Pardew says relegation was a good thing! Do you agree?

Alan Pardew

Alan Pardew
Pardew on relegation and the pull of Newcastle United.
Alan Pardew believes that the shock of relegation was the kick in the backside the club sorely needed, and he also believes that the cub will have no trouble attracting star players in the summer.

Speaking to the Northern Echo, Pardew claims that relegation was a good thing in hindsight. He claims that it allowed the club to sort out some fundamental issues at the club and get it heading in the right financial direction and says that the players who remained on Tyneside and battled in the Championship have become better players for it.

This new financial direction means that it will be some time before we see the star names that didn’t care for us during our relegation season again, but Pardew also insists that he doesn’t believe these financial constraints will cause us a problem in the transfer market and says that the pull of NUFC is still huge in the eyes of players.

Speaking about attracting good players to the club, Pardew had this to say;

“Because of the facilities we have, which are top drawer, and they’re improving, this club is still a pull,” Pardew told the Northern Echo. “The owner, Mike Ashley, has made a commitment to stay, so there’s some stability, the length of my contract and the fact, more importantly, of 50,000 coming through the doors each week to support you are all in our favour.”

“If you’re a player with anything about you . . . you can play for a top club in France and get 18,000 watching you or a top club in Holland and you might get 8,000. You have 50,000 here and every away game sold out for us. That’s a fantastic pull for any club and the history that goes with this club as well. The most important thing is that we build on this year and start challenging for trophies as soon as we can.”

There is another clue in there about where we are looking for potential new recruits in my opinion. France and Holland anyone?

Pardew then went on to say that relegation was a good thing in hindsight and that we’d probably not be in as good shape had we not have gone down. Controversial, but let’s here what he had to say first;

“Sometimes the readjustment of relegation isn’t always a bad thing,” he said. “You can put things in line financially sometimes and also the mentality of the club can change slightly and that correction isn’t a bad thing.”

“Everything gets realigned with relegation and maybe for Mike Ashley, Derek Llambias and the players that were here before, it was a good thing. For Jose Enrique and Fabricio Coloccini it didn’t do them any harm to go into the Championship and learn what English football is all about.”

“It’s never a bad trait in your life to be humbled, it brings you into line. If the club had stayed up that year would we be stronger now? If you look a the financial results we published, maybe it wasn’t such a bad thing.”

“It’s easier to say that after you’re back in the Premier League of course. It’s only two weeks ago we were playing Wolves and we were still very vulnerable and we still are to a degree because we haven’t got great strength in depth.”

It’s an interesting point really. Are we better off for being relegated? I suppose we should ponder that and have a good old NUFC Blog mass debate.

For me, I don’t see how anyone could say that relegation was a good thing. All of these changes in financial approach and changes in transfer policy could have been done whilst we still had a Premier League income which would have mean that Mike Ashley wouldn’t have had to pump in however many millions last season.

On the other hand, would we have started to make those changes if we were still in the Premier League? I’m not so sure. Michael Owen may have gone as he was out of contract, but what about the other high-earning, under-performing players? Would we have just persevered with them? I think we probably would have…

For me I think Pardew is about right. Getting relegated was the kick up the **** the club needed which forced it to do something, but it still could have been done in the Premier League regardless.

So was relegation a good thing? Not for me.

What about you?

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About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

104 thoughts on “Pardew says relegation was a good thing! Do you agree?

  1. Its easy for him to say but he wasnt here to endure the pain of it al, no it wasnt a good thing for the fans, for Ashley maybe but definately not for us.

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  2. I hated watching us get relegated, but I thought it might be a blessing in disguise, and I still believe that.

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  3. It probably was a good thing for us, Kinnear would have came back to be manager, I doubt we would have discovered Carroll. The main factor for me was getting rid of all our **** players such as Martins, Owen, Viduka, Beye, Duff etc.

    I remember Duff saying he would never leave and he’s in to help us get back up…Kunt

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  4. I think history will have to judge if it was good for us. We’ll know if it was in the next five years.

    We cannot judge until we see how we progress, how our new found financial stability reflects on the quality of player we see on the pitch and whether we really are still a big draw.

