Pardew - This is the season to judge him.

With the board mostly consisting of threads regarding Cabella, Janmaat and other players we're interested in I thought I'd mix it up a bit and focus on Pardew, mainly because for the first season in three years he'll have a capable squad and plenty of options. I base this on the fact that we've already got four through the door, Janmaat is on his way and it's a fair assumption that we'll get two new strikers.

In the one season where he had a decent squad, we finished 5th. He then under performed by finishing 16th, albeit with a weak squad considering our European adventure. You then look to last season, he had a good squad for the first half of the season and he had us up there performing with the big boys. We then went on to lose Cabaye and remy (was injured for large parts of the second half of the season) and as we all know things were bad, very bad.

Going in to this season Pardew is going to have the following midfield options: Tiote, Anita, Colback, De Jong, Sissoko, Gouffran, Cabella with players such as Ben Arfa, Kemen, Sammy, Obertan Marveaux and Aarons as back up or reserves. I'd say the first 7 in the list provide decent depth and a good variety of battlers, creativity, strength, pace and goal threat. Up front we'll have Cisse, Perez, Armstrong Revierre (most likely) and one more big name striker. Porbably the biggest pool of strikers we'll have had in Pardew's time as boss.

Given the above squad depth, I for one think any excuses regarding squad depth, lack of goal threat of creativity go out of the window. Each time he's had a strong squad he's done well for us IMO and for one final time I'm going to give him a clean slate to start the season with. I personally hope, at least for the first half of the season he doesn't experience anything like he did in the last home game of the season.

 

I agree with you that he will have to deliver a decent finish with that squad (assuming we keep doing things right for the rest of the window). It's not a champions league squad by any stretch, but it should be good enough for us to be challenging in the top 8 like you say. I just hope we don't have people saying bollocks like he has to start well, or we need immediate results. We're going to effectively have half a new team who will take time to settle.

He needs to deliver a good finish more than he needs to deliver a good start. I'd say it would be wrong to pass judgement before Christmas, and I hope we don't have people not backing the team out of some misguided campaign against pardew.

 

I'm not convinced the squad will be top 8 quality on paper, but I suppose it is impossible to say until September 1st when all teams have completed their business. Certainly the club has took some baby steps in the right direction though. I still think we don't have a lot of quality depth and also think our fans tend to overrate our players a little. There is not many in that list who would get in top 8 first xi starting line ups. Anita, Sissoko, Cabella, De Jong, Tiote - I suppose a case could be made for these being capable of breaking into Southamptons line up of last season. However they would argue Lallana, Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Rodriguez, Ward Prowse, Cork, Davis, Ramirez are at least their equal if not better in a lot of cases. Obviously that is subjective on both parts.

Defensively we are still not top 8 quality based on last season. Southampton had a back four of Clyne, Shaw, Fonte, Lovren - I think that is better than anything we could field then or now. Depth wise defensively I think we probably matched, maybe even edged the quality then and now. Even though I don't rate the likes of Haidara, Mbiwa, Saylor that highly, I think they are better than say Chambers, Hooiveld and Yoshida.

Attack wise they obviously had the best striker in Lambert but not much more depth than us. They edged it then with Osvaldo (until he left), but obviously we have better numbers now. I'd still rather be sat with a proven goalscorer which we just don't have at present.

I don't want to sound like a doom merchant as it is a positive time for us. I just think with money spent already elsewhere plus what is likely to come, plus still needing to finish the job we've started, then it is difficult to start thinking about top 8.

Looking at it brutally:

Krul, Eliott - Average overall and poor depth of quality
Colo, Saylor, Mbiwa (or replacement), Debuchy (or replacement), Haidara, Willo, Dummett, Santon - has depth still lacks quality. If we simply replace Debuchy with Janmaat for instance, while a good signing we'll have actually got worse!
Anita, Colback, Tiote, Bigi, Kemen - Not bad if we are playing two sitters but still like to see a ball player
De Jong, Cabella, Gouffran, Sissoko, Jonas, Aarons, Marveaux, HBA, Sammy - obviously some good depth there and a quality first choice three in SDJ, Cabella and Sissoko. Some of the rest is dross being honest but still good enough for an 8th place team.
Cisse, Perez, Campbell, Armstrong, Rivere?? - No proven goalscorer and three lads who are simply young back up. Rivere a step up on Shola. Get a goalscorer of Remy/Ba class, clearly we are better.

