Pardew sacked, Here we go again !!!

Thanks for the memories.

This morning I was phoned by my Dad and got the old ‘Have you heard the news ?’ question. To be fair, I did it to him last time when Markus Liebherr passed away. This time it was a very short conversation…

‘Have you heard the news?’,
‘No , what, have we signed someone ?’,
‘Not as such, Pardew’s been sacked’,
’Oh for fucks sake’

I suppose that after 13 months of stability it was high time for it all to go to shit again.

What is cast iron undeniable is that three games into a season, two days before the transfer window shuts is a fucking stupid time to change managers through choice. What is also undeniable is that the team has just won 4-0 away from home which is the kind of result that usually kick-starts a run of wins. I just don’t get it which is why I think this has got sod all to do with football. We have been progressing and gradually getting better and better for the past year and the upward trend has shown no real signs of falling away. There is always going to be the odd bump in the road but you have to look at the bigger picture.

The timing of the decision is bizarre, unless of course, there is a manager waiting in the wings to take over… and if there is, it had better be a good one. Not one of the usual failures like Iain Dowie, not a novice like Paul Tisdale or Eddie Howe (their time will come), not a fucking idiot like Phil Brown and not and not a foreign manager who has no idea of League 1 or Championship football (I heard Zola mentioned). If we go near Sven… lock up your daughters and lock up Markus' wallet. It’s a massive decision for Nicola Cortese because probably 95% of Saints fans thought we were going up this year with Alan Pardew in charge. That’s a very large percentage of the fanbase who will not be best pleased if the new manager doesn’t do it. To be honest though, with the players we have, you wouldn’t even have to be a very good manager to get us promoted this year.

What of the players…. Nearly all of them have been brought to the club by Pardew. If you look at the starting XI on Saturday, only Davis, Schneiderlin and Lallana were here already. Ask anyone who our better players are and they’ll say Fonte and Lambert, both signed by Pardew, not to mention Barnard, Connolly, Harding, Martin, Jaidi, Butterfield, Dickson, Puncheon. Make no mistake, fans of other teams will be amazed. I don’t think he bought in a bad player to the club in his time here which is quite remarkable given the number… not sure about Seaborne yet though, I have to say. Uaully, players just get on with it as they're used to it but there is always the worry that some may be unsettled and leave, especially when Pardew resurfaces somewhere else.

Oh yeah… and the papers will have a bloody field day and it will keep ‘South Coast Team’ in the papers for all the wrong reasons, especially if we don’t maintain the upward momentum. Good luck Nicola – choose wisely.

As for Alan Pardew, as regular readers will know, I like the guy. After that Dutch twat(s) and George Burley, I found him honest, forthright and interesting when interviewed and loved the fact that he spoke common sense. The team was set up the right way and tried to play the right way and as I said, we were progressing which for me was enough after the five year slide we’d been on. I am 100% convinced that we would have got promoted this year with him in charge and we still might of course, but for now it’s up in the air. To the football world, Pards has enhanced his reputation whilst at Saints. They will think that he’s come in to a team in disarray and on -10, build a squad that would have made the playoffs but for the -10, won the JPT and would have gone up this year. He’ll get another job soon and it will be at a higher level than League 1 and as far as I’m concerned, he will have earned it and good luck to the guy.

Saints now have Dean Wilkins in charge for the time being and one thing you can be sure of, is that he will be sacked as soon as the new man is appointed. I’m pretty disappointed with what’s gone on and would like to know the non-football reasons for this happening. I doubt I ever will though so like football supporters the world over, I’ll just get on with it and hope to Christ that we get someone decent in. Martin O’Neill would do…

So I'd like to say thanks to Alan Pardew for giving me a great season to watch last year, a win at Wembley and an upwardly mobile team. Good luck with whatever you do next.