Pardew handed seven-match ban

Pardew punished So finally the FA have made a decision about Alan Pardew, and the final say is that our manager will serve a seven-game suspension.

It's not as cut and dry as that though as the punishment has been split and three of those games are outright stadium bans with the other four being more standard touchline bans.

Pardew has also been fined £60,000 by the FA on top of the £100,000 fine handed out by the club in the wake of the event, which is a fair dent in the pocket for one of the lowest paid managers in the Premier League. According to estimated figures, his total fine will cost him roughly 65% of his basic annual wage. Different worlds and all that but it will still hurt.

The punishment means that Pardew will not be allowed inside the stadium for our trip to Fulham or our back-to-back home games against Crystal Palace and Everton whilst he will be able to watch on from the stands at Southampton and Stoke along with the home games against Manchester United and Swansea. Pardew will resume full duties for our trip to Arsenal on April 28th.

Hopefully that draws a line under the whole affair which was dangerously close to being blown out of all proportion, aided by mock shock from the media and pundits. It wasn't the public execution some wanted and to be fair I think the punishment is about right.

Sorry things have been quiet in terms of articles, but I've already had my say on the matter and there is only so many time you can say that he was a silly boy. In fact aside from Loic Remy casting admiring glances towards clubs who have their eyes on bigger targets and the wheels falling off the Gus Bus down the road there hasn't been a whole lot going on.

At least there is football again this weekend though...