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London journalist says fans should apologise to Alan Pardew

9 years ago
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Maybe we should be used to smug arrogant journalists writing from three hundred miles away about Newcastle United, lecturing fans about what they should and shouldn’t think/do.

The latest is Patrick Barclay writing in the London Evening Standard.

Exactly why Barclay feels he has to write about what Newcastle fans should or shouldn’t think, for a London audience, is beyond me.

However, that doesn’t stop him telling us all what we should think about our club that we follow every minute of every day, not just take an interest when there’s a chance to beat the deluded Newcastle fans with a proverbial stick.

If you read it below, you will see that Patrick Barclay’s opinion is that a lot of Newcastle fans have been really nasty to Alan Pardew (and Mike Ashley by association) and because United have now won three matches, anybody who expressed dissatisfaction with Pardew/Ashley should now apologise to them.

Before beating Leicester twelve days ago, Newcastle had won just 5 Premier League matches in 296 days. Thousands of fans didn’t wake up one morning and suddenly decide Alan Pardew was doing a rubbish job for no good reason.

Whether the United boss deserved even more time is a fair debate for Newcastle fans to have amongst themselves, not for London based journalists to dictate to us because it has come to their attention we still exist because we beat one of their favoured teams in Spurs and of course the mighty Manchester City.

You only need to look at this great analysis of the 28 match Premier League record of 2014, comparing Newcastle with all their rivals, to see what the true picture has been.

Of course we all hope that Alan Pardew has suddenly stumbled upon some magic formula of winning that he’d misplaced for some ten months and much of the time before that.

However, I would find it interesting what Patrick Barclay would say if Pardew and his players reverted to the overwhelming nature of the form in the ten months leading up to scrambling a win over Leicester twelve days ago.

Being an astute journalist, Patrick Barclay managed to spot that Sammy Ameobi scored a goal at Spurs, well done. Hand on heart though you know he doesn’t have a clue about Sammy, Adam Armstrong or Rolando Aarons. Apart from  googling them and confirming what age they are, plus finding out that Aarons comes from the same background as Raheem Sterling.

No apologies are due from fans to Alan Pardew or Mike Ashley, the supporters have continued to support the team regardless both home and away – filling away sections and fifty thousand crowds at home, that is all that counts.

Patrick Barclay should be paying tribute to those fans and apologising to them, it isn’t his place to say what we should all think, his London audience may enjoy the Geordies getting another lecture and being put in their place. However, many of us will have long memories where the likes of Patrick Barclay is concerned.

Patrick Barclay writing in the London Evening Standard

Maybe it is true that you can’t fool the public. But the public can certainly make fools of themselves.

Take, for example, the Newcastle fans who not only wanted Alan Pardew sacked as manager but took to arriving at matches with placards saying so. Many such messages were held aloft during the defeat at Stoke a month ago. Yet even then, with Newcastle seeking their first Premier League win, there had been signs of life: a 10-man victory at Crystal Palace in the Capital One Cup; a two-goal comeback to earn a point at home to Hull; a general refusal to succumb to derision.

Now look at them. Two wins and a draw in the League have made Pardew a strong candidate for Barclays’ Manager Of The Month and last night his men — with a few bright boys thrown in — brought off an even more impressive cup triumph at Manchester City, earning a visit to Tottenham in the quarter-finals. So will the “Sorry Alan” placards be flourished on Saturday, when Liverpool arrive at St James’ Park? I’d like to think so.

Pardew may have his flaws — the shoving of a linesman in 2012 was not pretty, and nor was the gentle nutting of Hull’s David Meyler eight months ago — but he can manage a football team and Newcastle owner Mike Ashley deserves credit for keeping him in charge.

Another reason for the fans to cheer up is the emergence of youngsters. It’s always refreshing, and the dart of pace that enabled 18-year-old Rolando Aarons to score early at the Etihad suggested he may have more in common with Raheem Sterling than a Jamaican birthplace.

Adam Armstrong, 17, also started, while the 22-year-old Sammy Ameobi will be keen to return to White Hart Lane, where he scored his first Premier League goal on Sunday. Newcastle’s summer buys were interesting too — all 25 or under. So it’s a squad built to last. With admirably durable manager.

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