Pardew: Voted top manager (again).At their annual dinner last night, the League Managers Association presented Alan Pardew with their “Manager Of The Year” Award. The Award is the result of voting by fellow managers from the clubs in all four top professional leagues in English football.
This award is in addition to the one Alan has already received as Barclays EPL Manager of the Year. There can be no higher accolade than to be recognised by your fellow managers, and it just demonstrates what an excellent job Alan Pardew has done for Newcastle United this season, and the regard in which he is held by his peers.
Much has been said already in this blog about Alan’s achievements this season, so rather than trotting out the same stuff, lets see what the League Managers Association had to say.
LMA Chairman, Howard Wilkinson, said:
“There is no doubt that the LMA Annual Awards are perceived as the most accurate measure of a manager’s ability because there are no better judges of your performance than your peers.(more…)
Moyes meets the manager of the year!Venue: Goodison Park, Walton, Liverpool Date: Sunday, 13th May, 2012. Kick-Off: 3pm. Referee: Andre Marriner (Sheldon, West Midlands). UK TV: None.
United travel to Merseyside for the final game of the 2011/12 season against Everton on Sunday knowing that there is still plenty to play for.
This is the culmination of a season which has been a very enjoyable roller coaster ride for everyone involved with the club, with plenty of thrills and more ups than downs. Hopefully, the sun will shine and we will register our first victory in the new Puma Burgundy away kit, which we understand will be worn by the lads for the first time on this occasion.
We’ll have our usual “Match Banter” thread, which will be posted about an hour before kick off, and watch out for our season review feature – coming soon.
Going into this game, basically the position is this. With one game left to play United are assured of fifth place in the Premier League and entry to next season’s Europa League. However a win, and results elsewhere for Tottenham and or Arsenal going our way, could see us qualifying for the Champions League from third or fourth position. There is an added complication however, in that the team finishing fourth would not qualify if Chelsea win this season’s Champions League – but the situation for Newcastle is a simple one – we must win to have any chance of the Champions League! (more…)
Top Manager!Newcastle United’s Alan Pardew has been named Barclays Premiership manager of the season.
A very well deserved award and something else to put a strut into every Geordie’s step this summer when wearing the shirt with pride on your hollys in Europe’s top hot spots! This is the first time a United manager has ever won this award. But lets face it, in a season where most fans thought we would be mid-table at best, we are sitting in a guaranteed fifth place in the Premier League, and have also qualified for the Europa League.
And the season isn’t over yet of course! If results go our way on Sunday, we could still finish by qualifying for the Champion’s League.
But whatever happens on Sunday, this has been a highly successful season for United. We’ve made quite a few people in football sit up and take note. We’ve had some amazing results, well deserved too, and we’ve won over a lot of neutrals, and seen our team talked about in glowing terms by prominent TV pundits like Jamie Redknapp, who to his credit, has been a big fan of our performances from an early stage in the season.
I suppose the highest accolade for the team this season has been various parts of the media comparing the current team to the great Kevin Keegan “Entertainers”. A significant compliment indeed. (more…)
Half Full Or Half Empty?Like most United fans, I’m over the moon at how well the team have fared this season. The fact that we’ll be finishing at least fifth and qualifying for the Europa League is way above what I expected before a ball was kicked. There is no doubt that Newcastle United have had a very successful season. However, I’m one of those people who can’t help but do the “if’s, buts and maybes” thing at this point in a season, and I know there are quite a few other people out there doing it too.
You know the sort of thing – staring at the league table, seeing we’re only one point behind Tottenham, two points behind Arsenal, wondering what might have been….”if only…”. I find it difficult not to revisit some of the happenings and add the points which might have been. Of course there has to be a cut-off point otherwise we can find reasons why we should have won every game! But there are indeed some happenings which are the most obvious – here’s my list: (more…)
Top Six ToonWith a top six place and Europa League entry assured for next season, Newcastle United head into the last game knowing that mathematically we could still play in the Champions league if results go our way on the final day. So continuing with the “Top Six” theme – what are the top six things we have learned or had re-affirmed this season as fans of Newcastle United? I’ve set out my ideas below and would welcome your own views on this!
One – Mike Ashley Is Not Out To Ruin The Club – this allegation was one that was prevalent when Ashley and Co carried out a summer sale, flogging off our more expensive players on high wages who were reckoned to also be our “better” players. The term “asset-stripping” was freely bandied about by fans. As we now know, those players were replaced with younger, cheaper imports and the overall quality of the team has improved as a result. Would anyone care to go back and swap Cabaye for Barton or Tiote for Nolan? Me neither!
Two – Alan Pardew Is A Good Manager – When Pards was drafted in to take over from the popular Chris Hughton, it has to be said it didn’t go down well with fans. Pardew had two main targets. Not only did he have to win over those fans, but he also had to fulfill his brief from the owner to “take the club to a top 10 finish” – which was the publicly stated target for season 2011-2012. Now you can argue till the cows come home over what system Pards should have deployed in what game, team selection etc, in fact – that’s what fans love to do. But there’s no getting away from the fact that the man has not only done it, not only achieved his twin targets but has actually exceeded his brief. Credit where it’s due, he has emerged as (at least) one of the top six managers in the Premier League this season on much reduced revenues and budgets in comparison with the people he competes with directly. (more…)
