After four years and 24 days, 185 games, 71 wins, 41 draws and 73 losses, Alan Pardew left his position as manager of Newcastle United as the reigning Barclays Premier League Manager of the Month to join Crystal Palace.
The French origin of the name “Par Dieu” means “By God.” However, I was by no means convinced his was a divine appointment and boycotted his first game, a resounding 3-1 win over Liverpool at St James’ Park, out of respect to the outgoing Chris Hughton.
By the time his career on Tyneside had turned full circle with a pulsating 3-2 win over Everton last Sunday, I’d had the pleasure of meeting him and was one of his most ardent supporters, convinced by a never-say-die competitive spirit; nowhere more in evidence than in Newcastle’s and the Premier League’s greatest ever comeback from a 4-0 deficit at half-time in February 2011 against Arsenal. That sensational comeback came just eight weeks into the Pardew reign, and a week after the £35M sale of talisman striker Andy Carroll.
Ironically, Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal proved the only big team Pardew didn’t beat in his four year reign.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United were mauled 3-0 in early 2012; Manuel Pellegrini’s Man City were knocked out The League Cup in October, 2014; and, most recently, Jose Mourinho’s previously unbeaten ‘Invincibles’ were made mortal by Newcastle—the fifth time Alan Pardew beat Chelsea.
A fifth place finish in 2011/12 in Pardew’s first full season in charge catapulted The Magpies back to where they belong in Europe and won Pardew a double Premier League Manager of the Season and League Manager’s Association Manager of the Year award.
The next season saw Newcastle reach the quarter-finals of the Europa League in April 2013, but defeat to Benfica in that round did not mean that Pardew’s men had failed.
Domestically in 2012-13, Newcastle flirted with relegation and finished 16th, hindered by the Europa League, as so many are by campaigns on two arduous fronts: Thursday nights on the continent, Sundays in the high-octane Premier League—ask Everton’s Roberto Martinez.
A season later and Newcastle were flying again to a height of fifth on November 30th, 2013 after dispatching WBA 2-1 at home and another Manager of the Month award for Pardew after a Shola Ameobi-inspired four wins in four.
A famous win at Old Trafford—The Magpies’ first in 41 years—followed, before the scorer of the winner in that game, Yohan Cabaye, was sold to PSG in January, 201. The loss of Newcastle’s key man on the pitch was bad enough, but it seems that Anglo-French relations were once again an issue, as in-fighting in the dressing room was reported.
Nevertheless, Pardew remained upbeat and targeted the top four in the 2014-15 season and with it a Champions League place, as a club spending spree delivered the talents of Siem De Jong, Remy Cabella, Daryl Janmaat, Jack Colback and an unknown Spanish striker called Ayoze Perez.
A slow start led to a fan backlash, yet Mike Ashley is not one for turning on people, and stood by his manager and was vindicated with a stunning six game winning streak that regained the respect Pardew had lost in the interim.
Of course, there were fallow periods during Pardew’s tenure, although largely due to his team’s star players, such as Andy Carroll, Demba Ba and Yohan Cabaye, being taken away from him. Heavy defeats, such as the 6-0 defeat at home to Liverpool and the 7-3 loss away to Arsenal, as well as losing four games on the trot to Sunderland, and a series of poor results in cup competitions, were not wanted, either.
His strained relationship with fans’ favourite Hatem Ben Arfa disappointingly led to complete breakdown and one of the squad’s most talented attackers leaving on loan. However, it must be remembered that Ben Arfa was Pardew’s first signing and he stood by a man who scores wondergoals as often as he falls out with managers through a long period of rehabilitation and oversaw the player’s best, most productive club career period to date, scoring 12 goals in 72 games.
Worse black marks on Pardew’s ledger were losses of discipline, like pushing a linesman against Spurs in 2012, using rather offensive language to describe Man City boss Pellegrini in 2014, and the senseless altercation with David Meyler while 4-1 up against Hull in March 2014.
They were crimes of football passion—the disallowing of Cheick Tiote’s 25-yard screamer against the soon-to-be-crowned Champions remains the worst decision I’ve ever seen in football—by a man committed fully to victory in the game he loves and puts his heart and soul into.
Even Pardew’s fourth consecutive defeat to bitter rivals Sunderland was lost throwing caution to the wind to attempt to seize the victory he knew would have meant so much to the Geordie public.
Alan Pardew has fought valiantly in the hardest job in world football—a managerial role so difficult some genuinely even consider it cursed, including Ruud Gullit.
For over four years against adversity ranging from injury crises, biased refereeing and FA injustice, abuse from the club’s own fans, signings from a shoestring budget he didn’t have the final say on, and any players his teams put on the pedestal of the Premier League shop window being sold, Pardew fought on.
He has retained his dignity—in the main—in the face of overwhelming odds and whenever Newcastle, who lead the Premier League Injury Table perpetually, have had a near full-strength line-up, have not only competed with but regularly beaten the best, currently more moneyed clubs.
The biggest surprise is that Pardew has left, with the greatest respect, only for Crystal Palace, as it’s clear that with a full compliment of elite players he would be able to compete with the best in the Premier League and could yet fulfil his ‘romantic’ aspiration to manage England one day.
Thanks for the memories, Alan Pardew. No surprise your final game was a comeback victory from a man “who has made Lazarus look like a quitter”. (Paul Hayward, Daily Telegraph).
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Main Photo by Serena Taylor/Newcastle United via Getty Images)
