LEAVING NEWCASTLE WAS BEST FOR ME AND MY FAMILY, ADMITS PARDEW
New manager promised transfer funds as he signs for Palace
NEW Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew says that he has been promised transfer funds by chairman Steve Parish in a bid to stave off relegation from the Premier League.
Palace, third from bottom, have an interest in taking Arsenal’s Yaya Sanogo on loan or perhaps signing Bafetimbi Gomis from Swansea and Pardew is clear the squad will need improvements this month if the club are to achieve their principal goal of staying up.
Pardew was confirmed as Palace manager yesterday and will take charge for their FA Cup third-round clash at non-League Dover today after watching the team draw 0-0 at Aston Villa on New Year’s Day.
Speaking publicly for the first time since his shock departure from Newcastle last week, Pardew said: ‘Without putting pressure on the chairman — because I think it’s difficult for the manager to keep talking publicly about players and putting unnecessary pressure on the board — we have had discussions and we are going to need a player or two at least and that is what we’re going to try to do.
‘Maybe it just needs a little change of direction. The players have a great attitude here. I’ve been really, really impressed with them.
‘So can I help change that energy into more tangible results? That might take a transfer or a change of style a little bit and that’s really what a manager of my experience can hopefully do.’
Although former Palace manager Tony Pulis became frustrated with the club’s transfer strategy, Pardew is likely to enjoy a better relationship with Parish than he did with Mike Ashley at Newcastle, where he had little say over which players came and went.
Pardew will email tactical mini-dossiers to Parish before each game to keep him informed of the reasons behind his team selections and decisions, and send analysis of each game afterwards.
He wants his owner to feel part of the management process, believing it helps deal with poor results or other difficult situations at the club. Pardew did the same with Ashley at Newcastle but the frustration over transfer policy and the antipathy of Newcastle fans seems to have persuaded him to move back to the club where he played from 1987 to 1991.
He became a fans’ favourite, scor- ing the winner in the dramatic 4-3 win over Liverpool in the 1990 FA Cup semi-final. ‘It was difficult because I’m leaving a big club in Newcastle,’ he said. ‘It was a choice I decided to make which I felt was good for myself and for my family and my career.
‘Every time I’ve come back here it was always a lovely welcome and a nice feeling. I knew at some point I was sure I would have worked in this club.
‘Really and truly my home is in this area and for me it’s what you would class, as close as you can be as a manager, to my own club.’
‘Fans love you when you do something good for the football club and I think they admired the spirit and the way we approached games in that era and would like to see a little bit more of that and I hope I can bring that back. The club has done incredibly well in the last couple of years. It’s a little bit sticky at the moment. And we need to find a route out of that.’