Carver: Why is Pardew’s position in doubt?

Posted on September 7th, 2011 | 18 Comments |

Alan Pardew: Up to the task?
Alan Pardew: Up to the task?
Speculation about any departure by Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew is incorrect according to John Carver, but what of Pardew’s prospects for the season ahead anyway?

There has been some speculation that Alan Pardew might walk after being let down by Ashley and Llambias in the transfer window, although Assistant Manager John Carver dismissed that idea yesterday.

Carver said: “Why is his position in doubt? This has been a good start for us. We have picked up seven points from three matches and we are into the third round of the Carling Cup. We are going in the right direction.

If you had told people we would have what we have now, they would have snapped your hands off. How can people question the position of the manager? It’s absurd.

It sounds a bit like Carver has got the wrong end of the stick actually. I think any speculation was about whether Pardew might decide to leave rather than being sacked. I don’t think many people thought his position was in ‘danger’ as such.

Personally, I’m still fairly ‘neutral’ on Pardew in a lot of respects. He does tend to spout an awful lot of tosh, which irritates me, but I think it’s difficult to judge him on last season as he only took over halfway through. I don’t think it’s fair to judge a manager until they’ve had a full season – including the pre-season, which I think is important – in charge of a team, although in today’s world of hiring and firing managers in the blink of an eye I’m probably an exception in that respect.

Then of course there’s always the question of how much we hold him responsible for the actions of the dipsticks in the board room. Do we blame him for not being more assertive with them or do we accept that no manager would have had done any better against Mike Ashley in that respect? Personally, I don’t think they would. I can’t see Mike Ashley relinquishing any control even if Pep Guardiola strolled up and said “gis’ a job fat boy”.

I have a nagging doubt about Pardew though and I can’t explain it. I keep feeling things are going to collapse in a heap around him. Maybe that’s due to habit more than anything else – there seems to have been some sort of turmoil at NUFC for so many years now that I half expect to wake up in the morning and find St James’ Park has been sold to the National Kerplunk Society or something equally daft.

It can’t be easy to be a manager at Newcastle United these days and I respect Pardew for coping with that if nothing else. When it comes to judging him, we can only do so on a like-for-like basis. He has to work on a threadbare budget, so we can’t judge him against Roberto Mancini or André Villas-Boas. Maybe we can judge him against the likes of David Moyes, who seems to be the only manager in the Premier League working on an even tighter budget than Pardew.

It’s still early days yet but if Pardew had any significant input into the selection of Cabaye, Obertan and Santon as transfer targets then they seem to be decent enough so far (albeit only on paper in the case of Santon). Personally, I think Pardew has very little say in the whole transfer process and I think it may just be a matter of him telling Ashley and the scouts the sort of player he’s after, although I don’t know that’s the way it works of course. I could be doing him an injustice.

My mind will probably change many times about Pardew over the coming season. I tend not to hold rigid views and can change them in an instant as new information comes to light, which is a blessing in that I’m open-minded but a curse in that I can often appear to be self-contradictory and unable to make my mind up. It’s just the way I am and it’s equally probable that I’d write an article tomorrow proclaiming I want Pardew’s babies as it is that I’d write something entitled “Slow Death To Alan Pardew”.

Well, maybe not quite that extreme.

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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18 Responses

  1. you wont need to change your mind too many times over pards.. the fella wont see out the season anyway. we have not had one manager last a full season and get on with the job since the fat one took over.. AP will be gone by around janaury.. if ashley is anything to go by, they will sack ap early in the january window thus meaning that we dont have a manager in to buy any player, thus going another window with zero investment on field.

  2. Oh dear, oh ye of little faith and I include you in that Craig.

    I’ve said (and I think you agree Hugh that anybody managing a club in such a difficult situation deserves a medal

    Moyes’ situation appears to be different to that which Pards ‘enjoys’ in that at least his Chairman’s been straight with him about Everton’s financial limitations!

    In any event and let’s be practical, Ashley must realise that he’s been lucky to get Pardew and that he’d have a major problem trying to replace him – I’d like to think that he’d learned something from the JFK debacle!

    As said, it’s too early to judge Pardew but he seems to have done a good job thus far. I do hope that if he’s faced up to Ashley and Llambias about their collective faillure and inexperience in dealing with the realities of top-flight p;ayers’ fees and wages, they’ve listened and heed and act upon his advice.

