10 Darkest Days In Alan Pardew's Newcastle United Career

9. Andy Carroll's Sale

Date: 31st January 2011 There's a good reason Newcastle are linked with Andy Carroll every time there's a call for a striker: it's not just that he was a brief local hero, it's more than Alan Pardew was adamant he never, ever wanted to sell him in the first place. Carroll's sale to Liverpool - without time to replace him - was the first sign that Pardew had signed on to something he wasn't fully aware of. The language of his interviews from that point on changed completely: he went from being gleefully in charge of a team looking to break the top four to one that couldn't compete with Southampton financially. Looking back, Pardew's insistence that Carroll wasn't going away is utterly tragic, and it's the moment he became the boss he is now:

"He just has to keep working hard. We have to have a big-club mentality and hold on to our best players."