Benitez, Jol or Martinez?

In the aftermath of Newcastle's stunning defeat to Sunderland in the Tyne Wear derby the spotlight is well and truly on Alan Pardew. The derby defeat coupled with our overall poor season means the heat is really going to be turned up on Pardew who now must get a reaction out of his squad starting this weekend. Only a strong end to the season and more points on the board will give Pardew a chance of surviving in his job this summer.

If Pardew is to lose his job this summer who are the likely candidates to take over the reins at St James?  We all know Newcastle are ran a little differently in that Mike Ashley has his set structure at the club - we have a vision of how we want out club to be ran and any new manager would have to agree to work under these strict rules. As we saw Kevin Keegan was not willing to work this way and for the second time he left the club.

Like most Newcastle fans I am very realistic and understand the limitations of our club in terms of attracting players and coaches. When looking at potential replacements for Pardew we can obviously rule out any of the top established managers and also the likes of Jurgen Klopp at Borussia Dortmund, Frank De Boer, or Manuel Pellegrini.

For me we can look closer to home as I believe there is quality in our own Premier League. Let me look at three possible candidates.

Roberto Martinez does a good job at Wigan and has recently been linked with the Liverpool and Aston Villa. Credit to Martinez as he does continue to keep Wigan in the Premier league where they are punching well above their weight. Wigan play some nice football, yet always seem to be involved in a relegation battle every year. I worry about him dealing with top players, bigger budgets and the expectation which comes with managing a club like Newcastle United.

Martin Jol is a experienced Premier league manager who has also worked on the continent with Hamburg SV and the Mighty Ajax. Currently working with Fulham, Jol has done a great job with a small club settled mid-table in the Premier league. I am a big fan of Jol and think he ticks a lot of boxes in term of what I want in a team manager. Fulham are known as a side who play football the right way with players who have quality on the ball - Berbatov and Dembele for example, yet Jol also wants his teams to remain solid and hard to beat.

 I feel Jol has ambitions to compete at a higher level than what is possible with a club like Fulham. Just a few years back Martin led Spurs to two top 5 finishes before Gareth Bale arrived and took Spurs to another level. His side played great football, full of young quality players and actually reminded me a lot of the young guns side assembled at NUFC by Sir Bobby Robson.

Newcastle could be a club who offer Jol the chance to get back amongst the top 6 and I would very much welcome him to the St James hot seat and believe he would handle the job and take NUFC to the next level.

The next candidate and ectually my preferred choice for the job is a little controversial. If Mike Ashley is to fire Alan Pardew this summer I would love to see him bring in Rafa Benitez. The currently Chelsea "interim' manager is being given a rough time by the Stamford bridge faithful yet is still doing a solid job in difficult circumstances and looks on course to finish in the top 4 and win the Europa League.

Benitez is a vastly experienced tactician who's reading of the game cannot be questioned. During him time with Valencia he won the Championship twice and won the UEFA cup which is a massive achievement in a league which contains Barcelona and Real Madrid and it will be a long time before we see this happen again in Spain. Following this sucess he joined Liverpool where again he delivered sucess at the highest level with a Champions league victory on a night no football fan will ever forget. Consistent finished in the top 4 and victories in the domestic cup competition's were a key fixture during Rafa's time with Liverpool.

If Newcastle could bring in Benitez it would be a major coup for the club. This could be the perfect situation for both Rafa and our club as we both crave a return to the top table of English and European football.

I have heard people band around names like Gus Poyet, Roberto Di Matteo and Michael Laudrup but i just do not see any of these managers being a step in the right direction or really having the quality to be an upgrade from Alan Pardew.

As we know however football is a funny old game and a few years back we would have loved Martin O'Neill to lead club yet now he is sitting on the managerial scrap heap having been replaced by some young Italian upstart!

i have the feeling we will see big changes at the club in the summer. Players are certain to leave yet the biggest decision the board have to make it whether Alan Pardew is the man to take our club forward or if he has taken us as far as he can.

