Alan Pardew in a happy place at Crystal Palace.
He did not arrive at Selhurst Park brimming with flash ideas and unrealistic ambition. In fact, so cautious was Alan Pardew about taking over at Crystal Palace in January that he fully expected the club to avoid relegation by the skin of their teeth on the last day of the season. He had even pictured the scene. Shola Ameobi, he thought, would score the dramatic winning goal against Swansea City.
It has all panned out rather differently. Ameobi, far from being a crutch for Pardew, has made four appearances as a substitute, and Palace secured their Barclays Premier League status rather earlier than he had imagined. They won their first four games in all competitions under the former Newcastle United manager and after a few minor blips won four league games in succession, including that pulsating victory over Manchester City to complete the job. His team were even self-assured enough to spoil Steven Gerrard’s send-off at Anfield on Saturday.
No wonder, though, that Pardew thought it might be trickier than this. He did not return to southeast London armed with a coaching entourage. He cut a solitary figure as he left St James’ Park in December and knew only
that when he took charge of his first game at Selhurst Park there would be the warm applause he had always received as a visiting manager. Beyond that, he was in the dark. His back-up plan was Ameobi.
“I brought him here because I thought he would be a powerful influence on the players,” Pardew says. “Let’s be honest, he’s been at Newcastle, seen it, done it, saved them, been the slayer of the Mackems. I actually thought he was going to be the one who was going to get the winning goal against Swansea to keep us up.
“As a manager you have to have an imagination. If we were in a dogfight, Shola gets us the goal because he’s got the experience to be calm and to score. He’s got the confidence because he’s been in the Premier League for ten years. These [Palace] players have only been here one or two years. But we’ve not needed Shola. He laughs now and says I should still be playing him.”
Having ensured that Palace will receive their share of the bumper broadcast revenue, Pardew now wants to turn them into a club who can aim for regular top-ten finishes. “I want to break the expectation that Palace will get relegated,” he says.
The 53-year-old likes to defy the odds, to shake perceptions. He has spent a career toughening up and refusing to buckle under pressure or cynicism. It began when he was 16 and failed to make the Surrey county team and it continued when he finally made the move from non-League football to Palace and encountered snootiness about his roots among players who had come through the youth ranks at leading clubs. It found its ultimate expression at St James’ Park and the banners calling for him to be sacked.
“I was always fighting the system,” he says. “If you come out of non-League you have to really show your mettle.”
These days he receives an ovation when he emerges from the home tunnel but he knows that, too, could turn sour one day. “I don’t get too carried away,” he says. “It will be a long walk when we’ve lost seven out of eight or something.”
Pardew spent four years at Palace as a player and was, as he puts it, “installed as bit of an icon” thanks to the winning goal he scored in the thrilling 4-3 victory against Liverpool in 1990 FA Cup semi-final.
“When I think back to the managers we’ve had here, three stick in my mind,” he says. “They are kind of heroes to me in a way: Malcolm Allison in terms of his stature, the way he carried himself, his coaching ability; Terry Venables, who created a really exciting team, and Steve Coppell. I like that legacy. I like that this club is associated with attacking football.”
Coppell, he says, helped him to adapt from being a non-League player who ran about wildly trying to cover every blade of grass to being able to understand tactics. “Steve’s still not in the game which I find bizarre, how can he not have a job in the game?” Pardew says. “I haven’t got a role here that’s big enough for him.”
Pardew does not expect to entice players who have the chance to sign for City or Liverpool “but we are in the same market as Newcastle, Aston Villa, Spurs and Everton. That would never have been the case under Coppell or Venables or Allison so in a way I’m in a fortunate position”.
Improvements to Palace’s training ground will help attract players who want to be in London but who might otherwise be seduced by Tottenham Hotspur’s shimmering new complex. He says he can also offer them the chance to be the big name at a passionate club.
“We have a tremendous feeling from the fans, we are a united club but we need two or three star players,” he says. “The new TV deal gives us a fantastic opportunity and for that to kick in we had to stay in the Premier League. I knew I had to keep them in the division and it would be difficult as it always is the second year after promotion when the adrenalin isn’t flowing as much as it was for Tony [Pulis] last season.”
Pardew sounds settled, content. His efforts to rein in his anger by turning to Jeremy Snape, the former England cricketer and a renowned sports psychologist, do not embarrass him — indeed it is Pardew who brings Snape into the conversation. Ask Pardew to think about his psyche or his motivation and he says, “That’s one for Jeremy.”
And as for that ruthless ambition? “It isn’t in my mind. When you’re a younger manager it is. I’m not looking at any other big club.”
What he learnt along the way
Reading
“I didn’t really have too many failures. I was building an exciting young team and enjoying coaching and naively thinking that’s what’s going to happen for the rest of my career.”
West Ham United
“It was learning about the media, what the media wanted. I was naive with the media: I had no training and I didn’t understand why people were attacking me. I learnt you couldn’t win all the time. I already had a thick skin but it started to thicken up at West Ham. I learnt about the politics of football and they were one of the reasons I left.”
Charlton Athletic
“I learnt the impact of relegation, which I had inherited. I wasn’t told how big an impact that would be. I was slightly deceived by the agenda.”
Southampton
“I like to think I set some good things in motion. Rickie Lambert, Adam Lallana and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain all went on to have great England success. I learnt that the relationship with the chairman is important.”
Newcastle United
“I was well armed. I am always confident I can make teams better. The club had just been promoted and they wanted a different approach. They didn’t want to sign older players such as Michael Owen. I learnt that you have to show strength and dignity.”
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