Newcastle left to rue summer failure to sign Swansea City's Wilfried Bony
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Version 0 of 1. Wilfried Bony loomed large on Newcastle United's shopping list last summer only for his name to be fairly swiftly crossed out once it became apparent that Vitesse Arnhem were demanding £12m. He ended up becoming Swansea City's record signing instead and 22 goals later Bony represents the biggest reason why they are virtually certain to still be in the Premier League next season. Had Newcastle acquired the Ivory Coast striker it is not impossible to believe they might have been challenging for Europe rather than desperately attempting to cling to a top-10 finish. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for. Sometimes you really do need to speculate to accumulate. Alan Pardew's problem is that neither message appeals to Mike Ashley, Newcastle's acutely cost-conscious owner. Bony's two goals – a header from a corner and a stoppage-time penalty – made Pardew the first Newcastle manager to preside over five successive Premier League defeats. His team have been in such alarming decline since Christmas that he was left almost pathetically grateful for small mercies. They included Shola Ameobi's opener – Newcastle's first goal in five games – but foremost among them was the behaviour of the 51,057 crowd. Pardew had feared they might turn against him with such vehemence Ashley would be forced to sack him. Instead they restricted themselves to gentle boos and isolated calls for the manager's head. To muttering rather than mutiny, inertia not insurgency. "I was actually buoyed by that, I must say," Pardew said. "I have to thank them. Our crowd were brilliant." He seems unlikely to be dismissed before the summer, if at all. Despite suggestions that Ashley is contemplating replacing him with Tim Sherwood, assisted by Les Ferdinand, it is said that the owner lacks real appetite for sacking Pardew. Yet even if Ashley accepts that not replacing the Paris Saint-Germain-bound Yohan Cabaye in January constituted a big mistake, Newcastle's manager has made his fair share of tactical errors. The upshot is far too many long balls and a dearth of creativity. Too many players in a heavily Francophone, tension suffused, dressing room look as if they do not want to be on Tyneside. Problems with Hatem Ben Arfa, no angel but the club's most gifted individual, have reached such a pitch that when he flew to Paris, purportedly to visit a back specialist, last week, it prompted relief all round. At least Pardew's seven-game touchline ban imposed for head-butting Hull's David Meyler is over. "Our bad run has coincided with the gaffer not being on the sidelines," the midfielder Dan Gosling said. "It'll be a lot easier when he's back. He's been a big miss. You need your gaffer in the dugout barking orders." Pardew trusts one win from the remaining three games, at Arsenal and Liverpool and home to Cardiff, will secure Ashley's pre-season objective. "It would be damaging if we dropped out of the top 10," he said. "Cardiff's a big game." Surprisingly, Garry Monk looked even more drawn than his Newcastle counterpart almost 18 years senior to him. Swansea's manager blamed it partly on a home life dominated by one-month old twins but largely on the need "to look after 24 more babies" at work. "It's a massive win," said Monk, whose side have, thanks to Bony, all but banished relegation worries. "I guess it's a defining moment in our season. Wilfried is arguably the best striker outside the top six. He doesn't just offer goals, he's a big presence and a massive character; the lads feed off him. He's one of the hardest workers in training every day. He pushes everyone and wants them to do things right." Bereft of goals and leadership, Newcastle crave a Bony of their own. Unfortunately he would probably cost around £20m now. Man of the match Wilfried Bony (Swansea City) |