We are always impressed with the home crowd at St. James’ Park, and while they had every chance to get negative on Saturday, with another luke warm display from their side, they kept supporting the lads until the very end – but that last minute penalty winner from Wilfried Bony was too much to take, and our players again were booed off the pitch.
Alan Pardew on Saturday – in peril
Pardew, as always, will be judged against the club’s target set at the beginning of the season, and it could be we finish 11th and don’t make it in the upper half of the table – and that would be so embarrassing for a side that was flying so high after the 5-1 win against Stoke City on Boxing Day.
This is what Alan told the Shields Gazette.
“The fans were brilliant – they didn’t give us a hard time or make it a negative stadium,” “They were with us, and I thank them for that. It would have been easy to go down that line.”
“I’m just so disappointed that we didn’t get a point or any positive result.” “It was a cruel blow, unfortunately,” “We had a couple of early blows with Luuk and Papiss.”
“Our game plan went out of the window a little bit, and Swansea came here and just wanted a result.” “I felt for the players and the club.”
“At a professional level, that’s a cruel blow conceding those goals at the end of each half.” “For large portions of the game, Swansea sat deep and controlled the ball, but didn’t really hurt us.”
“It was fairly comfortable. They had a couple of breakaways. For us, it’s hard to talk about, really.” “I don’t want to make excuses. I just think it was desperately unlucky that they conceded that last goal.”
One thing that is on Alan’s side at the end of the season whatever happens in the final three games, is that he can point to the sale of Yohan Cabaye in January as starting the collapse, and also the three-match bans and then the seven week injury lay-offs of both Loic Remy And Mathieu Debuchy.
But last year Alan Pardew was also fighting for his job, and it’s going to be interesting to see what Mike Ashley does in May – especially if we finish in 11th place – which would be just terrible, given where we were at the end of last year.
And in our last 17 league games Newcastle have been the worst performing team in the Premier League with just 13 points and a goal difference of -20.
🙁
If that was over a full season, we would finish with 29 points and a goal difference of -44 – and that’s worse than we did when we were relegated five years ago.
That says it all really.
Comments welcome.
90 comments so far
Jail for Ashley
Apr 21, 2014 at 12:42 PM
Comment #81beefman,
There’s no way Cabaye would have been allowed to leave if we were in the same predicament of a year previous.
Himanshu Dhingra
Apr 21, 2014 at 12:44 PM
Comment #82Last 77 games for NUFC under Pardew
Losses – 39
Wins – 26
Draws – 12
50.6% Failure rate
about to get worse in next 3 games.
Ibizatoon
Apr 21, 2014 at 12:47 PM
Comment #83Jesper…Hence why I’m pleased you didn’t take my bet!
AusMagpie
Apr 21, 2014 at 12:47 PM
Comment #84I’ve been a fan of Newcastle for 10 years (half my life) and I’m yet to buy a shirt as they do not sell them in Australia (only teams like Liverpool, Arsenal, Chelsea, the Manchester sides are sold) but I’m going to buy one online now. Can anyone recommend a good site? Also I can’t seem to pick a players shirt to buy I’m thinking maybe Armstrong! Haha
TurkishFan101
Apr 21, 2014 at 12:52 PM
Comment #85Jail for Ashley
The problem isn’t Cabaye being sold, we got good money for him, the problem is Pardew consistently vbases the whole team around 1 player.
It was Andy Carroll first, then Shola Ameobi then Demba Ba then Cisse and last season going into this season was Yohan Cabaye and now its back to playing around Shola Ameobi (hoof) hence he was not subbed and played in center against Swansea even when Remy came on.
Pardew is clueless and can never get the best out of a range of players, only manages to man-coach one. Last time it was Cabaye and now his favourite is Dan Gosling.
No doubt why, you can see relative media and recent interview with Gosling. He’s sucking upto Pardew big time. It wasn’t long ago that even he himself admitted he was gone and in reserves.
This twat gets more playing time ahead of Marveaux…
Jail for Ashley
Apr 21, 2014 at 12:52 PM
Comment #86Aus,
Anywhere but SD !
Laurent Robert 32
Apr 21, 2014 at 12:57 PM
Comment #87Audley Pardew the most deluded combo in sports history.
lesh
Apr 21, 2014 at 1:04 PM
Comment #88Not that it makes any difference but
http://www.newcastleunited-mad.co.uk/news/tmnw/cisse_has_broken_kneecap_831082/index.shtml
Here lies another excuse for lack of goals… Errr
nufc-olek
Apr 21, 2014 at 1:25 PM
Comment #89If Pardew is getting dumped in the summer, I hope Moyes gets the job. He can do wonders with small budgets that Ashley gives. And I think he can take us a step forward to be better and more stable club than Pardew can do.
What do you guys think? 🙂
isleofmanman
Apr 21, 2014 at 7:23 PM
Comment #90Yes he will go
And then what?
Its cause and effect
Ashley will still be controlling a strategy which is predicated only on staying up and protecting his income
Freddie Shepherd destabilised the club and tarnished its reputation with ridiculous hirings and firings over many years and made it unsaleable – except to some ego maniac – Ashley -who thought he knew enough not to carry out proper due diligence.
Now its unsaleable again because Ashley overpaid and the manager, the coaching culture and the results are sheeeite !