Lose And You're Out - Alan Pardew

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Pardew: My future is no joke .

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has brushed off comments from owner Mike Ashley suggesting he will be sacked if his team loses at Stoke on Monday evening.

A report emerged overnight claiming Ashley had told a journalist he would dismiss the 53-year-old if the Magpies emerged from their trip to the Britannia Stadium, where they will once again seek a first Barclays Premier League win of the campaign, empty-handed, quoting him as saying: "Dead. Finished. Over. One more game then that's it." .

The club immediately dismissed the sportswear magnate's remarks as a joke, a message which was reiterated as the manager carried out his pre-match press conference on Saturday morning.

Pardew said: "I've not seen him. [Ashley]. I've spoken to him this week - he's obviously very keen for us to get victories, that's what he's about. That's what we're about, winning.

"I've been made aware of his comments in the paper, I've been under pressure at this club for a number of weeks now. All I can focus on now is the team and that's what I'll do."

Asked if his future was more than a joke, Pardew replied: "Yeah, but sometimes things are taken out of context. If it was a sit-down interview done in a serious manner, I'd be a lot more concerned than I am today, that's for sure."

Ashley indicated earlier this week that Pardew's position was not in jeopardy despite a difficult start to the season, and the club's situation has improved somewhat since then.

Last weekend, striker Papiss Cisse came off the bench to score a late double to secure a 2-2 league draw with Hull, and a much-changed side booked a place in the Capital One Cup fourth round with a 3-2 extra time victory at Crystal Palace.

Pardew still has to win over the critics among his own club's fans - a militant section of them is unlikely to be placated - and Newcastle remain at the foot of the table, but he has enjoyed a much more positive week.

He said: "For anything in your life, you have to be focused on what is the goal. There's a simple goal for us on Monday night: we want to get a win.

"We showed our spirit on the pitch on Wednesday when we were down to 10 men in extra time to get a winner. That shows we're fighting.

"We've had two morale-boosting displays, the comeback draw against Hull and the win at Palace, and that gives us something to lean on."


Pardew will hope to be able to call upon Cisse, whose appearance from the substitutes' bench against Hull was his first since he fractured a kneecap in April, after he, keeper Tim Krul and midfielder Yoan Gouffran missed the midweek game through illness.

The Senegal international, who scored 13 times in his first 14 games for the club, was largely becalmed last season, but Pardew is hopeful he can rediscover that blistering form.

He said: "He was very unfortunate last season because I don't think he had that much opportunity. We started really well and Loic [Remy] was scoring, but in the second half of the season, we didn't have the creative force of the first half of the season.

"This team will create more chances and if he can capture the form of two or three years ago, it will be a massive bonus. He's a great character and we hope he can give us goals."

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Well as Stoke take their first home win of the season against Newcastle, 'I wonder what will be going through Mike Ashley's thoughts right now...

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Pardew crisis talks

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew is set to remain in charge for the foreseeable future despite mounting calls for his dismissal in the wake of his side's dismal start to the Barclays Premier League season.

The 53-year-old conceded he faced "serious conversations" with club owner Mike Ashley after Monday's 1-0 defeat at Stoke City left the club one place off the foot of the table with just three points from their first six games.

Some bookmakers suspended betting on Pardew being the next top-flight manager to leave on Tuesday morning amid a widespread assumption that Pardew's time was surely up.

But it is understood that not only will Pardew remain in charge for Saturday's trip to Swansea and beyond, there are no "crisis" talks planned with Ashley this week.

That does not amount to an unlimited vote of confidence from the club's billionaire owner, but an acknowledgement that not all the problems the team is experiencing on the pitch are down to the manager.

Pardew's squad underwent significant change during the summer, with nine new faces - Karl Darlow and Jamaal Lascelles were immediately loaned back to Nottingham Forest - arriving at St James' Park.

As well as the fact that the proven striker and commanding central defender they wanted remained tantalisingly out of their grasp, the Magpies' concentration on the continental market once again saw them swoop for Daryl Janmaat, Siem de Jong, Remy Cabella, Emmanuel Riviere and Ayoze Perez, as well as Argentinian striker Facundo Ferreyra, leaving former Sunderland midfielder Jack Colback as the only recruit with Premier League experience.

Pardew, whose influence in transfer dealings is limited, had previously spoken about the need to attract men who already had a grounding in English football, but later admitted that home-grown players had come at a particularly high premium this summer.

The fact that the likes of Janmaat, Cabella and Riviere in particular have struggled to get to grips with the Premier League - De Jong's loss to a long-term thigh injury has also proved costly - has not gone unnoticed in the Boardroom, and the blame for that is not being laid at the manager's feet.

In the circumstances, much of the pressure on the former Reading, West Ham, Charlton and Southampton boss is coming largely from disaffected fans, with many of those who made the trip to the Britannia Stadium making their feelings known both during the game and on the final whistle.

However, Ashley, who told a journalist - he later insisted in jest - last week that Pardew would be sacked if the team lost at Stoke, remains in his corner, if only just and will give him more time to turn things around.

Names such as Steve Bruce, David Moyes and Tony Pulis have been linked with Pardew's position but former midfielder Rob Lee believes Ashley would struggle to find a new boss given the club's current predicament.

Lee told talkSPORT: "If you change, who are you going to change him [Pardew] for? With Ashley pulling the purse strings what manager is going work for him under the conditions Pardew is working under? Pardew is in a tough position. He's taken a lot of flak for Mike Ashley and he continues to do so.

"There seems to be a policy at the club about the players they buy - they have to be under a certain age and earning a certain amount of money - and, if you do that, you get what you pay for. They've got away with it a bit in recent years by going to France, but you can't do it all the time. You need players who have played in the Premier League, which they've not done.

"He (Ashley) will probably go against what the Newcastle fans want and who else will work for him under those circumstances? You haven't got much money, you can only pay players a certain amount of money and they must be under the age of 24. Your hands are tied before you start."

( Oh well that'll keep Andy happy (taylormade) he wants him to stay)