Karma Sides with Pardew

A little over a year ago Alan Pardew was wandering around the managerial wilderness, still coming to terms with the fact he was not in tenure of a side he had brought a trophy in the cabinet, a top ten finish (made even more impressive by the significant points deduction granted at the start of the season), and a sense of stability. 

Things at Southampton were pulling in the right direction for the first time since their demise which saw them fall from the Premier League to League One, but egos and charismatic clashes meant that Nicola Cortese dismissed the man who had brought St Mary's the joy of a trophy, something no one else had managed since 1976. 

If the ecstasy of a cup triumph wasn't enough to fall back on, the result immediately before Pardew's sacking was a 4-0 demolition of Bristol Rovers, hardly signs of a catastrophe beneath the surface as suggested by those high up the Saints hierarchy. Cortese, acting on hearsay, dismissed Pardew amidst rumours that there was unrest amongst the back room staff, something clearly not emulating onto the pitch. 

Unless you are Cortese himself or in fact rather naive, you will have come to the conclusion along with the almost absolute majority of Saints fans, that there was more to the sacking that came to light. But out of the dark alley of motives came a blinding beacon of Cortese's real motives behind Pardew's ushering away from St Mary's. 

The previous league campaign saw Southampton starting from rock bottom with a disparaging points total of minus 10, the FA's quire on-field punishment for poor off-field misdemeanour's resulting in financial difficulty. But that's a different quarrel. After taking over from Mark Wotte, Pardew led his Southampton side to a 7th place finish, only missing out on the play-offs with two games remaining. Hardly an underachievement given the circumstances, but Cortese felt displeasure at the final standings, something he would bottle until the fateful sacking on 30th August 2010. 

Pardew left Southampton as title favourites, something largely due to his signings, including £1 million man Rickie Lambert from Bristol Rovers, and fellow striker Lee Barnard, both of which incidentally are still leading the Saints line as they look to conquer their latest challenge, the Championship. 

But Pardew is much more than a shroud business man in the transfer market, the Londoner has a unique, and priceless ability to motivate and install unrivalled belief in his players, even at Southampton (who were languishing in the third tier of English football) he made the players feel far too good for their level, something which was transferred onto the pitch with impressive results, under both Pardew's and now Nigel Adkins tenure. 

A little over 3 months since that ominous meeting with Nicola Cortese, Pardew found himself catapulted into the heavenly clouds of the English game, the Premier League. Another controversial sacking this time at Newcastle United at the hands of yet another slightly off-centre owner - Mike Ashley - opened the door for a otherwise lost Pardew, who had been floating about the sporting media like a lost soul.  A poll of 40,000 Newcastle United fans found that only 5.5% of them wanted Pardew as their next man in charge. Was Pardew's new role a blessing from karma or a disaster waiting to happen?

Clearly, karma was on the 50-year-old's side as in his first game in charge in front of 52,000 Geordies full to the brim of uncertainty and unexpectedness, Newcastle ran out 3-1 winners of Liverpool, a result sure to pang in the ears of Cortese and Southampton's board, who still featured several pages further in the sports pages in the county's third tier. 

A FA Cup giant killing didn't help the sceptics after United lost 3-1 to Stevenage Borough, but an infamous 4-4 draw with Arsenal lamented Pardew's arrival back in managerial know-how, after coming from four goals down to claim a extraordinary point off of Arsene Wenger's side.

A respectable 12th place finish fired a poignant message to those accountable for his St Mary's departure, and his start to the current season will once again shake down the centre of Cortese's spine, setting a Newcastle United record with an unbeaten run to the season of 11 games. In fact. his Newcastle side lie in the Champions League spots out right, and have picked up one more point than Chelsea and just one less than reigning champions Manchester United.

This managerial fairytale is no less than Pardew deserves. His controversial past should have no bearing on the clear disloyalty shown to him by Southampton, his rewards for leading the Saints to their first trophy in 35 years and propping them up for promotion should have been at St Mary's, but instead he reaps the much larger congratulations of steering a side blighted by disharmony and uncertainty into a Champions League spot, looking like a side ready to conquer the stalwarts of the English game. 

