We’re all a bit self-contradictory in this football game. David Moyes for example is lauded as a saint, not because his team now happens to employ one of the sexiest forward lines north of the Mediterranean and has therefore finally quashed it’s traditional slow start, but because he’s been there so damn long. Ten years in fact. We look to Everton and think, “There’s a team that knows to stick with the manager through thick and thin. And look what he hath wrought—Jelavic, Anichebe, Fellaini, Baines.”
Today, Newcastle awarded Alan Pardew an eight-year contract. The going theory on Twitter right now is that this is batshit mental, a return to the Kevin Keegan Krazy Days. The Telegraph felt nothing of using the adjective ‘staggering’ in their headline.
Presumably everyone feels this way because Newcastle haven’t yet matched the form that saw them finish fifth in the league last year. This is clearly a case of Stockholm Syndrome: we’ve been told sacking managers at the first sign of weakness is the normal thing to do for so long now, we can’t fathom a club attempting to do the exact opposite, even when our better selves recognize that as a saner course of action.
It might behove the “Holy Shit how could Newcastle do that?” folk to check the 2003-04 Premier League table. That was Moyes’ second season in charge of the club (his first, in 2002-03, saw Everton finish a respectable 7th)—they narrowly avoided relegation and finished 17th.
A lesser—ie normal—club would have sacked Moyes on the spot and, I dunno, hired Paul Jewell or something. Everton, for better, for worse, stuck with Moyes. And kept sticking to him. Until eventually he repeatedly ended up in the same sentences with Sir Alex Ferguson simply by virtue of his tenure.
All Newcastle have done is signaled they want to stick with Pardew over the long haul. And in the scatter-brained football world, this makes the club ‘insane.’
What are we missing here?
As a Newcastle fan the insane part is they are the ones looking for stability. It’s like bizarro world
Difference is Moyes didn’t sign a 10-year contract at the beginning. I don’t know the exact terms but Moyes must have signed 2-3 contracts during his time at Everton. He earned his contracts gradually…3-4 years at a time, not 8 years at once. Huge gamble, but might still work out for Newcastle.
A ‘contract’ in this case is just an insurance policy against an early sacking. The benefit though, for Newcastle, the fans and the players, is the expectation of stability.
Finally someone gets it. I’m not saying all coaches should have indefinite tenures, but the good ones should be retained over long periods. I don’t buy the “players tuned out the coach” philosophy. Players have been able to get coaches fired because ownership has been too fickle to stick with the person with the vision. An eight-year contract signals to the players “You wanna act up? There’s the door, because this guys is here for the long haul.”
Any Newcastle fan who doesn’t like this move is nuts, in my opinion (and I am one). Pardew seems to nail every part of his job, which isn’t an easy one. He understands the culture of the fanbase (also through help of John Carver, who was resigned), he gets along with the board and the owner, he gets along with players but also motivates them and sells the club well. Not to mention he’s got a great blend of PR savvy and tactical smarts while still having the passion to throw falcon punch fist punches and push a ref or two. Oh, and he’s hanging on to big names like Ba, Tiote and Ben Arfa.