Are Newcastle fans right to be angry at Alan Pardew?
Situated in the no-man’s land between stand and pitch at every Premier League game – ignored, unacknowledged and taken for granted – is the football photographer. While the crowds, players and managers scream, cheer and gesticulate for ninety minutes of a matchday, the photographer quietly clicks away through the gaze of his telescopic lens, his cold-blooded assuredness enabling him to capture even the most frenzied, impassioned moment of football drama with clear-as-crystal transparency.
The fruits of his labour are the images which give life to the beautiful game, the snapshots which decorate our blogs, match reports, programmes and back pages, allowing us to relive – or even to experience for the first time – the most memorable moments of the game. Once in a while, a gem is unearthed amongst the thousands of photographs churned out by the camera, a single frozen memory of such iconic, poetic brilliance that manages to epitomise the most dramatic, comic and tragic aspects of the game. As the saying goes, a picture paints a thousand words.
Such an image emerged over the weekend of Alan Pardew during his Newcastle side’s 4-0 defeat to Southampton. The secret to this particular work of art’s magnificence lay in its prophetic nature; Pardew, peering haplessly into the sky, lips pursed, hunched over in his dugout behind an advertising board bearing the fatalistic, monochrome message ‘Out Today’ seemed a gloriously adequate pictorial summary of the man’s current predicament.
For many, Pardew is now the overwhelming favourite to win the Premier League’s early-season sideshow – the sack race. Rooted to the foot of the table with one point from four games – a dire run which began at the end of the last campaign – Newcastle seem to be in freefall, and Pardew is the fall guy.
The Toon Army have never warmed to the Londoner, not even when he celebrated an injury-time Papiss Cissé winner against Fulham two seasons ago by launching himself into the ecstatic St James’ Park crowd, like some troubled soul seeking redemption at an Evangelical gathering by abandoning all inhibitions and losing himself in a delirious cacophony of noise and worship. The club’s current travails have seen his unpopularity soar to unprecedented levels, and a banner bearing the slogan ‘Pardew Out’ can be spotted at most Newcastle games, home or away.
The fans are right to feel aggrieved at the way the club is heading, and Pardew should carry some of the blame; he is responsible for the tactics, the team talks and the tinkering, which his players seem to have responded to with the same degree of enthusiasm as the average Scotsman when told of David Cameron’s heroic charge north aboard the Westminster Express in a valiant effort to save the Union.
However, one gets the feeling that Pardew is being made something of a scapegoat in Newcastle’s sorry affair. Though he may have his limitations as a manager, he has proved in the past that he is capable of leading the Magpies to success; under his guidance, the north-east club finished the 2011/12 season in fifth place, narrowly missing out on a top four berth. Pardew was named the Premier League Manager of the Season – the first Newcastle manager ever to have received the award – for his efforts.
He is often portrayed by Newcastle fans as a villain, a spineless stooge who will obey the orders of owner Mike Ashley without hesitation. Though Pardew has never spoken out against Ashley, a man equally as disliked by Newcastle fans, this may simply be an effort to maintain some fragile stability at the club. It was not Pardew’s decision to bring Joe Kinnear back to the club as a Director of Football last season; though such an appointment was a clear undermining of the manager’s authority, Pardew dealt with it with minimal fuss. Tensions and in-fighting within a football club is never a healthy sign, and through his actions Pardew seemed to recognise this.
Alan Pardew will never be a world-class manager; his behaviour can also be idiotic at times, as Manuel Pellegrini and the forehead of Hull City’s David Meyler can attest to. However, he has shown that he is capable of achieving great things with Newcastle under difficult circumstances, which many fans seem quick to overlook. The frequent selling of the club’s best players – Yohan Cabaye, Mathieu Debuchy and Demba Ba to name but a few – was orchestrated by Ashley rather than Pardew, and it is towards the owner that the fans should direct most of their anger.
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His green-lighting of the sales of the aforementioned trio, not to mention his increasing interest in Scottish side Rangers, tell us that this is a man for whom money comes first, which often comes at the expense of Newcastle. Offloading the star performers of any football club is bound to have a demoralising effect on both players and manager, and this is something that Pardew has had to cope with almost every season.
The eight-year contract Pardew was awarded in 2012 was an absurd decision by Ashley, and makes any sacking before its expiry an expensive call. If results continue to be bad until Christmas, then Pardew should go. Until then, however, Newcastle fans should afford their manager more time and affection; by getting behind their team and their manager and displaying a united front, Newcastle can make Ashley’s meddlings as inconsequential as possible. Patience for Pardew can pay off.
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