Newcastle: 10 Things Pardew Should Be Applauded For
2. He Listened To Graham Carr
When it turned out that Pardew was stalling on moving to Palace because he wanted to bring some backroom staff from NUFC, Toon fans worried that it must be head scout Graham Carr that was going to be travelling down the A1 (it turned out to be barrel-chested, crowd-baiting goalkeeper coach Andy Woodman, which was less of a concern, and even he hasn't upped sticks). Carr is widely praised for the astute singings that Newcastle have made, in particular the French revolution of players (emphasis on the revolve, given how many of those players seem to be moving on to elsewhere), and Pardew should be applauded for listening to his advice. Its not just on bringing great, underrated players into the club Ba, Cisse, Cabaye, Debuchy, Santon, Ayoze Perez, etc that Pardew deserves some plaudits, but also on shipping out players who had outstayed their welcome as well. Alright, leaving out the "he's definitely staying - I guarantee he's staying - oh he's gone" debacle that surrounded the sale of Carroll (and Cabaye, to a lesser extent), the fact that some Toon fans would have Joey Barton back in a New York minute, and that Kevin Nolan clearly proved he had another season or two left in him after NUFC unceremoniously dumped him?... And did they really need to sell Demba Ba? Did they honestly put up as much of a fight as they could? And Debuchy... Ok, so maybe not all great.
