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Alan Pardew May Struggle to Recover From ‘Untenable’ Position

9 years ago
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Alan Pardew May Struggle to Recover From ‘Untenable’ Position.

Stability is a common word in the football fraternity, especially when it comes to managers. A promotion to the Premier League has to be one of the most rewarding aspects for a football club.

Top tier football also helps generate extra revenue (for most clubs) through sponsorships, aside from the huge amounts of television money that clubs receive.

As the stakes get higher, the importance of not slipping into the Championship becomes far more important. Betfair places Newcastle United at 11/4 to get relegated, which is not far off the Premier League relegation odds for the likes of QPR and Crystal Palace.

Newcastle are still searching for their first league win of the season and remain in the relegation zone. ‘Sack Alan Pardew’ would probably rank as one of the most frequently uttered phrases in Newcastle right now and it is not surprising. The former West Ham boss was never a real favourite amongst the Newcastle faithful even when the club was doing extremely well, narrowly losing out on a Champions League place in 2011/12.

Very few clubs get away with spending limited amounts of money in the transfer window. Manchester United’s decline has shown that even a top club with an incredible youth academy has to spend in order to maintain its current status or progress forward. Newcastle failed to build on this fifth place finish and owner Mike Ashley has to take some of the blame. The reluctance on the part of the billionaire to spend money is questionable, as is his commitment.

Newcastle realised that the squad needed an overhaul perhaps a little too late. After going almost two full seasons without making a permanent signing, Pardew has had to integrate a number of new names like Jack Colback and Daryl Janmaat at the same time. Despite being one of the most active clubs in the summer transfer window, Newcastle did not address the problems at centre back. Fabricio Coloccini and Williamson have been poor and it is not surprising that Newcastle have one of the  worst defensive records in the division.

The team has shipped 14 goals in the opening seven matches.

Pardew has said that the criticism from fans has started affecting his family. Stability with managers has taken football clubs to great heights as shown by Liverpool and Manchester United. However, there comes a time when the position of manager becomes untenable.

It would be hard to see the criticism subsiding even if Pardew manages to turn around the fortunes of the club. Mike Ashley has displayed a remarkable thick-skinned attitude towards the calls for Pardew to be sacked. Perhaps, he is holding out in the hope that the next few fixtures will finally see the club get the much-needed first league victory of the season.

On a positive note, Newcastle have suffered only two defeats in the last five matches. Amongst the next five fixtures, matches against the likes of  Leicester and West Brom are winnable. Newcastle will have only themselves to blame if they do not take three points from at least one of these.

Incredibly, Pardew still has six years left on the eight-year contract that he signed in 2012. Newcastle surprised everyone with the longevity of the deal, but they are bound to have a breakout clause. The club must have surely learnt lessons from their last relegation from the Premier League during the 2008-09 season. Back then, players did not have relegation clauses on their contracts.

Fortunately, the club were promoted back to the Premier League in the first instance. Their relegation showed that even top clubs are not immune from the threat of going down and relegation still remains a distinct possibility this campaign.

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