Will the axe fall?

Aussie Magpie Fan

After much gnashing of teeth and shaking of heads the dust is slowly starting to settle after the transfer windows closure. 

A man under pressure!
A man under pressure!

That is not to say that the anger and resentment is still not bubbling away amongst fans as they try and fathom what transpired on deadline day. There is no doubt that there were multiple parties involved with the dealings that went down but one man seems to be taking the brunt of the blame and that man is Alan Pardew. How much say he had in the Ben Arfa & Mbiwa deals is anybody’s guess but that seems not to matter as the heat builds on our silver haired supremo. Defensively we have been a shambles and to loan out and not replace a defender is fraught with trouble and I can’t help but feel that we will suffer the consequences of this gamble. The mountain for Pardew to climb to win back support from the fans almost seems insurmountable when you couple this with the departure of Ben Arfa. In the past Pardew has not been fully supported in the market place by the board/regime and has had to make do with what he has been given. Last season was particularly bad when you consider what he had to work with. However this season, he has seen new players come through the door and it could be said that he is building a squad with the players that he wants. To me this is going to put added pressure on Pardew and the board/regime will want to see some results from the investment made. We fans will also want to see some improvement from a footballing perspective but to date it looks like we are still a work in progress (to put it very nicely).  No one is expecting the new players to hit the ground running and time will be given for them to customize themselves with the pace of the premier league. I guess the big question is how much patience will the fans and the regime allow before Pardew’s position as manager becomes untenable . There is popular belief amongst a lot of fans that Pardew is safe no matter what happens. This could be true and only time will tell.

For the record, I don’t hate or dislike Alan Pardew and if we were playing some good football and moving in the right direction I would be happy for him to stay. Personally I think he has run his race and has nothing more to give to the team. I am not knocking his commitment and his work ethic as I think he tries as hard as possible. I just don’t think he has any tricks left up his sleeve and his time as Newcastle Manager has run it’s course.

What are your thoughts?

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471 thoughts on “Will the axe fall?”

  1. Mark

    Pardew had not been in post long when I made those comments.

    As with all situations, I assess performance and developments over a period of time.

    I’m sure in the early stages, I criticised Pardew for putting a positive slant on almost everything team wise and transfers.

    Over time, it became obvious to me that Pardew is the PR person for Ashley, whether he wishes to be, or is financially obligated, I don’t know.

    Whatever the reason, I’ve accepted that Pardew has little or no say in transfers and I judge him solely on his coaching and man management.

    From that, I deduce he has done a decent job with the resources he has been given.

    This season he has been given the worst squad since he took over.

    He will continue to make the best of a bad job and put a positive slant on it, but I’m sure his team draw confidence from that, even though the fans don’t.

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  2. So it would seem Pardoo is only capable of managing/coaching the very best players. Players at the very top of their game.
    Given this logic, he really should have been made England Boss, before Hodgson, and Ingerland would have gone on to win the World Cup.
    I’ve heard manure have got first dibs on him when LVG fails, because Pards can’t fail when he has the best players in the world at his disposal.
    NUFC have to get rid of Pards, because our ‘****’ players are dragging him down.
    yeah right

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  3. The truth is, Pardoo could have the 26 best players in the world (whoever they are 😕 ) and he would still make himself look like a dog’s **** of a coach.
    He is not limited by the players, but by his own lack of ability. Plain and simples.
    He is NOT suited to football in the 21st century, and certainly not in the Premier league. I dare say he would struggle in the championship too, maybe mid table at best. That is his level.
    Pardoo would not have got NUFC promoted last time we were down, imho.
    And that’s the truth of the matter.

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  4. Oh well if that’s the truth of the matter then you maybe should be considering going for the Nobel peace prize for your involvement and great insight into football. 😛

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  5. Bootsys rant reminds me of young Chip when he doesn’t get what he wants.

    He goes into a rant about how his mates get all the best gear and goes onto naming ridiculous items that I know are totally made up.

    I expect that from an 11 yr old but not an old bloke like Bootsy. 😆

    FTSOTB 🙄

    How embarrassing is Bootsys rant. 😆

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  6. @Troy.

    Get young Chip what he wants you tight **** 😛

    theyre only young once, just coz you got picked on for wearing Le Breve jeans, hitec stradas and fake le shark top… (actually I’d be well impressed if my dad bought me these) 😆

    just get him some stuff…poor lad.

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  10. Prem, To be fair that was a seriously weird season, lot’s of teams performing well below par, I don’t see him ever taking us to 5th and finishing there again, but hey if he did, hats off like.