    But just one thing – Pardew mentioned the fact that Ashley has comitted himself to the club. Is that really supposed to be an attraction for players?

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  5. As you say, all that could have been done in the prem but would it have been? I doubt it. That said relegation was heartbreaking and though I enjoyed the championship season I never want to see the fecker again.

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  6. Ya I agree with Pardew. It helped the club re organise. For the fans it was a disaster but everything happens for the best! Hope for a good effective summer transfer window then we will be flying :]

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  7. The problem is that Pardew will only be vindicated if we have a good summer – that’s the key to everything.

    If being relegated means we can now bring in better players and improve every year then there’s an argument it was for the best, but we just stay up every year and never finish higher than 10th, then we will ask, what did it achieve?

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  8. Stuart79
    Posted April 23, 2011 at 8:19 AM

    “but we just stay up every year and never finish higher than 10th, then we will ask, what did it achieve?”

    About the same as we did from 2004 onwards 🙂

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  9. I think it was definitely a good thing, I loved the atmosphere of the championship games and the euphoria of promotion.

    Would Andy of made £35m coming off the bench behind Martins? I doubt it.

    Would Colo have stayed first choice CB? Not sure

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  10. Relegation was a good thing in my opinion…. The team that had taken us down and the spirit within it was terrible. Then there was the “Get Mike Ashley out ” saga – then Joe Kinnear – then Shearer… Fecken hell, when you look back at it… just about any situation would be better than that… It was like all the sh*t that had been building up over the years at Newcastle had hit the fan at once..

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  11. I’m far from sure anything radical would hava happened were we not relegated,and now we would probably be fighting relegation together with Wigan and the rest SHREK!!! 🙄

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  12. Toonsy..replied 😉

    Jay..fe…males as opposed to your lady boys…..oops sorry that’s someone else 😉 😆

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  13. toonsy
    Posted April 23, 2011 at 8:26 AM

    But we didn’t need to go through the agony of relegation to achieve that then did we?

    The thread is about relegation being good for us is it not? Well if we go back to how it was from 2004 it will have counted for nothing.

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  14. It was massively painful to get relegated but I think it was a blessing in disguise. We would not have got rid of the dead wood as quickly had we stayed up and stumbled on flirting with relegation every year IMO.
    The club is stronger financially, the players play for the shirt and sweat blood and we look like we will finish in the top 10. I doubt all of that would have been achieved if we had stayed up.
    Andy Carroll would also still be sitting on the bench and we would not have £35 million to spend 😆

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  15. All those changes still could have be done without relegation, so I don’t see how that is a good thing. Would MA kept the likes of MO even if we had stayed? I don’t think so.

    Having said that, it’s a good thing for AP, or a manager of his calibre would never have the chance to get close managing NUFC. 😎

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  16. Relegation didn’t happen just out of nowhere in that particular season,it has been slowly build up till the point it “exploded” in that season.

    I was already anticipating that relegation is bound to happen that time,so when is confirmed,i knew that changes will have to made,and rightly so,it helps the club.

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  17. Being relegated was not a good thing. It was the worst season I’ve ever had to endure. Would you really fancy having to go through that again just so the team can find a bit of spirit?

    Lets face it, after that season, any season Championship or otherwise, would have been an improvement.

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  18. Going to the matches was loads better last season. loads better. Mixing with proper fans who support their team because they are there team and not because of some glory a few years ago was brilliant. I still say Peterborough was the best away day I’ve ever been on.

    However, the Premier League is the place to be for the money etc so in that regard I’m glad we are back. As a matchday experience though, for me, the Championship beats the Premier League hands down. It isn’t the first time we’ve been down there and it probably won’t be the last. Hopefully the next time is long after I get buried, or burnt, or put in the bin or whatever 🙂

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  19. AngelOfDeath
    Posted April 23, 2011 at 10:46 AM

    How do you know it’s helped the club yet though?

    As things stand we could have been through all that for nothing, if we just go back to mid table finishing every season. The only difference this time could be that it’s without the high profile signings and a little bit of excitment.

