Sometimes you have to really wonder what is wrong with Alan Pardew. The man who put Demba Ba on the wing, and then Papiss Cisse, and then Shola Ameobi, has been responsible for diluting the talents of some of Newcastle's best players in recent years. He didn't know what to do with Hatem Ben Arfa, so he sent him out on loan, and he didn't know what to do with Sylvain Marveaux so he sent him out on loan too. Naturally when Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa was judged "not right" for the Premier League, Pardew and the transfer team sneakily sent the Frenchman out on loan to Roma, fully expecting him never to return, despite not having an immediate replacement lined up. That was lunacy to even the fans who have no grasp of the technical side of football: going into the season with three centre-halves is a recipe for disaster, especially when they're an ageing Coloccini, Mike Williamson and heed-the-ball Steven Taylor. But then, inevitably, Yanga-Mbiwa has quickly rubbished claims that he wasn't any good by being excellent for Roma - a side who know that playing him at centre-half for a couple of games rather than moving him across the back-line to cover any other positions is the answer to giving him his confidence back. For every tackle he puts in, and every interception he makes at Roma, Alan Pardew is made to look like more and more of an idiot. He pushed the Frenchman out of his team and into the wilderness, and now thinks so little of him that he's probably going to go to Roma at 2/3rds the price that he cost Newcastle in the first place. Nice work, Newcastle. Meanwhile, France have just announced their squad for their forthcoming international games, and Yanga-Mbiwa is in there. So that means that the defender is good enough for Roma and the Champions League, and France and top level international qualifiers, but not 18th place Newcastle United. There's something wrong there.
