Are Pardew’s feet firmly grounded?
Posted on October 3rd, 2011 | 46 Comments |
After Saturday’s dramatic win away to Wolves that has us still in the top four after all the weekends games, briefly peaking at third spot, it’s good to know that the lads are aware that there are bigger fish to fry just around the international corner.
Some will say we’ve had an easy-ish set of early fixtures, but you can only beat what’s put in front of you. We’ve done that and we are where we are through some solid hard work and a little bit of the fortune that has frequently deserted us in the past. There are always going to be knockers of NUFC, that’s par for the course, but this set of lads has given the manager a good headache about selecion, when everyone’s fit.
Here’s what Pardew had to say:
“To be where we are now is an outstanding achievement, not just by the players, but by the staff I have around me,”
“It sets us up for a real blue-riband game with Spurs who are far superior to us individually. They have top international players.
“But we’re a decent team, and we’ll get a gauge of how good a team we are in two weeks’ time.
“In the Premier League that is all you should focus on, and we will. We won’t get carried away.”
It’s good that he’s counting everyone in his praises, team, squad and coaches. It shows how far we have come as a collective from the lowly Championship days and last seasons hard fought survival.
Since the departure of certain “key” players in the transfer window and the rebuilding of a team mentality, we seem to have a very even “playing surface” within the club.
He goes on to stress some of our targets for the season:
“We’ve 25 points to go before we reach our first target, and then we will worry about a few others after that”.
“Of course we’re all realistic and very pleased with where we are, but I don’t think any of the fans will be thinking Champions League.
“Let’s see how the team can go because the strength of any club is not in the individual, it’s in the team, and we’ve a decent team.
“The players are not the type to get carried away either. We’re pragmatic, with players who simply want to show they are good players.
“We’ve a good team structure to do that in, and we’re seeing the benefit of that. It’s important the fans see there are players in the jersey who are pulling for the club.
“In the past they’ve had a few names who weren’t pulling 100 per cent. I look around my dressing room and I don’t have anybody like that.
“Everybody is pulling, we’re all having a go, and there’s no siege mentality – and with some of the media criticism we could have had that – we’ve just tried to be the best we can be.”
It seems that no one is getting carried away at the club after our great start to the season, which is good to know and it sounds like he’s asking us fans to keep our expectations reasonable and achieveable.
The Spurs game is going to be a very interesting match up and it’ll be crucial to keep them (currently 5th on 12 points, with a game in-hand) behind us. It should also be interesting to see what teams are put out on the day with internationals being played in the next week or so.
Injuries to both teams international players could have a bearing.
It’s going to be a good test before the Manchester and Chelsea games in a few games time.
Spurs will also have half an eye on their European games up-coming too. we still have Hatem Ben Arfa, Sylvain Marveaux and Davide Santon to come in and Spurs could be a good game for these kinds of players. Until then, kick back and enjoy the 4th spot we currently occupy, makes a change from itching to get back to it to make amends, doesn’t it?
Can we exploit Spurs ever so slightly brittle form and squidgy under-belly? Time will tell!
Enjoy the football break, TSK!
Howay the Lads!
“Are Pardew’s feet firmly grounded?”
Clint, it may have been better to ask the queston “Is Pardew’s mouth firmly gaffer taped?” :-)