Newcastle injury crisis heightens the pressure on Alan Pardew

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/sep/11/newcastle-united-alan-pardew-pressure-mounts

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Alan Pardew heads into two games likely to define his future confronted by not only mounting criticism from fans but a growing injury crisis.

Newcastle United’s manager accepts he is under pressure going into Saturday’s trip to Southampton and the following weekend’s home match against Hull City but feels fortune is frowning on him.

As if the news that Siem de Jong, his £6m former Ajax playmaker, will be sidelined until December at the earliest by a torn groin did not represent a big enough setback, Rolando Aarons, Newcastle’s exciting teenage left-winger, has returned from England Under-20 duty nursing a hamstring problem expected to keep him out until October.

With Papiss Cissé and Davide Santon still recovering from major knee surgery and Cheik Tioté unable to start at Southampton after playing two full games for Ivory Coast in contravention of medical advice, Pardew’s horizon appears pretty bleak.

It does not help that supporters have not forgiven him for last spring’s extended run of disappointing results. “All Premier League managers are under pressure but it seems to be slightly more revved up, up here,” Pardew said. “Everybody in the Premier League has it coming but, for me, it’s probably come a little bit quicker than I expected; it’s a little bit more focused than elsewhere. I have to deal with that.”

At the end of a week in which 85% of respondents in a local newspaper poll indicated they thought Pardew should be replaced and a website called sackpardew.com was established by anonymous parties, the manager accepted that there was a disconnect between the dugout and the stands.

“It’s important for the fans to respect and honour what you’re doing,” said Pardew. “I think maybe some of that trust was lost at the back end of last season. There could be a number of arguments why you would consider that to be my fault, and I would have to accept those if that was the opinion of the fans.”

Not that he believes bonds have been torn quite beyond repair. “You can only really enhance that relationship with the supporters by winning games, and we need to win some, simple as that,” he said.

“Sometimes, when you’re at a club for a long time, and I’m the second-longest-serving manager in the Premier League now, it becomes a little more difficult, especially at a club of this size. People ask: ‘Why haven’t you won a trophy?’ But we haven’t won a trophy at this club since 1969.

“It’s very, very difficult. I have to try to look at the bigger picture – a bigger picture than the local media and some of our fans – but I also understand there’s an immediate world we live in. Immediate results are important, and I can’t take my eye off that either. But by the same token, I have a bigger vision. I think we’ve got better and we’re a stronger club than when I arrived, a lot stronger.”

Yet many fans feel Pardew has weakened Newcastle by loaning the mercurial Hatem Ben Arfa to Hull rather than reaching a reconciliation with the gifted, latterly exiled creator.

“It would have been an easy decision to keep him,” Pardew said. “But you have to make tough decisions. In my opinion letting him go was not a risk.”

Even so he could do with choreographing Newcastle’s first win of the season – and quickly. “The pressure is always going to increase when you’ve not won,” agreed a manager waiting to discover whether De Jong requires surgery which could sideline him until the spring.

Pardew is furious Ivory Coast broke an agreement to treat Tioté carefully following the midfielder’s recovery from a nasty hamstring injury. “I thought we had an agreement with his FA that he would play 45 minutes in each games but he’s played two 90 minutes,” he said. “I’m astounded. He hadn’t even played one reserve game. I’ll take him to Southampton but he won’t start – it’s unfair on him and on the club because we pay his wages. We’ll be having words with Ivory Coast.”

At least Jack Colback is fit following a calf injury. “He trained today,” Pardew said, “but he was as rusty as his hair.”