Did Alan Pardew Just Criticise Newcastle's Transfer Policy?
In his usual round-about way, Pardew has voiced gentle dissent.
Inevitably for someone various referred to as a puppet and a patsy, Alan Pardew doesn't really have much of a track record when it comes to publicly denouncing the direction of the Newcastle's upper leadership. When Joe Kinnear was trundling his way around the training ground pretending to be anything other than what he really is, the grumbles from Pardew were quiet and under-stated, and when players have been sold against his wishes, or even worse counter to his promises (Andy Carroll) he has merely shrugged and toed the company line.
After all, what else could he do?
But now, with the club sitting in 18th position in the table, and the players - all of whom we are assured are fighting for Pardew's career with their very beings - not turning it on on the pitch the manager has come out with what amounts to scathing criticism. At least in the context of his usual spin:
Our policy here has been the same since Ive been at the club we have bought players we think have good market value and that means mainly the younger players. Ive had to deal with younger players and some have been massively successful and some havent. At the moment we are not having as much success as weve had.
I didnt think we were strong enough in the last part of the season and thats been held against me that Ive been making excuses. But I just felt that we needed more and we didnt have it after the loss of Cabaye. This club needs big players because we are a big scalp for any team. For Swansea we are a big scalp. Forget where we are in the league. We need big players and our big players need to stand up. We also need to create more big players and thats what we are trying to do.
At the moment we are not having as much success as we've had. A telling line.
But let's evaluate: of the signings brought in this summer, Daryl Janmaat and Jack Colback have looked the best, but even then both have been employed wrong. Janmaat is not being told where his starting position should be, and is not being coached as to how to deal with a high line of attack: for someone who traditionally played wing-back, you would have thought this might have been identified by the manager as a specific area for personal development or something...
The rest of the players have been something of a mixed bag: Siem De Jong is crocked, even if Alan Pardew still sets his team up as if he's on the pitch, Ayoze Perez has shown flashes, but has been given precious little time, and Remy Cabella has played in too many positions and is already becoming the scapegoat. Meanwhile Emanuel Riviere was basically thrown to the lions by a manager intent on playing him as a hold-up striker without anyone to run off him, like playing Alan Shearer as a lone striker (despite the obvious difference in talent). Facunda Ferreyra remains a mystery entirely.
So aside from Ferreyra, every single one of the players who Pardew says are not as successful signings as he's been used to have been affected directly by his management. It is his responsibility to develop talents who come to the club - and pretty much all came with either a track record or potential - so it's not enough to sit back and criticise them as if he's doing his best with badly identified players. Yes, targets were missed, but the raw materials handed to Pardew are not being used properly.
The rest of his quote makes no sense: why bring up the fact that he's been accused of making excuses? He has, and it wasn't just that we missed Cabaye or weren't strong enough: at times he was saying everything other than those two points. His memory is astonishing.
There is a veiled criticism of the club for not replacing Cabaye directly, but in his usual way he deflects the stand he's trying to make by saying the club are still working hard on making "big players". That might be the case, Alan, but in identifying the fact that you can't work with the players you've been given, you're hardly proving yourself suitable to that development role now are you?