These are strange times at Newcastle. After a four-game losing streak they grabbed a morale-boosting 3-2 win over Everton on Sunday, but now they look likely to lose their manager, a man still unpopular with large sections of their support.
Alan Pardew is bookies' favourite to take the Crystal Palace job, vacant after Neil Warnock was dismissed following the Boxing Day defeat to Southampton, with several sources, including the Guardian, reporting that he is the Palace board's choice to step in.
Pardew encouraged the rumour mill on Sunday, sending his assistant John Carver to conduct the post-match media duties, ostensibly to avoid any questions about the Palace job.
From Palace's point of view, it's an understandable appointment, should it happen. Pardew is a former player at Selhurst Park, and has a record of doing a decent job in straitened circumstances, as his time at Newcastle most certainly has been.
Yet what does it say about Newcastle that Pardew could want to leave?Of course, there are emotional factors in such a decision, Pardew returning to a former club and close to his own home (he was born in Wimbledon). However, at Newcastle he has a relatively secure job, an owner he clearly has a good relationship with and of course he is at a bigger club.
Why would he swap a side in ninth place for one currently fighting a relegation battle for the second season in a row? A club at which he will inevitably be compared with Tony Pulis, the man who arrived at Selhurst Park in similar circumstances last term, and dug Palace out of the hole they were in with time to spare?
That he wants to leave Newcastle surely only emphasises the issues at St James's Park. Pardew, objectively, has done a perfectly good job with relatively limited resources, but he remains unpopular with the fans for any number of reasons. He is seen as Mike Ashley's man, a symbol of the hated regime at the club, while his antics do little to endear him to any supporters, such as headbutting Hull midfielder David Meyler on the touchline or getting into a deeply undignified row with Manchester City boss Manuel Pellegrini last season.
More than that though, there is the sense that while he has done a reasonable job, it could have been much more than that. Pardew (and indeed Ashley) seem perfectly happy to tread water, to do just about enough to keep the bottom line happy and the club chugging along.
This, at a club that for better or worse has one of the most emotional fanbases in the country, will never wash on the terraces. These fans want more from their club, as most do but even more so in this case, so Pardew was perhaps never going to be a good fit at Newcastle.
For this reason alone, it is understandable that Pardew would want to leave. He may well feel his efforts have been unappreciated, but at the very basic level nobody wants to be in a job when they're not wanted.
It might not turn out to be much better at Palace, but at the moment one can see very well why Pardew would want to give up a relatively safe job for something different.
Source http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2313215-alan-pardew-and-newcastle-are-a-bad-match-its-easy-to-see-why-he-wants-out
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