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Alan Pardew could remain in charge for Saturday’s trip to Swansea Newcastle’s Alan Pardew to stay in charge for Saturday’s trip to Swansea
(about 2 hours later)
Alan Pardew could remain in charge for Saturday’s trip to Swansea despite the Newcastle manager’s winless start to the Premier League season. Alan Pardew’s position at St James’ Park remains safe in the short term but Newcastle United’s manager cannot afford to look too far into the future. Although the 53-year-old will remain in charge for Saturday’s trip to Swansea City he knows the extent of Mike Ashley’s patience is likely to be limited and he is fighting for his job.
The 53-year-old found himself under intense pressure from fans once again after Monday night’s 1-0 defeat at Stoke City left the Magpies one place off the foot of the table with just three points from their opening six games. Whatever happens at the Liberty Stadium, Pardew also seems likely to survive the impending international break and preside over Newcastle’s subsequent Premier League match at home to Leicester City but, after that, the horizon looks opaque.
However, the owner Mike Ashley has apparently acknowledged that not all the problems the team is experiencing on the pitch are down to the manager despite letting slip outside a pub last week that Pardew would be sacked if the team lost at Stoke. “He’s got one more game,” Ashley is reported to have said. “If we lose against Stoke on Monday night then he’s gone. I have had enough.” Despite his team’s 1-0 defeat at Stoke City on Monday night – their sixth League game without a win this season – Pardew is understood to be “under no immediate threat” from Ashley with Newcastle’s owner opting for restraint as opposed to reaching for a P45. With Tynesiders increasingly calling for his head and Newcastle second bottom of the table with only three points, the manager’s position is undeniably under intense scrutiny but there is a degree of boardroom sympathy towards him.
The Newcastle squad underwent significant change during the summer, with nine new faces arriving at St James’ Park including the former Sunderland midfielder Jack Colback, the only recruit with Premier League experience. Although Newcastle’s enduring slump during 2014 – they have won just five of 27 League games since Boxing Day 2013, taking 19 points from a possible 81 – represents a cause of major concern, Ashley acknowledges several mitigating factors. If Yohan Cabaye’s £20m sale to Paris Saint-Germain upset the calibration of both team and dressing room last January, this summer’s seven new arrivals at St James’ Park are still bedding in.
Much of the pressure on Pardew is coming from disaffected fans, with many of those who made the trip to the Britannia Stadium making their feelings known both during the game and on the final whistle. By way of exacerbating Pardew’s problems, the manager, who does not have a big say in a recruitment process mastermined largely by Lee Charnley, the club’s managing director and Graham Carr, the chief scout, was not given the proven striker and central defender he had long demanded. With six of the newcomers having no previous experience of English football, their transition was always likely to be awkward and it did not help that Siem de Jong, the former Ajax playmaker, was swiftly ruled out for several months with a serious thigh injury.
Ashley knows Pardew told him that his team’s collective lack of exposure to the Premier League could prove costly and has seen evidence of this at first hand as the France international attacking midfielder Rémy Cabella and the Holland right-back Daryl Janmaat have struggled to acclimatise to their new habitat. Meanwhile Emmanuel Rivière, signed from Monaco, looks way out his depth.
It seems Newcastle’s owner is, for the moment at least, willing to offer his manager the benefit of the doubt and has scheduled no “crisis talks” before the weekend. Even so Pardew has been told that, if he is to survive in the medium term, a significant and rapid upturn in results is imperative.