According to Peter Grant, who worked with Alan Pardew at Reading and West Ham United, the former NUFC boss’ experiences on Tyneside with Newcastle United would put him in great stead to take the vacant managers role at Rangers.
The 56-year old has been out of management for almost a year after being sacked by Crystal Palace in December 2016 and has since been working as a pundit on Sky Sports.
Following Pedro Caixinha’s was sacking at Ibrox last week however, the ex-NUFC boss has seen his name thrown into the mix to for a return to management with Rangers – and Scottish coach Peter Grant has explained here just why he’d be ideal for the job, suggesting his ‘experiences’ at Newcastle give a prime example of how he’s shown he can handle ‘severe pressure’.
Here’s what Grant said when speaking to the BBC about the possibility of Pardew taking over at Rangers:
“Absolutely, I think he would. [He’s a] Fantastic man. I thoroughly enjoyed my time [at West Ham]. I loved working with him and the only reason I left was because I got the opportunity to manage Norwich.
“He was a very good man-manager, very diligent, up to date with sports science. He earned respect, then Newcastle finished fifth in the Premier League, under severe pressure. He’s got the skin of a rhino and you need that to be the manager of Celtic or Rangers.
He then went on to explain why he also shown his capabilities at West Ham, revealing how well he dealt with some ‘top players’ at the club back then:
“Certain managers know how to handle top players. You talk about Tevez, Mascherano, fantastic players, different characters. You have to manage them well. I thought they should all be the same, one rule for all, but he softened me on that. You have respect for the players, the discipline and they knew the rules, there was no fine line and nobody got away with anything. He was hard but fair. You respect them and tell them your thoughts, but you’ve got to manage them the right way.
“We (at West Ham) had some wonderful players at the club, Tevez, Mascherano, Sheringham, and I saw very close hand how he handled top quality players. He did that exceptionally well. I’ve got great respect for him as a manager.”
A glowing report from Grant, who clearly rates Pardew highly as a manager and has tipped him here to make a return to the game with Rangers.
Pardew certainly did come under some real pressure during his time at Newcastle, but whether he handled it all that well is open for debate. His frustrating post match interviews when we clearly weren’t good enough, his confrontations with opposing manager, his pushing off a linesman, and this confrontation with David Meyler, for exampe:
Is this him handling the pressure? pic.twitter.com/jmD1UYvi7I
— Mark (@NUFCRafalution) November 2, 2017
Our 5th place finish was an outstanding achievement, and he, of course, deserves huge credit for that, but the rest was a real mixed bag.
He is currently second favourite with the bookies to take over at Rangers, so it’ll be interesting if he decides to make a return to management with the SPL side north of the border.