Overall - Are we all that looking past the positive signings? (I feel like Mr Tiote!)

 

Will wait for final squad and Christmas

 

Impossible to disagree with this. We have not strengthened as of yet. By all accounts MYM, Bigi, Marv, Jonas, HBA and Campbell have no future at the club anyway. The likes of Kemen, Aarons, Armstrong and Perez haven't done anything yet and aren't in the "Luke Shaw" category, else surely one or more would have seen some game time in the top flight? It's testimony to the weakness of the squad that these lads are even in the first team, not a glowing reflection of their talent. Add to that the likes of Cisse, Gouffran, Sammy, Saylor, Willo, Dummett, Haidara being bang average or worse and it's still a depressing outlook for the team.

Yes, it's good we're signing these players, but they all seem to be heading for the SJP stepping stone. We're at least half a dozen good players short of a decent squad.

 

However, what I would add is that, in Mike Ashley's eyes, this will be supporting the manager. Has Pardew really got any excuses if it doesn't go well with Siem De Jong, Remy Cabella and whoever else in the starting eleven?

 

Pardew surely has to make it work this season. I was going to judge him last season as he had one good one bad before that. Then somehow he manages to split last season exactly in 2 so he's managed 1.5 good seasons and 1.5 bad. Surely we can't see such a variation this season coming as well, so >= 8th is good for me and I'll be happy. Anything below 8th and I'll count Pardew's time here as a failure and will strongly desire a replacement.

 

It appears Pardew does not need excuses where Ashley is concerned. All he has to do is keep the team in the league, keep selling the assets on at a profit. Pardew is the perfect manager as far as Ashley is concerned. He'll accept a paltry wage, he'll run out the party line as and when required, he'll work quietly on a meagre budget, and he'll still get the required results. Ashley isn't daft, he knows he hasn't actually financially had to back the manager at any stage, he hasn't at any stage had to invest profits back into buying players for the first team. Even this summers budget will be largely met by the sale of Cabaye and Debuchy. I don't think there is anything wrong with strengthening the squad while not spending any money, why would that matter to us? I am just not convinced it is possible or that we have.

Maybe I need to be a bit more positive

 

Surely he has to have a squad of 8th place standard first and foremost? We'll know that on September 1st i.e. once our business is done and the other 19 teams in the PL. We pretty much know for sure there will be 7 stronger squads. Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, Man City, Spurs are a given. So all it will take is one other team to have a better squad than us and he will have either have to hope someone has a mare or perform well above expectations. Generally and there are not many exceptions to the rule, the best squads and most money spent correlates directly to where teams finish. A top youth system can buck the finance angle but how many top youth systems are there is England?

 

If we get a decent striker the goal needs to be top 7.. I think we need to get back into europe next year.

 

Again though, a decent striker does not see you compete with the squads that Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea, Liverpool, Everton, Man City, Spurs have at their disposal. We need to be realistic for me to avoid disappointment. There is no real magic trick, you either invest what they do, better than they do, or you will more often than not be behind them in the table. We have to hope to be the best of the rest. However Southampton are sitting with a canny warchest, West Ham are flapping money around like no tomorrow, QPR will probably give Harry fortunes, plus the others, it is gonna be a competitive race for even 8th in my opinion.

 

Atm we are just gaining part of the necessary reinforcements to achieve a top half fnish next season.

We still need a right back, another centre back and two strikers (one back up, perhaps on loan and another of higher quality capable of getting 15+ a season) Then and only then get we talk about improving. The current spending needs to continue just to keep our heads above water so to speak.

 

I don't totally agree, while i think we need more players in because one injury could devastate us we did finish 10th last season. If we had gotten cabella or de jong in january we would have finished higher. I think with a good striker like remy we will turn quite a few heads, add a first team CB to that and I really think we have a good team.

 

Agree 100% with this. Spot on.

 

You've missed the Pardew-Excuse-Factor here!

There are many new faces that will "need time to settle in" and thus keep Newcastle United in the mediocrity that Ashley has nurtured.

 

What ever he achieves here will not fix what he has already done he is simply not good enough.
PARDEW out