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  11. Stats. Don’t you just love em

    But seriously which of those 20 would be a serious improvement and why?

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  14. Prem , I, don’t go a whole bundle on stats as you can find them to suit most arguments but that particular stat can’t really be denied. Quite simply he has a 25% win rate over the last 20 games. Now we may of played good to well in any number of them but we failed to win most and got no points as a result and at the end of the day that’s how he’ll be judged.

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  15. And what is his ratio for his best 20 game sequence. You can’t claim he is rubbish when we lose without giving him credit when we win.

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  16. Kim

    He might have a terrible record over the past 20 games. So would any manager with a squad like ours. We didn’t have a decent striker for the second half of the season and our most influential and only creative midfielder was sold.

    Stats tell half the story. 😉

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  17. Troy, according to Pards he has a good squad now able to challenge the top of the league, he did say that didn’t he .

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  19. Prem, what went before matters not, it’s the here and now mate. Put it this way, if his win ratio continues at that level into xmas and beyond ,do you still want him in charge?

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  20. Mark, he does himself no favours mate, he spouts absolute BS then looks a bit of a mug when it goes tits up.

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  21. his record is unbelievably bad, no other supporters would support this kind of run. Prince Pardew has been given a lot of time, too much!

    Is it going to get any better, ever?

    Surely any managers bar a couple would improve us..

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  23. Whats the alternertive say we dont want to get into europe again or win something ??

    We then have people having open top bus parades for a balance sheet ffs

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  24. Kim

    I keep repeating my stance on that. Pards has to be positive. He has to big his team up. That’s how you build confidence.

    He can’t believe for one second we are able to compete for a CL place.

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  25. Kim – we didn’t just not win – we were hammered in lots of them. Never mind good old England tonight. Can’t wait 🙄

    See the club have now confirmed Siem out for months. Seem to remember some on here ridiculing the rumour last week.
    Also heard that Ajax let him go cheap in acknowledgement of his long and fine service. Not cos he’s injury prone. Great club Ajax.

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  26. Pardew is a very poor manager but he’s not helped by a second rate owner,where to turn if he gets the boot? that’s the problem,I had said before look no further than the manager of Chile,he had a group of players where 60% of them were second raters a couple didn’t even have a club because they were deemed not good enough and yet looked a great outfit in the WC,they grafted for each other played attacking football and were never really out played by so called bigger teams,he had a couple of English players in his group as well,and would not cost a lot of cash which would be right up jabba street,well that’s my two-penny-worth on managers that IMO would suit the toon

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  27. Think he’d give up Chile to walk into a relegation fight Ice? And is Ashley smart enough to even consider him. He’ll go for another old pal or at that stage Pulis to keep us up.

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  28. I bet Troy and Stuart will get the bed sheets and pitch forks out if Pardew is sacked! 😆 They are not ones to suffer injustices lightly. 😆 😆

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  30. Aussie it would break there hearts if Pardew got sacked. They would probably buy a seat next to Mike Ashley at SJP so they could kill him. In that case you would have to fly over and sort Troy and Stuart out 🙂

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  33. Stem, Perish the thought I would ever find either attractive. Jabba is about as attractive as a case of crabs .

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  34. Troy@399, He can say he has a good group and I understand why he would do that but talk of challenging the top of the league is stupid and just puts pressure on himself and the team when there is no need to.

    He also needs to stop dedicating wins to Jabba, I have never heard the like, WTF.

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  36. I was only joking Kim, please don’t take it to heart. I just reckon if he had a wife that supported Newcastle he might spend a bit more and hire a decent manager.

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  40. Kim, I could see Rednapp telling him to stop being so bloody stupid. Any Tom, **** and Harry can score a goal and put it on youtube. Does Ashley do any research ? Apart from watching the poisonous little dwarf lift the f.a cup ?

    Troy I don’t understand why you defend Pardew constantly. His bloody awful and there’s defiantly better managers out there.

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  41. He achieved 5th by fluke years ago. Every manager has clocked on to his tactics since then and will continue to do so. If you don’t change your tactics and constantly ignore the set piece rule then poor results will follow.

