Are Pardew’s feet firmly grounded?

Posted on October 3rd, 2011 | 46 Comments |

Pardew: Keeping expectations down.
Pardew: Keeping expectations down.
Alan Pardew states in a recent interview that the team is keeping it’s collective feet firmly on the ground.

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!

NUFCBlog Author: CLiNT FLiCK Cut me in half & it'll say Newcastle United F.C. just like a stick of Black 'n' White rock! CLiNT FLiCK has written 42 articles on this blog.

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46 Responses

  1. “Are Pardew’s feet firmly grounded?”

    Clint, it may have been better to ask the queston “Is Pardew’s mouth firmly gaffer taped?” :-)

  3. worky,
    aye, possibly!
    But i think he’s said the right stuff in this interview 7 that’s why i did the piece.
    It sounds reasonable, understandable & in english!

    :)

  4. Andy,
    good one, maybe i could follow it up when he does next.
    “Is Pardew’s foot in his mouth?”

    Or where his ass should be?

    :)

  6. Surely it is better that Pardew speaks frequently than have journalists make things up in a vacuum, that is more often than not incorrect and misleading tittle tattle.

    I find it quite ironic that many fans want Ashley to speak but don’t want Pardew to speak so much.

  7. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    October 3, 2011 at 7:52 pm

    “Or where his ass should be?”

    ARSE Clint, it’s ARSE unless you’re a Sherman like Chuck!

  8. Kamar,
    you may have a point there mate.

    While i liked CH’s way with the press, it left a lot of speculation space.
    But either way, they’re always gonna ‘hack’ away at us.
    AP’s style does get misunderstood sometimes, as he’s a bit of a PR throwback in football terms, not unlike kk.

  9. worky,
    arse just always sounds like an overarching of the vowel, a la ‘parss/barth’, to which i have a particular aversion. That & it sounds less sweary in front of the bairns at hyem.
    :)

  10. Kamar says:
    October 3, 2011 at 7:58 pm

    “Surely it is better that Pardew speaks frequently than have journalists make things up in a vacuum, that is more often than not incorrect and misleading tittle tattle.”

    What’s the difference Kamar?

    Andy Carroll is not for sale… we need to hold on to our key players… the £35 million will all be going back into the squad… we’ll get a new striker over the line… etc etc

  11. 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,”

    I’m sorry but we’ve played no one (apart from the Gooners maybe) so how is this an “outstanding achievement” ?

    The world and his wife are now saying Spuds will be a big test and so it should be. If we are to improve from last season we need to get nearer to the “top six” and move further away from the likes of Stoke, Everton, Villa etc otherwise we’ll just remain in the top twelve and nowt will have changed.

    Pardwho now has his own “team” albeit a top striker. So this season should be a reasonable yardstick of his abilities. If we finish lower than 12th that should be the end of him whether there’s a five year contract or not ?

  13. To finish up the last thread. Have you noticed that all of the new money owners of underachieving teams follow the same pattern because they want immediate gratification.

    They overpay for established, often older players on high wages and often get a short-term bump. Portsmouth are a good example and QPR are doing it now. Ashley is a prime example of this, but with the relegation I think he got a wake up call.

    Citeh and Liverpool did it as well, but probably have the resources to make up for their errors. I’d be scared for QPR though as they could easily turn into Pompey. Be careful what you wish for!

  15. Seriously some people always need to find something to moan about! He doesnt talk no good then he talks and every word is being twisted into negative! Cheer up we are 4 playing some of the best stuff in years and we are have by no means exhausted the potential of this squad! To come to transfer money how many of u would pay 10-15 mil for cabaye now? Well we got him for less than half of that! I am happy that we dont pay silly money and stupid wages! Would like to hear if many arsenal suporters wovld still pay the fee for saviour gervinho! Glad we did not get him!

  16. Andymac:

    one of the other posts on “newsnow” wrote a good article looking at who we have played so far.

    I don’t know how to do links but the title is “why ratings are underrating Newcastle” on an American blog called “I wish I was a Geordie”.

  17. Worky @ 10

    Sometimes we say things that come back to haunt us or make us look foolish.

    Why then is Pardew any different from you Worky, or me or anybody else.

  18. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    October 3, 2011 at 8:13 pm

    “worky,
    arse just always sounds like an overarching of the vowel, a la ‘parss/barth’, to which i have a particular aversion.”

    I say “barth” and I go to the “lavatory” too Clint. I can do propa Geordie as well like, but more people understand Swahili down here.

    I like either / or but I find that attempt at a kind of pseudo-posh aspiring Geordie, as exeplified by New Labour pricks such Alan Milburn and Jack Cunningham quite annoying.

  19. Kamar says:
    October 3, 2011 at 8:43 pm

    “Why then is Pardew any different from you Worky, or me or anybody else.”

    Because he’s the manager of Newcastle United Kamar and we’re not.

  21. Worky @ 19

    So Worky, everything Pardew says has to be correct and there will be no excuse if things turn out differently even in circumstances for which it is beyond his control.

    Perhaps, now we know why Ashley doesn’t say anything.

  22. worky,
    d’y’gan to the lavatory or the lavertry?
    That’s the acid test mate!
    :)

  24. GS says:
    October 3, 2011 at 8:56 pm (Edit)

    “Or Steve Bruce.”

    Isn’t he from Corbridge GS? He doesn’t have that “turd in the hurl” thing like Milburn and Cunningham who I mentioned above. Then again, I despise everything about Alan Milburn for various reasons.

