Is a Newcastle United manger ever secure in his job? With the presence of Joe Kinnear, himself a former and deeply unpopular boss, in the background as director of football certainly not! Pardew lost a second successive Tyne-Wear derby to Sunderland over the weekend, cranking up the pressure on him once more. He has also taken a polar opposite stance to the club's hierarchy about how much of a priority the League Cup is. Describing the competition as "high on our agenda" does not tally with the noises that came out of the St James' Park boardroom after the Magpies beat Hull City in the last round. Manchester City visit the Toon on Wednesday evening, safe in the knowledge they utterly out-classed Newcastle in a Premier League meeting at the Etihad. That opening day defeat has rather set the tone for their season. Another hammering might persuade Mike Ashley to use his itchy trigger finger. The St James' faithful are desperate that is not too strong a word for some success. There would be little wisdom in sacking Pardew, a man that guided West Ham to the FA Cup final in 2006, but you never know.
Jamie Clark is a qualified Web Journalist after undergoing professional training at the University of Sheffield. A prolific and accredited sports writer, he also enjoys classic comedy, historic fiction, 80s music and heritage.
