Who is right? Patronising Pardew or revolting fans?As many of you will be aware, a motley collection of fan groups angered by Mike Ashley’s mismanagement, repeated dishonesty, a perceived lack of ambition and Newcastle United’s general underperformance on the pitch will be on the march before Saturday’s early kick-off against Liverpool.
On the other side, Alan Pardew in his recent interview with Sky Sports’ “Goals on Sunday” painted a picture of Newcastle United fans as small town, simple minded football obsessives who actually damage the club with overreactions like this, as well as being too financially unsophisticated to understand that Mike Ashley has put over £200 million into the club.
But who is right?
Pardew has suggested that we’re “not in a bad position” but that the fans have unrealistic expectations that the club should be competing with the likes of Manchester City and Manchester United: (more…)
Ashley: A bit of a clown when it comes to football?In an interview for Sky TV, Alan Pardew expresses the depths of Mike Ashley’s confusion about football and erroneously claims the club has no debt.
Normally, I avoid the Daily Mail unless I have fires to light but this particular interview, originally for Sky TV, caught my eye.
In the interview, Pardew says:
“Mike is a strong character who has been a success in his whole business life and is a genius in that world – but when you come to football, the logic doesn’t quite fit.
“He loves football but he sometimes can’t understand how it works and it confuses and upsets him, and when he is upset, he does things that aren’t brilliant for the football club.
“That’s just Mike and he has funded the club, made sure we have no debt – other than to himself – and supported me, but unless we get a billionaire from deepest Russia we are probably not going to be able to compete with the likes of Man United, Man City and Chelsea, which is what our fans want.(more…)
Cabaye: Have we been conned again by Newcastle United?As I wrote at the time, with Newcastle United, the club of smoke, mirrors and downright lies under current owner, Mike Ashley, there are things we still do not know about the Yohan Cabaye kerfuffle at the start of the season.
In an interview as part of the France squad at the side’s Clairefontaine HQ, Cabaye made some rather suggestive comments about what Alan Pardew called “the situation” at the time. If you recall, Pardew made a series of simlarly suggestive statements, implying that Cabaye refused to play in early season games in order to allegedly force a move to Arsenal. However, he steadfastly refused to mention it outright under the pathetic pretence that he was “protecting” Cabaye, even though he was actually hanging him out to dry with innuendo. When interviewers did ask for a direct answer, interviews were quickly halted by a female press secretary and they quickly got the message.
However, the fleet-footed Frenchman has now cast doubt on the Pardew’s and the club’s narrative, suggesting that only he and Joe Kinnear know the truth of what really happened, challenging Kinnear to play “Deep Throat” and finally come clean on what really happened in the ‘Cabayegate’ scandal.
Below is the full exchange about Cabaye and the Newcastle United imbroglio (translated by myself):(more…)
“We have got a side that needs to get a grip of a game,” then adding later:
“We’re one of those teams who are going to need to keep on our toes because we know we can drop a few levels quite quickly, but we hit a level today which was, perhaps, as good as I’ve seen, and that’s what we’re going to have to try and replicate for ninety minutes if we can.”
Though Pardew is undoubtedly correct in his assessment, I found it strange that he should raise the issue as if it had nothing to do with himself with his repeated switches to negative tactics whenever the Magpies go a goal or two in front, with the team often going from a position of dominance at half time, to either holding on desperately, or throwing away their early advantage with Pardew either running around his dugout area like Corporal Jones from ‘Dad’s Army,’ or doodling in his notepad. (more…)