    On the other hand it could have been the best thing to happen to the club, if we can start punching out weight in the transfer market due to our recent austurity – hence bringing in a higher class of player and improving every year until we actually achieve something,

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  20. toonsy
    Posted April 23, 2011 at 11:05 AM

    That’ll probably have to be a skip rather than a bin…

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  21. Happy St George’s day batty. 😀

    (and **** off to st paddy’s day being rammed down our necks, we’re english not irish, most of us 🙂 )

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  22. Deffo a good thing. we sorted the spirit and backroom staff out. Won some games got some confident, unearthed a bit of talent, and now we can stay in the premiership for a long time ***fingers crossed***

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  23. NEWSFLASH
    My source reckons alan shearer has been kicked out the house for having an affair with gabby Logan ! Sunday papers tomorrow. YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST.

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  24. Stuart – 24 hours? 😯

    I heard that on Wednesday.

    I’ve also heard that it’s Ryan Giggs who has the gagging order 😉

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  25. toonsy – I agree, for me there’s something sterile and business like about most Premier league fixtures. Even the bog standard champ fixtures just seemed to have a better, more natural atmosphere. I don’t know if it was because we were top dog in the league for the other teams like, it might have been.

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  26. Bobby Shinton number 9
    Posted April 23, 2011 at 11:17 AM
    NEWSFLASH
    My source reckons alan shearer has been kicked out the house for having an affair with gabby Logan ! Sunday papers tomorrow. ‘YOU HEARD IT HERE FIRST.’

    I said that about 3 days ago.

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  27. For one it’s probably complete bollox and this is one of the downsides to the internet – how does their partners feel now – even if it’s false?

    Even so, will our lives be bettered by knowing the sleeping habits of certain celebrities? Thought not.

    Papers and journo’s are just complete leaches and a horrible set of twats!

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  28. Thing is though, celebs are under so much survelance, they don’t really get away with cheating anymore. It’s like the footballers in the 60’s and 70’s used to have huge partys and sleep with loads of girls at the same time but they never got caught with their pants down in those days coz there wasn’t the paps and the sell your story culture in those days.

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  29. Yes there was DJG, but it wasn’t instantly a story everywhere in the world and there weren’t as many outlets.

    Newspapers didn’t usually share their stories either, so if you didn’t read the paper with the story you didn’t always find out about it.

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  30. Have ya’s noticed how the women NEVER get blamed!!!

    Isn’t she married to some rugby player and has kids. 😕

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  31. For the fans it was horrible.

    However for the club it forced us to unload shyte such as Duff and Owen who didnt care about the club, it also allowed it to sort our finances and get them in track, had we stayed in the prem a couple more season I think there would have been more chance of us wasting more money and doing a leeds/pompy.

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  32. morning lads!! the best thing that happend for newcastle when relegated was that all the greedy cnuts and the players that cudnt give a **** about us ( michael owen had left !!!! imo newcastle have passion again , we have players like joey and nolan that love the club and want 2 do so well 4 the team!!it was terrible for us newcastle fans but yes relegation did give us a kick up the *** and it certainly made us a stronger tougher team!!

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  33. batty
    Posted April 23, 2011 at 11:49 AM
    DJG @57 she must of wanted abit of geordie ****

    She needn’t have looked any further than you for a **** then…

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  34. You really are getting terribly predictable in your old age, batty.

    I seen that comment coming before I even typed comment no 62.

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  35. Jobey07…thats the way some blogs works mate. I fell foul of something similar there a few weeks back, a purely innocent comment which suddenly wasn’t there ! Thought I was losing my mind until it clicked what was happening !….

    Now when the Anti-Pardew mob start a-ranting over there….watch out… 😆 😆 😆 😆 😆

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  36. batty
    Posted April 23, 2011 at 12:06 PM
    aye it hurts you being from manc land ,you still robbing the pensioners of there gold

    Like I said predictable

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  37. Jobey07
    Posted April 23, 2011 at 12:08 PM
    Stuart- How much do you like arguing with people?

    That comment sums many on here up.

    Is it just me arguing is it? Not batty too?

    Not to worry.

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