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  42. Hitman @ 382 said the last 20 managers sacked all had better records than Pards. @ 386 I asked which would be an improvement and why. For the record managers sacked in the last few seasons are :-
    Sherwood, Moyes, Houghton, Meulensteen, Laudrupp, Mackay, AVB, Clarke, Jol, Di Canio, Mancini, MON, McDermott, Adkins, Hughes, Di Matteo, Redknapp, Dalglish, McLeish, McCarthy, Warnock, Bruce & Ancellotti.
    Can’t see that many are a great improvement. The one or two that maybe are already in work. BTW Mel & Pulis left by mutual consent so not included.

    Who you gonna call ??

    BTW that guy from Chile and his predecessor Bielsa would be great, but can’t really see it.

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  44. Prem, Ghostbusters 😀 Seriously Jabba has spooked the fans, half the fans are scared to get rid of him or Pards in case we get worse.

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  45. GEORGIO aye mate that’s what jabba would,turn to a old hand,I just think the Chile manager would wonders with our second rate defenders he’s used to it,but as PREM says jabba hasn’t the nonce to look beyond his nose,pity because the guy would walk to the toon to get a PL job,I don’t think jabba ever watches football games,only looks to see how his sales are going

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  46. I don’t thnk that’s Jabba, Kim – since KK walked out first time round, we’ve had 10 managers (not including caretakers) before Pardew. Pardew’s win % is as good or better than 6 of them, (7 if you take Hughton’s Prem games only) and only 1 of them (SBR) equals Pardew’s record of finishing top-10 more than once (only Dogleash and Roeder got a top-10 finish apart from SBR) – we don’t need to be scared that can get worse, we usually do get worse.

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  47. GTE I would happily see the back of Pardew if I thought we would get better, but who? At best we will get “plus le change”. At worst, it could be a disaster.

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  48. I think he’s very average, Prem, and can get it terribly wrong when things go badly. I’m not a Pardew fan. BUT, our squad has so many issues in it that, far from another manager daily getting 10-15 more points out of it, it could be 10 points less…so I don’t see the rationale for making the change unless we are in clear relegation danger. If you are going to change manager, do it in late May, anyway…

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  49. GTE, maybe so but at some point we have to get the right fit, we managed it with KK and Sir Bob in recent times (PL era). The thing with Pards is he doesn’t set us up to entertain, I think we are beyond boring to watch now and have been for some time. I really ain’t fussed whether we hit 6th or not I just wanna enjoy the way we play. KK got it spot on with this quote

    “They (the fans) want to go to the match and they want to see a team in black and white give everything they’ve got to win a football match and entertain them, and you can lose 3-2 in a really good game there and they will not walk out and boo you off. They will go to the pub and say ‘ wow I’m glad I went today, I really enjoyed it. That’s why they’re very special. Winning is great and of course they want to win something, but it’s more than that……it’s more than that”.

    That’s how I feel, I don’t know about anyone else.

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  50. Stem

    The reason you believe I defend Pardew is probably opposite to what I believe.

    I’ve said it repeatedly. Of course there’s better managers out there. He’s an average Premier League manager. Much in the same bracket as three quarters of them.

    But I don’t believe Ashley will appoint a manager outside that bracket.

    They cost money, have their own ideas and want big transfer budgets.

    I don’t see that the problem lies with Pardew. It’s not his fault he signed an 8 yr contract and has been starved of a decent squad.

    That’s down to one person only. The next manager will be in the same situation and it will take the Clueless Crew 12 months before they want him out.

    Seen it all before. 😉

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  53. Georgio – how can you say that, three games in? Yes, we have a terrible record since Christmas, and if that continues until 10 or 12 games in then we’re in trouble, but so far this season, while far from perfect, it is blinkered to pretend that performances haven’t been much better than the ‘couldn’t care less ****’ we endured until May – we gave City a hard game, and Sissoko could have got us a point, just before their second, we snatched at multiple chances versus Villa and should have taken three points, and, defensive mind-f@@@s notwithstanding we should have beaten Palace. If we keep not taking chances / throwing points away, then on, but Howay Man, if we’re in relegation dang then so are Everton and ManU!

    Looking at the fixtures. If we’ve less than 9 points after 10, less than 12 after 12, you might start to persuade me…

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  54. Pardew has achieved decent results when given the players to work with.
    He’s got the club to league positions where they deserve to be throughout his time as coach, based on the quality of the squad(s) at his disposal.
    I expect us to be in a relegation battle this season and if he does any better, he’s over achieved.

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  55. GTE – I watched those 3 games. You’re presenting a very rose tinted view of them. As a fan I understand that but the last two seasons I’ve stopped myself doing it.

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  56. I never said they were good, Georgio, just better than January to May.

    No two fans ever watch the same game, like.

