In one interview Pardew said "getting the sack from Southampton was a relief" ... but this afternoon he said the opposite!
Alan Pardew: “I was disappointed to get the sack, to say the least.
“It’s a great atmosphere there.
"It’s a nice stadium, a nice pitch and a great bunch of lads, a lot of them I signed – the likes of Jason Puncheon and Rickie Lambert. Adam Lallana’s another I like dearly.
“There will be some memories, because we won a trophy when I was there.
“It’ll be interesting to meet a few of the people there who I had great relationships with.
“There are some great players there who have done phenomenally well.
“I enjoyed my time there, and I’m looking forward to going back.
“I think this is a key week.
“We have Southampton, Stoke then Wigan.
“On paper, if we had everybody available, you’d like think that we’d win two or three of them.
“But we know we have a battle on our hands. It doesn’t mean to say we can’t do it.”