Cortese and Southampton's loss is very much Newcastle and the Premier League's gain.

Alex O'Loughlin

Comments

[Jack]

I know it's just a "blog" but I assume the writters have aspirations - This is the worst, least informed piece I have come across whilst reading about football on the web. Crikey, the concept of Karma (as great as it sounds), would appear a no-no just looking at the current tables,.

[Adkins Anyday]

Pardew had a terrible start to the season at Southampton, with a team that should have walked League One. The 'trophy' you refer to was the Johnstones Paint Trophy, and while we were happy to win it, it is the first time we had entered such a lowly competition since 1976, so not a huge achievement. The comment on Barnard is also wide of the mark as he hasn't started a game yet this season.
Pardew appears to be doing a good job at Newcastle, but he certainly isn't 'Cortese and Southamptons loss'. Nigel Adkins has taken the team to a different level- playing far better football and with a general cohesiveness at the club. I think you would struggle to find any Saints fan wishing we has Pardew back, however well he does at Newcastle.

[Ed]

As a Saints fan, I did admire what Pardew had done for Southampton as do most supporters and like me quieried the sacking, obviously something went wrong behind the scenes but I still follow him and very pleased he is doing wonders at Newcastle. BUT karma?? don't think so and it certainly isn't our loss that he was sacked, look where we are in the championship and the fact Adkins managed to achieve promotion whilst we languished near the bottom of League 1. To be perfectly honest I prefer Adkins as his style of play suits us and who can complain with our home record. But either way both clubs have both reaped the rewards from the sacking.

[sfc89]

Pardew leaving saints wasn't "cortese's and southampton's loss" at all! yes he bought in some stability and yes he bought the majority of our team today, and for that brilliant day at wembley most saints fans will be forever grateful. but we were very poor away from home under pardew, and relied completely on long balls to lambert to get us goals. ask any saints fan today and they would say that it was a masterstroke of a decision by cortese to replace pardew with adkins. we are playing some of the best football ever seen at st marys and riding high at the top of the championship. good luck to pardew at newcastle, and i hope we meet next year. but don't make out like southampton have lost their greatest ever manager and that saints fans are wishing for pardew to come back! it was one of many fantastic decisions taken by our brilliant chairman nicola cortese. rediculous article.

[Stevo]

I was astonished at Pardew's sacking - fearing a continuation of the instability that has plagued my Club for years. I queried Adkins appointment - feeling less than inspired by his arrival from Scunthorpe. On both counts I should have had more faith in Nicola Cortese for Adkins style and results are at a level not seen since the heady days of the 80's. There is a unity about the Club that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

I wish Pardew well at Newcastle - though i remain to be fully convinced that he is their latest Messiah - but i am absolutely delighted that Adkins rules at St Mary's!

[sfc1999]

'Karma'???? If being top of the league, playing with style and breaking records is Karma, I'd like some more please!
Give me Adkins over Pardew any day of the week.

[trist]

Good luck to Pardew, Newcastle and all, it would be good for football if they continued with their initial success. But as a Saints fan there is no way I would swap Adkins for Pardew, along with nigh on any other Saints fans at St Mary's now. Pardew did well at Saints but his sacking was down to his own errors, not others. Those errors nearly resulted in Saints remaining in League 1, but for the brilliance of Adkins. Pardew has no one to blame but himself, but finding himself in the position he does is hardly likely to make him look back. Absolutely no karma, just a very lucky guy who got another chance which very few would have given, knowing the facts.

[Matty]

A previous comment said "........the article writer seems pretty clueless, and rather ignorant ....."

Add to that he/she is obviously lacking a dictionary and a good working knowledge of the English language.

[Pete]

the article writer seems pretty clueless, and rather ignorant if he believes saints fans would rather pardew back over adkins

[channonite]

This article is just so far from reality that it is difficult to comprehend.

