Newcastle United Set To Appoint Alan Pardew As Manager Before Weekend

After just a couple of days of speculation the Sack Race understands that Alan Pardew will be named as the new Manager of Newcastle United before the weekend, Chris Hughton was sacked in controversial fashion on Monday but Mike Ashley and the board have acted quickly to bring in Pardew. The former Southampton and West Ham Manager should be in the dug-out for the game against Liverpool on Saturday as he looks to take the Magpies towards the top end of the Premier League. The Owners have made it clear they want a Manager with more experience than Hughton and Pardew does fulfil that criteria, his appointment though is unlikely to be too popular due to his rather mixed CV as a Premier League Manager.

Pardew had spells of success with West Ham including taking them into the Premier League and to the FA Cup Final but ultimately was sacked as he oversaw a terrible run of defeats for the Hammers, the same can be said of his spell with Charlton where he was relegated to the Championship and failed to take the club back to the Premier League as expected. He did have a successful spell at reading early in his career while he was starting to turn things around at Southampton before being sacked in a surprise move in August amidst reports of unrest behind the scenes, that will be a worry for Newcastle fans with the club finally starting to stabilise again after years of turmoil under Mike Ashley.

Pardew is already though to be good friends with Mike Ashley and there are one or two rumours circulating suggesting he has been lined up for the job for some time now which is sure to anger the Chris Hughton loyal fans on Tyneside, the only way Pardew will win over the fans is to hit the ground running against an in form Liverpool side. Mid-table is clearly not good enough for Ashley meaning Pardew will be under pressure to take the team into the top half, that will not be easy though as on paper the squad looks a little light compared to the big teams they are hoping to compete with. Alan Pardew has been in the game for a few years now but he now faces the toughest appointment of his career as he looks to get the best out of the Newcastle squad and planning for the future, the fan base and facilities on Tyneside are top rate and he will now need to prove the team is the same over the coming months.