Is Pardew just a pawn in the chessboard at Newcastle?

The bookmakers have shortened the odds significantly on the departure of Alan Pardew and you can’t blame them for putting 2 +2 together.

Some quarters of the press have speculated that if Mike Ashley were to give the Newcastle United manager his marching orders that he would only have to pay him for 12 months of his 8 year deal, and after the latest setback Pardew is thought by many to be living on borrowed time.

Does it matter? Alan Pardew may have been last year’s LMA manager of the year but has there been a change in recent years at St. James’s Park? The 51 year old definitely deserves credit for rallying his troops to a 5^th place finish last term, but there is only so much fans can live in the past.

He was extremely wise to build on the feel-good factor of Chris Hughton. He has seemingly though extended the ugly part of the Hughton era, the long ball football. For those who believed the Premier League was the only top 5 the Magpies made last season they can think again. Opta put them in the top 5 for long balls statistically in the 2011/2012 campaign.

The style of football has clearly culminated in poor results on the pitch. The issue has come to the fore with the January transfer market reaching its final stages with every poor performance highlighting the need for reinforcements. Despite this is Pardew going to be a smokescreen for the lack of movement of his owner?

If he isn’t backed by his owner isn’t the talk of whether Pardew up for the job relevant at all, if he isn’t given the tools to succeed?

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