First off let me begin this is stating I am not a Pardew fan and I am not attempting to persuade you that he is the man to be leading our club - however I would urge you to look at the deeper issues.
Our club is rotten to the core right now - Owner, directors, manager, and now unfortunately this is causing disillusionment amongst the players.
Last nights soul destroying performance against Tottenham exemplified this and sunk the Toon Army to a new level of frustration - I really feel we are past the stage of anger and now have entered disillusionment.
I like many fans I cannot see a way out of this downwards spiral unless major changes are made, yet i do not see those necessary changes being made anytime soon.
Us fans, the media and I am sure even the players share this opinion but unfortunately our owner and directors do not. They see a top 10 finish as a great season - a season which will see a financial reward given to the clubs staff. For Pardew to deliver Ashley a top 10 finish without spending a penny of his money is a massive success - the kind of success which earned Pardew a 8 year contract. All Mike Ashley saw was 8 more years of low budget success. I would even go as far to say Pardew has bought into this plan - he knows when he is onto a good thing. Would any of us walk away from a well payed job when our bosses only requirement was that we maintained - no pressure to reach a target, other than to finish the year under budget?
Pardew knows he will never get another club the size of NUFC - I cannot blame him for keeping quiet and accepting his role in Mike Ashley's regime.
It raises the question: under these circumstances is top 10 the best was can expect? - I would suggest Pardew is working with the eighth best squad in the league. Lets not forget that other than the terrible cup runs and the derby defeats 9th in the league is where I am sure many fans would have expected us to finish this season. Therefore I would not be so quick to axe Pardew.
Nothing will change at NUFC as in the eyes and mind of our owner we are doing great. Ashley is laughing all the way to the bank with a top 10 premier league team which cost him very little.
Our future is bleak - I wish I could end this with a hope for the future but Toon Army is not daft enough to believe that.
The most disappointing thing is the fact we were 3 points off the top 4 and 6 points off top on boxing day and instead of investing and signing a few players fair enough if cabaye really wanted to leave then its no good keeping an unhappy player but to put Jonas out on loan as well to save some money when our squad is paper thing and the biggest issue is the fact we did not sign anyone in January we brought in a striker who hasn't had any game time all season, didn't replace and cabaye and didn't strengthen our squad. In a season that promised so much and is now turning into disappointment all because of a lack of ambition from Ashley he would rather keep the 20 mil from cabaye in his pocket rather than invest in some players and push on for a European spot which was by no mean out of the question at Christmas.
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