Pardew has not run out of excuses, yet – he never will. We need to act quickly and move him on so he doesn’t get any more chances to use his library of bizarre explanations as to why we are becoming worse under him, week by week.
By choosing to omit Cabaye from the squad, Pardew effectively handed power over to a desperate buying club and absolved Cabaye of any responsibility of fulfilling his contractual duties. Why? Because he wanted an excuse for getting hammered.
Signing Remy (who is a good player, irrespective of other issues) would be adequate in terms of giving us striking options short-term but I don’t think that means we wouldn’t still be after Gomis, either now or in the January transfer window.
Gomis is in the last year of his contract and, under normal circumstances, would be worth about €12m, which means that he will be worth about €6m with 12 months to run on his contract. By Christmas, he will have a value of about €2.5m and he will be worth zero by the time his employment ends.
Our model should be Borussia Dortmund, Schalke, Benfica or Porto – not QPR, Sunderland or Manchester City. Those teams have been built on a sensible transfer policy and great football as a result.
