Remember when Craig Bellamy used to let his mouth go to referees, and the response from our fans was a comical - but often necessary - SHHHH! from the stands? It might have seemed tongue in cheek after the Welshman argued his way into a yellow card a couple of times, but it was genuinely needed because of his inability to keep his mouth shut, even when things were going well for Newcastle. Unfortunately, we can't all heckle Alan Pardew when he gives his press conferences and interviews after games, but in the absence of a PR man sitting on his shoulder, or a script for every question he is asked, he just keeps putting his foot in it. In light of the wins against Leicester, Spurs and City, Pardew should have just basked in the glory of victory, knowing that the fans would still require some convincing but that he was heading in the right direction. After all, we're nothing if not willing to give second chances, as Yohan Cabaye can surely attest. But instead, in his usual way, the manager has come out to indirectly criticise the fans for being nasty: The players have seen the other side of the fans, which can be difficult, but now they are going to see the opposite." Not untrue, and not unfair. The players have been berated, and rightly so, because they haven't been doing it on the pitch, regardless of how much we're told they're trying their honest injun' best, so to say they've seen that reflected from the stands is not really an issue. The underlying suggestion that we're needlessly nasty against the players seems oddly out of touch, but since when did any Newcastle manager have his finger on the fans' collective pulse anyway? But then it's the next thing he said, and the implications that come with it that is more difficult to take: No one will get up as much as our fans, and they can really make a difference, which they have in the last couple of away games and certainly tonight." So apparently, the fans have only "got up" to "make a difference" in the last couple of away games? What happened to the club's official statement (via the Fans Forum minutes) that they would be looking to give the fans something to shout about rather than asking the fans to positively impact the team first? Once again it feels like Pardew is attempting to deflect blame from himself, and indeed criticism, by saying that not screaming for a poor team to win every game, rather than reacting to them being poor, is more important than them exciting the fans in the first place. That is not right: if we are constantly told that we cannot have any impact on how the club is run, or the major decisions that impact the team, but we are somehow accountable for not getting them to play to their full ability? Sorry about that.
