10 Ridiculous Arguments Against Sacking Alan Pardew

4. He Came Fifth

The single most enduring answer to claims that Pardew is a terrible manager is that he guided the team to fifth and won the manager of the year award, so he must have something. The truth however is that everything has changed since then. That finish was achieved on the back of Papiss Cisse's form, as well as the use of a system that suited the individuals on the pitch, which is why Ben Arfa worked so well. But once the position was achieved, Pardew changed his approach markedly, shifting to a very obvious "no player is bigger than the team" tactical approach and dropping Ben Arfa when he couldn't adapt to the needless new system. He also took everything that made Cisse a success - his instinctiveness and his creative thought - and made him play a more rigid system to appease Demba Ba, destroying the player in the process. So while he might have got the team fifth, he also single-handedly erased that good work startlingly quickly.