Pardew did well for a while and that first season at Southampton was a breath of fresh air. It was however clear that things were going wrong behind the scenes, even before the end of the season. It was clear that Cortese was expecting a top six finish. The complicating factor was the fans accepted it, as we had a great day out at Wembley in winning the Johnston's Paint Trophy. To Cortese, that was an irrelevance.

When Saints made a poor start to the following season the writing was on the wall. There were rumours at the time that Newcastle had approached Pardew and Cortese found out, but that was just one of loads of different rumours. Whatever happened behind the scenes it was clear that Cortese was not prepared for the sacking as it was some time before he was in a position to appoint Adkins.

All I can say is that I thank our lucky stars that Adkins was appointed Saints manager. He is currently statistically the best manager Saints has ever had and Saints are playing the most exciting football since the days of Keegan, Channon, Shilton, etc.. So, Newcastle are welcome to Pardew and I hope he is successful for them.

[biilly bob]

".the article writer seems pretty clueless, and rather ignorant" well said that man don't think more has to be said

[Batts]

The author has clearly just looked at the most basic of facts (ie. Pardew gets sacked by League 1 club, takes over a Prem club, has them flying high) and forms his opinion based on that, forgetting that there is always context to any situation. The end result, as has been pointed out by others, is one of the most I'll-informed pieces I have ever read. In the absence of any proper research, the author puts it all down to karma, a flaky concept at the best of times and an argument that can be discounted if he had (1) taken a quick look at the Championship table, or (2) done even the most basic of straw polls with Saints fans; I don't think there is a Saints fan in existence that would prefer to have Pardew over Adkins. If Alex O'Loughlin has any aspirations as a journalist/ opinion-former, I would suggest doing a lot more homework next time.

The line that sums it up for me is 'a respectable 12th placed finish fired a poignant message to those accountable for his St Mary's departure'. There was only one person responsible for Pardew's St. Mary's departure, and that was Pardew himself. Quite apart from the fact that he didn't buy in to his boss' vision for the club, Pardew had been angling for a move away from St. Mary's and had actively been in discussions with Newcastle even before Hughton was sacked. When that piece of information came to Cortese's notice, he had no choice but to act. I wonder if the author even thought to find out whether a compensation payment was made to Pardew after he had been sacked, the norm being that the remainder of an outgoing manager's contract is paid up. For some reason, Pardew, hardly a shrinking violet, was happy to walk away (tail between his legs, perhaps?) with not a penny in compensation and an agreement that neither would ever speak of the situation again.

Equally, I wonder why Cortese recently said that he would like to draw Newcastle in the cup (though I'm guessing the author didn't know this). Is it because he wants to go back and deliver another nail in the coffin of the manager that he had already hounded out of the club? He may be Don Cortese, but he isn't that vindictive. Cortese clearly feels wronged by his former manager and has a score to settle there. My guess is that this score is founded in nthe fact that Markus Liebherr, the owner and Cortese's boss at the time, wanted Pardew out during the summer but Cortese backed his manager and persuaded Markus that he should remain. In return for the loyalty that Cortese showed him, Pardew actively went in search of another job, and found Newcastle, a dysfunctional club with high opinions of itself. A match made in heaven.

[Harbourgob]

Pardew did well and I for one will always be grateful, but with the resources put at his disposal he should have done better and got Saints in to the play offs at least in his first season. The failure to do so (may have been a minimum target set by our Chairman Nicola Cortese) and the regretable losses and tactics against arguably poorer teams at home and away was I am sure was behind the apparent split in the relationship between AP and NC. I believe that Marcus Liebherr (RIP), our owner may have saved AP's job over that summer, but his (ML's) sad demise in August and the poor start to the season gave NC cause to re-assess Saints future plans. Nigel was a surprise appointment to most saints fans, but an inspired one by NC. 43 wins, 11 draws, 10 defeats out of 64 games - 67% win ratio. Beat that if you can! So far in the Championship, so good - Leeds, Boro, B'ham, West Ham, Ipswich beaten and 100% at home after 8

Long may The Toon Army prosper, but beware Pardew's tactical Plan A failing because he doesn't have a Plan B, unless you think hoof ball counts. In NC and NA we trust. COYR.