Sunderland defeat - Pardew's future

I have intentionally waited for the dust to settle on the Derby defeat as I did not to get caught up in the emotion of it all and write a article full of knee-jerked reactions.

Now that four long days have passed since the bitter blow of defeat at the hands of Sunderland I wanted to take a long hard look at this result and where we are heading with this current set up of players and staff.

Sunday hurt. For me any defeat hurts but for obvious reasons this one always stings. I tend not to be one that gets wrapped up in all the Geordie / Mackem hatred. I have friends who are Sunderland fans, I went to University in Sunderland and in general Mackems are not so bad. For me the two derby days are the only time I really care about Sunderland Football club. On any other days they are just another Premier league rival. I have a bigger vision for my club than simply just beating Sunderland. I want our big rivals to be Man Utd, Chelsea, and Arsenal because that will mean we are competing at the top of the table once again.

Sunday hurt not only due to the result, but more to the manner of defeat. The lack of passion, energy and desire was worrying. Yes Sunderland scored 3 top quality individual goal - the likes that have not been seen by those particular players, yet they beat us all over the park and showed are greater desire to take all 3 points and local bragging rights. Di Canio certainly won the managerial battle in terms of tactics, formation, team shape, and a game plan. He obviously had his troops fired up for the battle, and for us to not be able to match that fight is very disappointing.

In the immediate aftermath of a defeat like this the fickle side of Newcastle United fans comes out. Calls for Pardew to leave, and suggestions that our French players have no 'Fight' in them were heard loud and clear  across the World.

Twitter, Facebook and fanzines were buzzing with demands for a change of manager less than a year after Pardew led us to 5th in the Premier league and was awarded the Manager of the year award. Yes Newcastle over achieved last year, but Pardew does deserves credit - you cannot finish 5th in the strongest league in the world on the back pure luck. Likewise a team and manager who achieved so much do not become a bad team 12 months later.

You have to look at the major incidents which have effected our season and how much control Pardew has. We can all agree the Europa League has stretched out squad to the limit. Yes we enjoyed those European nights but we just do not have enough quality in the squad to maintain a challenge both at home or abroad. Is this Pardews fault? for me no. We know transfers and player recruitment is dealt with at a higher level than Pardew. I imagine he has input, yet it is down to the business men to do the deals and provide him with a squad capable of competing. If the 5 players recruited in January had been recruited before the season started i am certain we would not be in this position.

The Fabricio Coloccini issue is completely out of the hand of the manager. For our skipper to be suffering from personal problems and wanting to leave the club is a massive blow. Colo has been our leader and outstanding player for the past few years and losing him has had a big impact on our season. I cannot see how Pardew could have acted any differently. Likewise with the key injuries to the likes of Ben Arfa and the sale of Demba Ba who is yet to be replaced.

Don't get me wrong I am not a big Pardew fan, however I just feel if he is to be criticized then I feel he need to be fairly judged.

Judging him fairly is looking at his management of the team of the field. His selections, tactics and substitutions. Unfortunately for Alan this season he has disappointed a lot of fans with his match day management. Questions can still be asked about his tactical skills and his ability to adapt and change a game with his decisions from the sideline. Where is Alan's plan B? does he have it in him to react, change a game, or win games from a losing position? The jury is still out on him this season.

Pardew has done a steady job since joinging the club in 2011 - me won me over with the way he guided the team last year, however I am unsure of how long he can live off last years success. This season I feel we are back to where we were under Chirs Hughton's leadership. Pardew was brought in to replace Hughton and to take us to the next level. Can we honestly say we are now at the next level? In terms of playing personnel I would say yes, I feel we have one of our strongest squad we have had for a long time with real quality. I therefore look at the manager and the question facing Mike Ashley is whether Alan Pardew is the right man to take this squad forward and reach its full potential.

As we know MIke does not suffer fools and will make the move he feels the club needs to get back amongst the top 6. I have a strong feeling the will be changes in the summer. Ashley is a ruthless businessman who will not hesitate to replace Alan Pardew. The big question for us fans is who would be the right man to replace him?