  25. But,

    is there actually anything in this actual interview to pick at or are we picking for the sake of it?

    ;)

  26. CLiNT FLiCK says:
    October 3, 2011 at 9:08 pm

    “worky,
    d’y’gan to the lavatory or the lavertry?”

    I gan to the netty sometimes Clint, but I never go to the “toilet” as that is just wrong.

  27. GS says:

    Andymac:
    one of the other posts on “newsnow” wrote a good article looking at who we have played so far.
    I don’t know how to do links but the title is “why ratings are underrating Newcastle” on an American blog called “I wish I was a Geordie”.

    OK GS so are you saying that we’ve had:

    1. A really tough start playing teams vying for top six
    2. A tough start but no different than most others
    3. The easiest start we could possibly have had unless we played Wigan ?

  28. A middling start in terms of hard/easy.
    we’ve garnered more points from the corresponding fixtures last season.
    arse(SJP) 1 point=same.
    5*1and(away) 3 points=more
    fulham (SJP) 3 points=more
    villa (away) 1 point=more
    qpr-does not compute
    blackburn (SJP) 3 points=more
    wolves (away) 3 points=more

    Y’get me?

  29. Andymac:

    No, I said it was an interesting article. I thought you might like it.

    To tell you the truth, the main thing it pointed out was how inconsistent we were last year and how important it is to beat the teams at about our level. We probably knew that already though.

  31. I looked at “Lawro’s” prdictions last night just for the hell of it. He had us on 7 points, but when I looked at it, I probably would have agreed with most of his calls. Myself, I would probably have had us on 9 points.

    Now, Lawro is famously anti-Newcastle and I probably have black and white glasses on. The fact that we have 15 points says to me we have overachieved so far, not that we have had such an easy schedule.

    Really though, time will tell if we have overachieved or have a decent team that most of us didn’t expect to be this good.

    P.S. Lawro has Liverpool on 13 from his predictions, which is surpising as I thought he would have them at 21.

  33. We’ve fought real hard for our points from these games, last season we took some of them for granted & got skanked out of a few too.

  34. Is Pardew being cunning or genuine when he says that Spurs players are far superior individually than ours?
    I would have thought that Coloccini, Krul, Ben Arfa, Steven Taylor, Tiote, Cabaye, Jonas and maybe Marveaux too could all hold their own in the Spurs line-up?
    Maybe he’s trying to take a leaf out of Fergie’s book with some mind games?

  35. Sikovash,
    aye mate, could be.
    Could be a good game to introduce HBA, Marveaux & you forgot Santon.
    ;)

  36. Have you seen that Trapattoni says Best is not good enough for NI? He stopped short of calling Best lazy, but said he will only pick players who are prepared to work for the team “winning football is about 11 players running for 90 minutes, or 94 minutes, with a winning mentality. I cannot have players who just wait for the ball”.
    Is he a fair judge? It seems to me that Bestie I playing his heart out – what’s the problem? Am I missing something?

  37. supermac says:
    October 4, 2011 at 12:00 am

    “Have you seen that Trapattoni says Best is not good enough for NI?”

    Aye Supermac, this is what he said:

    ‘Leon is not here because we have other three four strikers with other qualities. Leon knows why. I don’t forget him but he knows why I need other attitudes.

    ‘But on the there is only one ball. And winning football is about 11 players running for 90 minutes, or 94 minutes, with a winning mentality. I cannot have players who just wait for the ball.

    ‘We need a team, we need work and commitment. That is football. We need this mentality because with our mentality anything is possible. We cannot afford to have players standing there waiting for the ball.

    ‘Leon knows why he is not here. We are also missing Keith Treacy and he knows. The players understand why. I tell them to their face, not through the newspapers.’

    Haven’t seen him much with the ROI to be honest, maybe he’s trying to give him a kick up the jacksie while they’re playing Andorra. Divven’t knaa.

    I do know that Pardew recently sugggested that Ben Arfa was no good as a winger, and that he had more to prove before he’s get a start in the Premiership. He didn’t even get a go as a sub the other day. Maybe he’s getting a kick up the jacksie as well.

  40. it hasn’t been a difficult start to the season, but the important thing is that we’ve picked up points from every match. Sure there are teams that may well mop the floor with us, but we’re beating the teams we need to beat. If we can do that then we don’t need to beat Mancs mk I and II, or the russian gas giants from the south and we’ll still have a good finish. Drawing or beating any of those sides will be a bonus that will hopefully erase the times that we screw up against the rest of the competition.

  41. The Daily Mail are the Jeremy Kyle of Newspapers – getting rich off the suffering of others, feigning sympathy and moralising like a spinster head teacher.

    Their website is a total contradiction, spouting moral outrage whilst splashed with cheap thrill cleavage pictures and lies.

    It is The Sun for the middle class.

  43. glad to see Pard’s talking some sense!

    I’m more than pleased with the start we have made, a couple of additions would be more than welcome too, but getting a solid foundation of points in early on is vital for us once the season starts cracking on. nowt worse than starting crap and having to fight the whole way through to survive, I’d much rather we were comfy and could work on squad development in the later throws of the fixture list.

  44. Pardew said ” Iast season we had people around not pulling there weight, I look around the changing room now and I don’t see that, I don’t think any player isn’t giving 100 % ” I take it Sheila amiobi wasn’t in that day.

  45. stephen c says: I take it Sheila amiobi wasn’t in that day.
    Are you prepared to say that to his face?