10 Most Laughable Excuses Alan Pardew Has Made At Newcastle

8. The One Where It Was All Yohan Cabaye's Fault

Few can disagree that Cabaye's departure to Paris Saint Germain for £19 million back in January coincided with Newcastle's alarming dip in form during the second half of last season: he was the driving force in Pardew's midfield, and though he was often deployed in less advantageous positions, he's early season form (aside from the early, unfortunate blip) in the more advanced attacking midfield slot was the catalyst for Newcastle's finest form. Inevitably, once Cabaye had gone Pardew openly spoke about the club's disappointing inability to replace him at the end of the transfer window, and went as far as to sort of half suggest that he wasn't happy with Joe Kinnear:

€œI€™m a professional manager. You know, if I was in charge solely of transfers, the answer might be different. But I€™m not.€

For a man so keenly committed to not rocking the boat, that might as well have been him pegging Kinnear out on the line. But rewind time a bit and Pardew's tune was different, as he was blaming Cabaye for the defeat against Man City on the opening game of last season, because of his impact on the team.

"At the time, we were in dispute with our midfield player. When we got off that bus, was he going to play or was he not going to play?... The disruption of that unsettled us, and we lost a player (Steven Taylor, who was sent off) in the first half, which is maybe a consequence of the frustration we were all sharing.€

So apparently Cabaye wanting to move to Arsenal turned Steven Taylor into an idiot? Nice one.