    Stick in Alan, the fans know where the problem lies and that it aint at your front door.

  3. I personally like Pardew, we have taken 7 points from the first 3 games without even playing well or having HBA back! It is always gonna take a while for teams to gel and the players we have brought in are full of potential and have bags of pace! what I dont is the way we have lied to, but personally I think that is more to do with fatty and dekka having very little interest in the way they treat us fans, give Pards a break and judge him at xmas, about a year after he took the job

  4. my early thoughts, he’s a yes man who will never be an “entertainer” – although we’ve had a few of those in our time who have flattered to deceive but never delivered the end product

    the idea of “buy em young” is a valid one, but they need some old heads to lead them (whilst Shola is older, he cant do everything – being the pinacle of sporting prowess is a tiring job for any man, let alone a god!)

  5. Tooneye… this is nothing to do with Newcastle United. Basically, Ashley owns some property in his own right and the proposal is that Sports Direct plc buy it off him.

    However, the shareholders’ concern is that the valuation on which the selling price is based is higher than market value of the property!

    Reverse the concept and bingo, it could even relate to his approcah to buying players!!!

  6. @lesh

    Thanks for that. I doubt he would of spent much of the £86 million on his toon toy. I lived in hope briefly lol.

  7. Pardew is not a club manager (no matter what his job description says) he is first team coach. His job is to meld the players he is given into a team.

    Cashley’s plan makes this clear – although he was vague in stating it – it confused & angered KK who was either mislead or who didn’t read the small print

    The coach/manager can suggest players he wants or doesn’t want but in the end must take what he gets and put up with those he looses

    If he doesn’t like it he must lump it or (as KK’s reaction to the reality of the Wise-Xisco fiasco) walk out!

    This set up is not new, but it needs an experienced Director of Football who gets on well with the coach – this setup won titles for Mee & Howe at Arsenal and Mercer & Alison at Man City

    If this is our way forward then we need an authority figure above the coach who is respected & knows what he is doing – not a light weight like Wise or a buffoon with a Bluff Your Way in Footall book as we have now!

    As a result Pardew is on a hideing to nothing!

  8. dont know but just my view since the Newcastle board is under scrutiny just have that feeling that someone might just take over since they put all the pressure on themselves and a buyer might just come in wishful thinking i know. pardew being frustrated with Ashley and his crew does show that he is not a yes man and like many newcastle fans wanting to improve our squad.

  9. Hugh, if it’s any consolation I think most long time Toon supporters are just waiting for the wheels to come off the waggon at any time, I reckon it’s just part of our psyche.

    I suppose we just have to continue to hope for the best, on law of averages something good has to happen sooner rather than never.

    I would like to add that that optimism seems to be the order (overall) at the moment due to the good start.

    What I do find a bit irritating is the assumption that once HBA is fit and back, is that we will suddenly become an “uber-team”. Personnaly I hope that we don’t “have” to have him in the team to perform well. Rather that he is just one interchangeable cog in a smooth running unit.

    AP will stay and will want to stay if the team does maintain it’s current form, he suits Ashley’s needs and he will want to show the world he can manage, to quote someone else, “Simples!!”

  10. If AP is working under this supposed amount of stress & duress, then he certainly deserves some credit for the start of the season achieved?

  11. Grumpy Old-Toon says:
    September 7, 2011 at 11:59 am

    “I would like to add that that optimism seems to be the order (overall) at the moment due to the good start.”

    Aye Grumpy, but there’s still a long way to go. Wolves are still above us in the table and this time last year, Blackpool were riding high in the Premiership. Not so long ago it was Hull who were getting off to a flying start.

    I’m such a pessimist!

  12. I think it says it all that since the transfer deadline day debacle(say that 5 times fast), we haven’t heard really more than a peep out of Pardew. Before, all one had to do was refresh your respective news feed to find a new quote coming out of his mouth! Interesting how quiet he has been

  13. hoosiertoon says:
    September 7, 2011 at 3:18 pm

    “Interesting how quiet he has been”

    Perhaps he’s reflecting on what his fellow managers told him when he took the job hoosiertoon, that he was “mad”?