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Is It Feasible Alan Pardew Could Win Back The Fans This Way?

10 years ago
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I am not Alan Pardew’s biggest fan, far from it.

I believe he is tactically inept, has no man-management skills and is simply a puppet guided by Mike Ashley’s chubby fingers. However, he’s here to stay and despite the rumours that he has two games left to save his future, we know Mr. Ashley, we know they’re buddies and we know this ain’t happening.

So, let’s get to the point. I believe there is a way that Alan Pardew can win back many of the Newcastle United faithful. Now, I know many of you might be thinking along the lines of Pardew standing up to Mike Ashley, having a backbone, being less big headed, quitting with the spouting of lies etc. However, I believe there is a higher chance of pigs sprouting wings and taking flight than any of these things happening.

The only feasible way that I can see Alan Pardew winning back the respect of the hardy Toon Army is to quite simply… win something! Yes, you heard me right, win something, or at least try as hard as he can to get somewhere even close to a semi-final, or even a final, of either the FA or League Cup.

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Take a look at Sunderland. We all know how well they did last season in the League Cup, meeting Manchester City in the final at Wembley Stadium and almost grabbing a trophy of their own. Look at Portsmouth, Wigan, Birmingham and Swansea. Can we really say that our ambitions are lower than these clubs? It can be done, it must be done and all Alan Pardew has to do is try. It’s not that hard and it really isn’t that much to ask. I’m not saying he simply has to go out and win it, all I’m asking him to do is try.

Newcastle’s cup record under Pardew is quite simply woeful, having succumbed to lower league opposition time and time again in the early stages of any given competition. Last season Cardiff City were in our backyard, had just lost their manager and were there for the taking. So what does Mr. Pardew go and do? He fields a weakened side, giving many first team players the weekend off so they can stick their feet up on the coffee table and do anything but their jobs.

This in my opinion is absolutely criminal and should not, under any circumstances, be allowed to happen again. Newcastle’s League Cup tie against Gillingham recently ended 1 – 0 thanks to an own goal by former Mackem John Egan. Yes granted, Pardew fielded a somewhat stronger side against the lower league team, but did they win convincingly? Not really.

Another startling statistic that many fans may not be too surprised to hear, is the amount of clubs that have won at something more recently than we have.

Using the FA Cup as an example, which Newcastle United last won in 1955, it has been won by the likes of Sunderland (1973), Southampton (1976), West Ham United (1980), Coventry City (1987), Everton (1995) and Portsmouth (2008). Newcastle are arguably a much bigger club than all of those mentioned above, except perhaps Everton, yet we have won one trophy (The Inter-City Fairs Cup, 1969) in what is soon to be a staggering 60 years, and haven’t won The FA Cup since 1955.

Pardew is by no means wholly responsible for the cup drought that Newcastle have endured, yet he certainly has some making up to do where they it’s concerned. His first step to winning back the fans is by taking the game to Crystal Palace on 22nd September at Selhurst Park. Newcastle have to win with aplomb after shipping three poor goals against them in the Premier League last week. Most importantly, Alan Pardew has to play his strongest 11 possible and of course, win. After that, who knows? There is the potential there to go all the way to a final.

Let’s face it, we aren’t going to get European football and we almost certainly aren’t going to find ourselves in the Champions League any time soon, so the cups really are our best bet at actually achieving something, aren’t they?

I guess we can all dare to dream, but with the state Newcastle United are in at present, I’d keep a keen eye out for those porkers gliding past your kitchen window.

Would winning a cup win back Alan Pardew’s respect, or is he now too far gone in people’s estimations?

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