Alan Pardew appointed as manager at new club – After less than 5 weeks in last job

On Wednesday 1 June 2022 from CSKA Sofia revealed that Alan Pardew was no longer manager, less than five weeks after having been appointed on a permanent basis.

After taking charge of team affairs (originally on a temporary basis) on 15 April, Alan Pardew managed only one win in the final seven games of the season in all competitions.

Alan Pardew and the club parted company, with the former CSKA Sofia boss blaming (see below) a minority of the club’s fans.

CSKA Sofia official announcement – 1 June 2022:

‘Army men,

Alan Pardew will not lead the CSKA team in the new season. Over the last ten days, the mentor and the leadership of the army have held numerous talks and eventually the decision of the British specialist not to continue his work on the “Army” was reached. He expressed his motives in front of the club’s website:

“First, I want to thank all the real CSKA fans for their support and passion for the club. To Grisha and Dani Ganchevi for their efforts to bring the club forward in such challenges and circumstances.

It was a privilege for me to be a part of and to serve this club! Unfortunately, my time here is over! The events before and after the match with Botev (Plovdiv) were not acceptable for me, for my assistant Alex Dyer, or for our players. The reason no one gave an interview after the meeting was that we were all very outraged by the situation that had escalated.

Our players decided to play only out of loyalty and to protect the club. The small group of organized racist fans who tried to sabotage this match is not what I want to lead and represent the team. Definitely, this is not the right path for the benefit of CSKA, because such a club deserves much more.’

Pardew’s decision follows a section of CSKA Sofia’s supporters targeting their own side’s black players with racist abuse, four players getting the abuse and also having bananas thrown at them.

Now on Wednesday (14 September), Alan Pardew is back as a manager.

Greek club Aris revealing the news.

I smiled when I saw them describe Alan Pardew as ‘legendary’ in the official release.

Aris official announcement – 14 September 2022:

PAE ARIS announces the start of its collaboration with coach Alan Scott Pardew, as is his full name.

Alan Pardew, born on July 18, 1961 in Wimbleton, England, has signed a one-year contract (with an option for another year) with our club.

The legendary English manager’s coaching career began with Reading shortly before 2000, with whom he managed to win promotion from the Championship to the Premier League.

In October 2003, the British manager signed for West Ham, with whom he won another promotion to the top division, while also reaching the FA Cup final in the 2005-06 season.

After three years at West Ham, Pardew left in December 2006 and within days took charge of Charlton Athletic.

Charlton’s relegation was inevitable that year, with Pardew staying on for two more years at the club, trying to win back promotion to the Premier League. In November 2008 Pardew and Charlton Athletic parted ways.

His next team was Southampton who were playing in League One at the time. Alan Pardew stayed at Southampton for one season (2009-10) and celebrated winning the League Trophy at Wembley.

In the middle of the following year he made the big decision to sit on the Newcastle bench. There he lived the best five years of his career (2010-2015), as his team played good football, won the exit to Europe and he himself was named the best manager in the Premier League for the 2011-12 season.

It was Crystal Palace who with their very good offer “grabbed” him from Newcastle in January 2015 and Pardew’s start to his new club has been amazing.

In fact, under his guidance, Crystal Palace reached the historic FA Cup final in the 2015-16 season, where they eventually lost to Manchester United. In December 2016, Pardew said goodbye to Crystal Palace.

After a brief stint on the bench at West Brom in the 2017-’18 season, our team’s new manager tested his skills outside of England, spending a year at Dutch Eredivisie side Den Haag (2019-’20).

Alan Pardew’s last job before moving to Greece was in neighboring Bulgaria for CSKA Sofia, first as technical director and then as coach (2020-2022).

As of today, Alan Scott Pardew belongs – and officially – to the ARIS family!

* Alexander Constantine Dyer will be a direct partner of the new coach of our team, while Hristo Zahariev will have analyst duties.