Self-inflicted moments brought Pardew’s reign to a swift end
ALAN Pardew has gone. His West Bromwich Albion tenure, which lurched from one crisis to the next, is finally over.
Finally. After a 124-day spell that felt more like years than months to The Hawthorns’ faithful.
Pardew inherited a squad that was struggling and somehow shoved them even closer to the relegation trapdoor. It wasn’t all his fault, but a chunk of the 56-year-old manager’s nightmare was self-inflicted.
Here we look at the factors brought down his Baggies reign. that
He will live to regret taking his squad on a training camp to Spain, especially as it later emerged many players were against the idea in the first place.
That’s not to defend the culprits who let themselves, their club and their manager down but, in hindsight, it was asking for trouble.
It’s one thing when rookies who don’t know better take liberties, but when experienced senior pros go rogue it’s a recipe for anarchy.
Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill had such little respect for their manager that they commandeered a cab on a lads’ night out in Barcelona without any thought for the consequences.
All of a sudden those cracks in Albion’s ‘crisis? what crisis?’ facade became chasms and any chance Pardew had of controlling his players slipped through them.
He hardly helped matters by picking both Evans and Barry in the next match, the FA Cup defeat to Southampton, when neither player seemed in the right state to play.
Then just as quickly as he had removed the armband from Evans, he gave it him back, in an example of his muddled thinking.
By then Pardew had lost the dressing room to such an extent that not even a taxi driver could have helped him find it (clue: it was that place in the Halfords Lane stand where those footballers didn’t really like you).
Indeed, it was in the dressing room where another nail was hammered into his managerial coffin.
Chris Brunt, a respected figure, aimed an angry blast at Pardew following the home defeat to Huddersfield. The Northern Ireland international took issue with Pardew’s tactics, particularly the decision to go with a four-man midfield.
Next to lose his temper with Pardew was Grzegorz Krychowiak, with the on-loan Poland midfielder swearing at the boss when he was substituted in the loss to Leicester. There were also whispers of him upsetting Sam Field and Oliver Burke.
One moment Pardew would try to stamp his authority, the next he would give in to player power. It didn’t end well. Not only did he lose football matches, he also lost face.
Pardew failed to ingratiate himself to the players and while good managers don’t always have to be popular, they have to inspire trust and respect from their players. He didn’t. Pardew inherited a Tony Pulis squad (previously described as arguably the club’s strongest Premier League playing staff ) that had lost its way. With no sign of a ‘new manager bounce’ during his first month at The Hawthorns, the January transfer window was seen as a time for Pardew to breathe some life into their survival revival. He can’t be solely blamed for the poor recruitment – Nicky Hammond and Co are also responsible – but if they were looking for a cavalry of saviours then their rescue plan was fatally flawed. They gambled on injury-prone Liverpool striker Daniel Sturridge. It backfired. He has only played 78 minutes for Albion, doing lit- tle more than boosting cotton wool sales in Sandwell.
As for Ali Gabr, the Egyptian defender never played a single game under Pardew. By alienating the existing players and failing to strengthen in January, the 56-yearold accelerated the inevitable arrival of his P45.
Whatever Pards suggests, do the opposite... It got to the stage where every decision he made seemed to be the wrong one – and that was often the case with his selections.
Jay Rodriguez was in encouraging form when he was dropped to accommodate Sturridge and the former Southampton striker is yet to really recover his form.
Likewise, Field was impressing during Gary Megson’s brief caretaker spell only to be cast aside very early into Pardew’s tenure. Would Field, cushioned by goodwill from fans, really have been any worse than the multitude of midfielders Pardew has picked ahead of the academy graduate?
One win. Just one win in 18 games – and even that day an Albion ended up losing – Brighton and Hove Albion, that is. Even without all of the off- field nonsense, that record alone tells the bleak story of this failed experiment.
There have been a dozen defeats, eight of which came in a club-worst run, culminating in Saturday’s limp loss to Burnley at The Hawthorns, and five draws.
So, all in all, that’s a grand total of eight points from a possible 54.
His brief time at Albion was the seventh-worst managerial spell in Premier League history, averaging 0.44 points per game.
Only Billy Davies (Derby), Ian Holloway (Crystal Palace), Terry Connor (Wolves), Mick McCarthy (Sunderland), Paul Jewell (Derby) and Frank De Boer (Crystal Palace) have worse records. OK, there were a couple of FA Cup wins at Exeter and Liverpool, but it went from bad to worse and if ever a half of football summed up a season then it was the pathetic first 45 minutes against Burnley at the weekend and Pardew paid the price with his job.
John Carver, very much a Pardew man, has also departed. It is no surprise to see the assistant boss follow Pardew out of the exit door.
Carver was involved in a tense altercation with supporters on Saturday and such unseemly spats are never a good idea, especially when they play out so publicly.
Passions run high and tempers get frayed but rowing with fans, particularly those as battered down as the Baggies fanbase have been this season, only inflames the situation.
Pardew played down the incident, saying he didn’t notice it, and told the press: “We’re not going to get engaged in a situation where we’re upsetting fans.”
But it was noticed by those above him and was a tipping point in the decision to end his disastrous reign.