11 Most Ridiculous Excuses For Losing Football Matches

2. World Cup Fatigue... 6 Months Before It Even Happened

As stated in the introduction, Newcastle manager Alan Pardew - much maligned for his side's spectacular inability to pick up points in the second half of last season, and still managing to stay in the top 10 - is the undisputed king of excuses. He's almost meme-worthy, with the element of the Newcastle fan-base who disapprove of his continued tenure jumping on his every word as indication that he is simply not up to the job on Tyneside. To be fair to Pardew, he didn't make it easy on himself as he proved when he blamed the World Cup for his side's poor run of form in the league, despite the fact that it hadn't even kicked off when Newcastle's slump began - and nor when it ended with the end of the season. Pardew claimed that some of his players were too focused on international selection - an astonishing claim suggesting that players looking to be picked for the World Cup would play WORSE - and failed to bring their all to the St. James' Park pitch. The fact that Cheick Tiote and Mathieu Debuchy were certainties for their countries, and that Tim Krul was only an outside chance for Holland doesn't seem to have phased his assessment, which seems to have over-estimated how many Newcastle players were going to the tournament.