaluate. I dont think he had a first team coach at this time either. It takes time to evaluate & to implement change. It’s a question of priorities & balance. The priority was to stay in the PL within the constraints enforced upon him.

    When you say ‘make no mistake the team helped him through last season, isn’t that what they’re supposed to do?

    Admittedly we’ll see what happens over the sumner & whether the team are good enough to complete in the PL.

    make wholesale changes immediately

  24. WT says:

    “you should know that the human capacity for self deception can be almost limitless sometimes”

    I know only too well WT. Kings, Heads of State, Presidents and Prime Ministers all fall into the same kind of trap that new managers at Newcastle United manage :)

    Thankfully for us it doesnt have quite the same effect when our new manager says “We’re gonna bomb the bastards” :)

  25. AndyMac says:
    June 7, 2011 at 9:52 pm

    “Thankfully for us it doesnt have quite the same effect when our new manager says “We’re gonna bomb the bastards”

    Andy, having seen Alan Pardew’s one night career in TV punditry, I’m glad he didn’t say “We’re gonna rape the bastards!”

  26. Ah!
    a las, the ‘old’ ‘make changes for the sake of it’.
    Top tory plan.
    ;)