After the five new French players arrived in January Alan Pardew told them before the away game at Aston Villa that through the end of the season we need to be a top four side – that is – the points we get over the last 15 games of our season should put us in the top four during that time.
Alan Pardew – wants winning focus
And Newcastle have so far made a good start on that and we have three wins out of four and 9 points from our last four league games, although the game at the Liberty Stadium, Swansea today is likely to be tough with the Swansea City side hoping to celebrate their winning of their first major trophy in their history last Sunday – when they won the Capital One cup at Wembley.
Alan Pardew also points to the way Everton came away last year around this time and ended up in 7th place with 56 points and 4 points better than their rivals Liverpool.
This is what Alan Pardew said int he local papers today:
“I said at the turnaround, we had to do what Everton did last season; that will take you into next year and that is how I am going to drive the team.” “To be a top three team in this country is very very difficult for us. But fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, that is really we are setting our agenda.”
“Europa League, FA Cups, League Cups – they are all things we want to win. Obviously Swansea managed to do that.” “What Everton have achieved this season, particularly early on, is in no small part down to what they did last season. Absolutely. And that drive and winning focus carries over.”
The game today is maybe the second most difficult we have through the rest of the season, with the most difficult one probably being when we have to visit Manchester City on 30th March.
Swansea are 7 points above us in the league, so if we are to catch them this season, a win is what we really need today – and that could be a tall order for even this Newcastle side.
But that’s what we are hoping for today – fingers crossed.
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12 comments so far
Spotlight Kid
Mar 2, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Comment #1Europa League, FA Cups, League Cups – they are all things we want to win. AP
This guy is certifiable at times…
Marty-Toon
Mar 2, 2013 at 10:30 AM
Comment #2Any type of positive result today will be nice.
Not an easy place to go but where is in the PL?
Well apart from the dark place over the road 🙂
We’ve got a decent team now so we can give them a good game there but we’ll need to start better than we did against the saints lt time out.
Spotlight Kid
Mar 2, 2013 at 10:33 AM
Comment #3…just remember the team he put out at Brighton – and the subsequent abject performance.
stephen1971
Mar 2, 2013 at 10:34 AM
Comment #4why is everyone talking like swansea is a man u or a top top team, ffs they beat a 2nd division team in the cup, we,ll beat them today, let them have possesion like last season and hit them on the counter
Shot Bru
Mar 2, 2013 at 10:37 AM
Comment #5talking of the europa cup…..UEFA need to make a plan where visas are concerned regarding games in Russia…
anything up to $210….(not dollars but sterling) for the visa against Anzhi….complete bullsh*t!! Once again the fans getting ripped off…and not to mention the threat of being set upon by Russian hooligans..
either Uefa tell the russian govt to change the rules on visas for soccer fans or ban them from europe……
saxonfenken
Mar 2, 2013 at 10:54 AM
Comment #6Spotlight Kid
What he is saying is what we will be aiming to win next year and the following ones, not all necessarily in the same year.
also the Brighton game we did not have many fit players for the Premier League let alone the FA Cup and Europa , Had we the players we have now you would have seen a much different side, as we did against Metalist.
So I think certifiable is an idiotic statement to make
Novocastrian66
Mar 2, 2013 at 10:58 AM
Comment #7Spotlight. Where we were, where we are and where we want to be, are 3 different things. Pardew is looking forward with optimism not back. You need to put the Brighton result into perspective to where we were.
The club was in a bad place in November, December and early January.
We’ve moved on quickly and have improved almost beyond recognition since, this is where we are.
Where we want to be is winning trophies.
Spuggy
Mar 2, 2013 at 11:16 AM
Comment #8Did you see the team available for Brighton??
Spotlight Kid
Mar 2, 2013 at 11:40 AM
Comment #9The NUFC team available to play Brighton consisted (supposedly) of Premiership standard players against a middling Championship side. In the end it wasn’t even a contest.
Aside from some flukey results last season it’s clear Pardew’s teams only do well when man for man they are better than the opposition. They can’t beat a better organised team by astute coaching – Pardew doesn’t have it in him. January’s French Foreign Legion has yet to be rendered ineffective by Pardew’s mediocrity, but it will happen slowly but surely – and hoofball will inevitably return.
With the likes of AVB or even RDM at the helm the current team would be top 6, but as soon as things get tricky on the field Pardew will revert to type. Remember last season, the club were poised to finish 4th but Pardew’s team bottled it and only returned 3 points from a possible 12.
This inability to cope with real pressure and project a winning mentality has been NUFC’s Achilles heel since the 1974 FA Cup Final, and not one manager (even Sir Bobby, sad to say, or Big Al) has managed to undo this jinx whether in a Cup Final or relegation dogfight.
KK would have loved it it we’d won the league, but we never did. Meanwhile Swansea (dead and buried 10 years ago) have won the type of silverware we can only dream of because put us lot in a final – and we’ll bottle it.
Unpalatable, but true, and AP is certainly not the man to break the collective jinx. We’ll only beat Swansea if the players ignore Pardew’s arm waving touchline nonsense and play their natural game – we shall see.
Black and White Blood
Mar 2, 2013 at 12:18 PM
Comment #10@Spotlight
4th January 2012. That is all.
Shot Bru
Mar 2, 2013 at 12:42 PM
Comment #11Spotlight Kid ….perfectly summed up..
Spotlight Kid
Mar 2, 2013 at 5:49 PM
Comment #12B&W Blood
The sole purpose of this club is not beating Man U (or Sunderland) once in a while and spending the next few years boasting about it – so what? To be successful is to be consistent and win trophies, something Pardew is not going to do because he ain’t capable of it – as we again saw today.