But the glass is "half full" today ... as reality kicks in and he finally agrees that being in Europe could be a good thing!
Alan Pardew is simply using the competition to rotate his squad, but he says that could be a good thing.
Alan Pardew: “There’s nothing worse for a manager than to have one game a week. You can only pick 11.
“In some ways it’s helpful for me to have these games. I can say to these guys, ‘come on, then’.
“It’s a big year for a lot of players at this football club in terms of are they going to play in the first team?
“You don’t want to be a squad player, and that’s the competition there should be.
“The Capital One Cup and this competition will play second fiddle to the Premier League and FA Cup, in my view.
“These are great opportunities for them (fringe players) to show their stuff.
“If we were fortunate enough to get to the later stages of the competition, then the profile of it would rise, and so would the standard of our team.
“I’m sure of it.”