Alan Pardew On Cusp Of Crystal Palace Switcheroo After Newcastle Agree £2.5m Compensation Package

Chris Wright

29th, December 2014

1 Comment

By Chris Wright

Soccer - FA Cup - Semi Final - Liverpool v Crystal Palace

As the mid-season madness continues apace, it’s being reported that Alan Pardew is now within a whisker of upping sticks at Newcastle (ninth in the Premier League) to take over at manager-less Crystal Palace (currently mired in the relegation zone).

Several sources have confirmed that the two clubs are in talks, though the Telegraph are reporting that Palace and Newcastle have now agreed a £2.5million compensation package for Pards, with the managerial switcheroo now within hours of going through.

For what it’s worth, it also seems to be the general consensus that Hull City manager Steve Bruce is now favourite to go in at St James’ Park to replace Pardew.

Weird one, isn’t it?

Four years: that’s how long Pardew was given at Newcastle, thus making him the fourth longest-serving manager in England before he decided to jump ship and return to Selhurst Park.

That’s an inordinately long tenure by modern standards, but when you look back over it, it’s difficult to assess what the man’s legacy is on Tyneside.

Despised by most of the fans (militantly so in some cases), Pardew was almost universally seen by the Toon Army as Mike Ashley’s sly, rubbery, grinning front-of-house Maître d’.

The teams he assembled were intermittently okay, the football likewise – though a genuine sense of identity was always lacking and nothing of note was ever really accomplished beyond “consolidation”.

Very, very strange. Oh well, as the old saying goes: All good loveless sham marriages must come to an end eventually.

As for Newcastle, what will their next completely bonkers adventure be? We can hardly wait to find out.

Posted in Crystal Palace, Managers, Newcastle Utd, Newsnow, Opinion

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  1. AT says:

    From watching every NUFC league game over the past few years (Thank god for streams and pubs) I can say that Pardew was poor tactically, and pursued to play Williamson and Gouffran when both should be nowhere near the starting XI. He seemed to rely on us not conceding most times and once we had, had no idea what to do to get us back in the game but relied on Sissoko or Cisse to pull us out of it.

    Look at his record for the year of 2014…42 Points…pretty much relegation form.

    Apart from one year when we finished 5th when we had numerous good players in good form (HBA, Cabaye, Tiote, Ba) he has not performed too good, and should have gone about a year ago. I wish him all the best at CPFC but feel the media are completely wrong that the Fans had no reason to be upset with him…as with many clubs, unless you watch them regularly (not just Sky/BT/Season Ticket) then you don’t fully understand or know the circumstances or situations at Clubs

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