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  57. Kim but has been pointed out before KK did it on a city equivalent budget, and SBR was a world class manager. In the absence of either of those two occurring again who you gonna call ??

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  59. See we’re getting a big screen. Wonder if it’s erected by the same company who erected the last one we were promised.

    Anyone any idea what’s happening with our new training complex? All went a bit quiet after JFK announced the news to great fan fare…

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  60. Prem, Even if we didn’t get a manager of SBR and KK stature, frankly I would settle for an average manager who set us up to attack, I’m fed up with the way we play, we never look like scoring half the time and god forbid we ever go behind because it’s game over 9 times out of 10. It’s all very well defending for the first 70 mins or so, if you can defend.

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  61. Stu, Do you really wanna see us on a big screen the way it is at the moment, it’s cringe worthy enough on the little un.

    GTE@248, Georgio is right, City were not firing on all cylinders that day and any one who thinks they were is blinkered imo. If we played so well against City then what happened v Villa and Palace, by definition we should of swept them aside if that’s the case. Fact is we didn’t, I would even suggest we were lucky v Palace to get a point.

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  62. GTE – that’s true mate. Where are you seeing the improvement that I’m not?
    If it hadn’t been for an 18 year old kid we would have lost against Palace.

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  64. Kim –

    “It’s all very well defending for the first 70 mins or so, if you can defend”.

    No it’s not!, you are right, we should be far more offensive and try to win games. We should be quick out the blocks and put the opposition on the back foot sometimes – particularly at home. But we don’t under Pardew, and it’s **** boring.
    But I fear you are wasting your time kiddo. Those who want Pardew gone are pretty set on it, as are those who are happy for Pardew to stay. Neither camp are giving an inch, and even if we do get drawn into a relegation battle, the Pardew supporters blame the squad.
    I’m finding the debate a bit tiresome now in all honesty, coz both parties are just repeating their reasoning.
    Some are happy for Pardew to get the results, regardless of performance. Others want the results with the performance – but the other camp believe you need a top class manager to achieve that – I personally don’t, and I think you’re on the same page. But there we go, it would be boring it we all had the same opinion.

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  67. Stu – I also heard that he’s having racks of clothing brought onto the pitch at home games, that that those supports who don’t fancy a pukka pie and cup of bovril can head onto the pitch ANC get themselves a pair of 3/4 length Donnay track suit bottoms instead 😛

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  69. Prem – god no mate!, I’m not starting again buddy 😕
    I give names – you say they are no better than Pardew. I give examples of clubs who have changed their managers for the better, you give examples of that the other way.
    I can’t be **** to do another lap of that one mate.
    If you are happy with Pardew that your entitlement mate – I have no issues with that. But I’m sure you’ll acknowledge that things are great at the moment. I personally and ready to see if another manager can do a better job.

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  71. Sharpy. You may be right re the names, Not many that have Epl experience that I am impressed with.

    I’m not saying things are great. Far from it. But I want to see us establish ourselves as a top ten club. Something that has rarely happened. I would hop to be on a par with Everton & Spurs in a year or two. A better manager would help, But most of the names I hear bandied about either are not good enough or highly unlikely. I remember a list of foreign managers I think you posted some time ago. Some would be worth a shot. But like players managing in the Epl is different. And we cannot ignore who is doing the hiring.

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  73. Prem – being a top 10 team on a regular basis is certainly an achievement in itself. But it makes us ‘stable’ and ‘comfortable’ – neither of which are particularly exciting. So, whilst we strive for stability, I would want to see good football being played in the meantime. Spurs and Everton are already there, and I would say that Swansea have a similar ambition to us. They had the courage to not only change a manager that wasn’t working out in Laudrup, but replaced him with a manager with no experience at all in Monk. There are no guarantees mate, but if its broke, fix it. I believe it’s broke, you don’t think so.
    I think you’re mistaken with the list of foreign managers mate – no me, that I remember anyway.
    But if it were to be a foreign manager, I’d like Frank De Boer. If it were a manager with PL experience it would be Moyes for me. If it were a manger starting out, I would be interested in seeing how Sherwood would work out. I fully expect people to jump on that one, but he didn’t do much wrong at Spurs. He could bring Sir Les back to the toon, maybe a coaching role for Ginola and Big Al would be pleased to see his mate in toon.

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  75. Good to see Sharpy is feeling better. I can always tell cos he’s drawing up another wish list. 😛

    If it’s not footballers, it’s managers, none of which we ever get or are ever interested in. 😛

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