How is he doing?Alan Pardew has now managed Newcastle United for 10 games, but is he doing a good job?
Chris Hughton divided opinion as a manager with some rating him highly, others insisting he was ‘clueless’ and a plethora of opinions in between the two extremes.
His sacking, though, was a shock. It might have a pleasant shock to those who never rated him but it was a shock nonetheless. There were rumblings in the press before it happened, but I think most fans thought he’d at least to get to see out the season. I think most people appreciated that the constant changes of manager were one of the main reasons for our demise and relegation, and were hoping the club would ease up on the revolving door approach.
Hughton says he still doesn’t know why he was sacked. Ashley said he wanted someone “with more experience” and, beyond a lot of speculation and rumour, that’s just about all we actually know about things.
So in comes Alan Pardew. He didn’t really arrive to a fanfare – more of a squeak – and I think most fans were either unhappy about his appointment or, at best, nonplussed.
We’re now 10 games into Pardew’s tenure as manager and he’s clocked up 3 wins, 3 draws and 4 losses, so what do we think about him? (more…)
Pardew told Ashley to reinvestAllegedly, Alan Pardew will get all the money made from the Andy Carroll sale to spend on rebuilding the team in the summer
I’ve had enough of the whole Andy Carroll debacle now to be honest. If truth be told, I have no idea whether he was pushed or not, whether Ashley had always planned to sell him or not, or – when Pardew insisted that Carroll was not for sale – whether he was lying or not.
Either way, he’s gone to Liverpool and we simply have to get on with things.
The good news is that, according to Pardew, Ashley isn’t planning a £35m casino blow out but will reinvest the lot of it in the team during the summer. Pardew said:
“One thing I said to Mike (Ashley) on Monday is that if this boy (Carroll) is going to go, this money has to be reinvested – all of it.
“He assured me of that, and so for the Newcastle fans that is the most important message I can give to them. All that money will be used.
“Could it have been used on Monday? We made a couple of bids late in the night but were getting extortionate figures thrown at us – it was ridiculous.(more…)
What's he thinking?The previously delayed press conference with Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew has now been cancelled.
So why has the press conference been cancelled? Here are four of my guesses:
Reason 1: Pardew may have wanted to reiterate his desire to hold onto Andy Carroll but, with offers for the player nudging up in value, Ashley may have had a change of heart about selling him, so it was felt prudent to cancel the press conference and see what the club gets offered for Carroll next.
Reason 2: Ashley may have no intention of selling Carroll but wanted to spare Alan Pardew the questions which would inevitably be thrown his way about it at the press conference.
Reason 3: the press conference was to announce that Stephen Ireland has been brought in from Aston Villa but either there’s some problem or delay with that or it is felt that all the Andy Carroll stuff would overshadow it.
Reason 4: something else altogether, possibly to do with penguins. (more…)
Tight-lipped or slack-jawed?Some people have suggested that Newcastle fans are never happy at the club’s communication policies, complaining that we didn’t hear enough from the club under Chris Hughton but now complaining that we hear too much from the club under Alan Pardew.
But I think that’s an oversimplification.
Recently we had some snow down here in the South West of England where I live and – coming from the North East myself – I find it astonishing that the merest icing sugar-like coating of snow can bring the South West to a complete halt.
People spend hours looking up at the sky wondering what this white stuff is and, when told it is something called snow, they dash inside to look it up on the Internet.
No traffic moves of course – mainly because people have confused the phrase “can’t get the car out because of the snow” with “can’t be bothered to get out of bed” – which ultimately led to me getting no post for a week just before Christmas.
When Health & Safety had finally decided that there was no longer any danger of him tripping over a snowflake, the postman eventually resumed his rounds and I managed to have a chat with him.
He explained that they had loads of post to catch up on and that we’d be getting two deliveries a day for a while in order to allow them to do that. This was information I wanted. (more…)
Ashley arrives by helicopterMike Ashley and Derek Llambias arrived at Newcastle’s training ground by helicopter yesterday to discuss the club’s transfer priorities with manager Alan Pardew.
Pardew’s main targets were allegedly Seb Larsson and David Bentley but both of these players seem destined to play their football elsewhere.
The humiliating defeat at the hands of Stevenage might have emphasised the club’s need for a bit more quality in depth, so hopefully the pow-wow will have been fruitful and some new transfer targets will have been identified.
Apparently Ashley and Llambias also took in yesterday’s reserve game against Hibs in which Dan Gosling made a return from injury while they were at the club.
Kevin Nolan reiterated the need for new blood, saying:
“If you are fresh, it always makes that bit of difference and it just shows we do need probably a couple more players and hopefully we will get them in January to help us out and get us over that finishing line at the end of the season.(more…)
