Pardew – His form goes up and down like a Bride’s nightie. I must admit I have missed the subject of this piece, not for his modesty, nor his ‘route one’ football (which I analysed in several articles back in 2012) when he was telling everybody that he was a ‘flair’ manager whose teams played entertaining ‘passing’ football in the style of Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola, nor for his legendary losing runs that seemed like they would last an eternity, or even the rather annoying way he said ‘Noocarsle’; no, I miss him because, like Joe Kinnear, he was such a great subject for blogs on here!
As for the ‘route one’ football, that certainly hasn’t changed at St James’ Park but that’s another ‘blog, so getting back to this one, in a recent Sky Sports report on the most successful Premier League managers of the last decade, Pardew scraped into the top ten with 304 points, nine places behind winner, Arsene Wenger, who won exactly double Pardew’s total with 608, but ahead of such notables as Manuel Pellegrini (11th with 302 points) and Roy Hodgson (16th with 231 points). Pardew was also ahead of Sir Alex Ferguson (13th with 300 points) and Harry Redknapp (17th with 204 points), though their spells of Premier League management ended too early in the last decade. (more…)
Before it all went wrong.There is a tide in the affairs of men. Which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now afloat,
And we must take the current when it serves,
Or lose our ventures.
Said Brutus in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and so it was with Newcastle United when they missed football’s greatest tide, leaving themselves bound in the shallows and miseries of mediocrity ever since.
To elaborate, in 1997-8, in the early stages of the biggest ever growth in football finances, Newcastle United were the fifth biggest football club in the world according to the Deloitte and Touche ‘Football Money League’ for that season. To make it seem even more unreal when we look at Newcastle United today, they were slightly ahead of Louis van Gaal and Bobby Robson’s Barcelona, who the Magpies had beaten 3-2 in the Champions League at St James’ Park that season. They also made the FA Cup final, after finishing as runners up in the Premier League for the second year in a row and signing the world’s most expensive player in the previous season. However the signs were already there, they also finished thirteenth in the League that season, the club lost some great players, Les Ferdinand, David Ginola, Faustino Asprilla and certainly not least, a 36year old Peter Beardsley. Kenny Dalglish was then sacked early into the next season and things were to get even worse under his successor, Ruud Gullit. (more…)
Pardew: Mr.Mediocre overall.“Judge me on ten games” pleaded Alan Pardew as media and fans alike called for his silver head. It was only a matter of weeks ago, but it seems like a far away memory now.
Indeed, it has only taken half that many games to take Alan Pardew from the mire to the sunlit uplands of redemption. There have even been calls for the fans who doubted him to make a humble public apology to the great tactician after his sudden return to route one paid instant dividends, thrusting the Magpies to the giddy heights of eighth in the table at the time of writing.
Good or bad, of course it would just be silly to judge any manager on a mere 10 games as Pardew pleaded, or even five, especially a manager whose form is notorious for going up and down like a bride’s nightie. So, lets ignore Pardew’s appeal, move beyond the temporary peaks and troughs of Pardew’s mercurial fortunes and judge him over his full 176 games with the Magpies so far. Importantly, we can also compare his performance with that of previous managers of Newcastle United in the Premier League too. (more…)
NUFC: Riding the Route One road to success.You don’t even have to be a Newcastle United fan to notice that Alan Pardew and Newcastle United have done very well in their last four games, all wins with three against top sides Tottenham, Manchester City and Liverpool.
Credit where credit is due, Pardew and the team have gone some way at least to answering their critics in terms of results after a dismal start to the season. However, in studying the stats there is one fact which might cause a dilemma for some fans who advocate that Newcastle United should adopt a more passing style like the top clubs. The fact is that Pardew’s lighting fast turn of fortune rests on the exact opposite. What I mean is that after an effort to play like a modern passing side, an effort which brought him no wins in his first eight Premier League games, the Silver Fox has now found salvation through abruptly returning to his ‘route one’ roots, as you will be able to see in the evidence below.
First, to give some perspective, I will include the long ball percentage scale I devised a few years ago when I wrote a series of pieces revealing and monitoring Pardew’s long ball tactics at Newcastle. The references might be a little out of date as this was from the time when David Moyes was the manager of Everton and Tony Pulis was at Stoke.
A stiff test for Carver this evening.Date: Tues 25th March 2014. Time: 7:45pm. Venue: St James’ Park. Referee: Lee Mason. UK TV: None.
Hello, good evening and welcome to our match banter for this evening’s game aginst Everton.
Once again, miscreant manager Alan Pardew will be restrained in his Benton office, leaving assistant John Carver to handle things in the dugout once again. This time though, it will be against a tricky Toffees side who have won their last three Premier League games.
Recent form.
You can see the recent form of the two teams below for their last six Premier League games (most recent first).
Team
Results
Points
Newcastle United
W|L|W|W|L|L
9/18
Everton
W|W|L|L|W|L
9/18
As you can see, in terms of recent form in the Premier League this evening’s two protagonists coudn’t e any closer with three wins, three losses and 9 points out of 18. Could it be a tight contest this evening? (more…)
