Pardew Stands His Ground!

Last updated : 12 December 2010 By Footy Mad - Editor

It's a lonely business being Toon boss with those two tossers prefering to hide out of the media spotlight.

And when the question "where you approached BEFORE Chris Hughton was sacked" came up - Pardew was put on the spot.

The media have reason to believe the appointment was cut and dried TWO WEEKS ago, but Pardew insists he never agreed to become Newcastle United manager before Chris Hughton got the boot.

Alan Pardew: "There was no previous agreement.

"That was never true.

"In terms of myself, I never really had any contact about this job or any other job. It's a weird situation."

There WERE meetings but apparently they were not football related.

Believe what you will.

 

 

Joey Barton admitted after the Liverpool win that it was a 'shame' that Hughton had been dismissed and former Southampton boss Pardew understands the midfielder's comments.

He said: "One hundred per cent, and we talked about it afterwards. I have worked with Chris and he can feel very, very unfortunate that he is not sitting here now.

"But we all know this game is not easy and can be cruel at times. I had a very similar issue at Southampton.

"But I was conscious that when I left Southampton, they lost three games, so I really wanted to focus the team today.

"It was very, very important, whoever the manager was, that they represented themselves and the club in the right manner, and they did that and more."

Barton and Andy Carroll scored inside the final 10 minutes to secure the victory over Liverpool and Pardew revealed he met up with owner Mike Ashley after the match.

Pardew continued: "I popped up to see him to say hello. He was obviously pleased with the result because it's not been probably the best week he has ever had.

"But the win today was really about the players because they showed their spirit and their unity out there and they made it easy for me just to add a couple of things.

"But a lot of the good things that went on today was stuff that has been going on here all year."