Under-fire manager needed Premier League experience, says Sky Sports pundit
Tuesday 30 September 2014 10:49, UK
Gary Neville says Alan Pardew is paying the price for failing to sign enough players with Premier League experience.
Newcastle remain joint bottom of the Premier League after a 1-0 defeat to Stoke on Monday Night Football where banners were again held up by some supporters calling for the manager to be sacked.
The club responded to a poor finish to last season by investing in the likes of Remy Cabella and Emmanuel Riviere over the summer and Sky Sports pundit Neville said both of the new signings struggled to make an impact against Stoke.
And he believes Pardew could have eased the pressure on the team by signing players who had played in the English top flight before.
“It must be really difficult for him and he’s hurting badly,” said Neville. “As much as the Newcastle fans want him out, they must see a man there who is doing his absolute very best and is trying as hard as he can.
“He is trying to work with a team with a lot of new players to integrate into the squad and it isn’t quite working for him in the attacking third in particular.
“You think of Sissoko, Gouffran, Cabella and Riviere tonight – plus Cisse in the second half – and there was nowhere near enough from them. You need more quality from them to win games. Stoke just had that little bit extra.
“Newcastle have had a recruitment policy where they have brought in players, some of them half-well-known and some of them not-really-well-known, particularly from France and they’ve done ok with that.
“But if ever Alan Pardew needed a certainty this summer it was people who are tried and trusted in the Premier League and people he knew would hit the ground running for him. They have brought in Riviere and Cabella, who have not adapted to this league.
“There is a higher risk attached to those types of signings than there is with players who have already been here, settled and done it over a period of one to three years.
“I’m not sure if Alan Pardew is in control of the signings at the club, but I would have to say that if I was him this summer, knowing there was pressure at the end of last season, you wanted tried and trusted – and he hasn’t got that.”
Newcastle finished 10th in the Premier League last season, but it’s now more than a decade since they last qualified for the Champions League.
And fellow Monday Night Football pundit Jamie Carragher says Pardew may need a good result in his next game against Swansea if he is to hang on to his job.
He said: “The problem he’s got is that the next game is a tough game away at Swansea and with the way Swansea are playing you would expect Swansea to win that.
“Then the problem all managers have is the international breaks. The two-week break is always the time when a club will look at it. It gives them time to bring someone else in if he was thinking of making that decision. Unfortunately for managers they come around early in the season.
“When you’re in such bad form every game looks difficult and I think it’s bad. It’s Newcastle, it’s not a promoted team or a small team.
“Newcastle under Bobby Robson were getting in the Champions League and you couldn’t say they were over-achieving, but I think of Newcastle as a top-eight club. They should be pushing for Europe and if they got in the Champions League one year you’d say it was fantastic.
“Alan Pardew almost got them there one year when they finished fifth and he was Manager of the Year, but Newcastle should always be a top-eight team at least.
“To see them bottom of the league with Burnley and only goals scored separating them is bad.”
