WHOEVER first said “football is a funny old game” definitely didn’t have a sense of humour. Just ask Alan Pardew – and half a dozen other Premier League managers as well for that matter.
Pards goes into Saturday’s game against Leicester well aware that another defeat will probably see him sacked. And he’s only he had the job four months or so.
Even after being fired by three other clubs before this one Pardew at his most cynical could reasonably expected to have been given a bit longer to turn things around at West Brom.
But what is even more distasteful about this is that if he does get the bullet it will be fired from 5,000 miles away in China where the club’s owners do business.
The Baggies chief executive has been summoned there to meet paymasters he has never actually met before – and who have already fired one West Brom manager, a chairman, and a chief executive since last November – to discuss Pardew’s future.
It’s a crazy situation for him and the players and will almost certainly end in Albion’s relegation at the end of this season, with or without the present manager.
I’m not saying it was a league of gentlemen before, but the arrival of several foreign owners has brought a rather more ruthless culture to the Premier League. If such a thing is possible.
Pardew isn’t the only one. Remember what happened to several other managers at Birmingham City, and what most observers reckon is very likely to be the fate of Mauricio Pellegrino at Southampton.
Mr Pardew was, of course, manager of the Saints before they were taken over by a Chinese gentleman last year, and when they were run by a Swiss/German family.
But despite his own perilous predicament Pards will have sympathy with the latest potential managerial casualty at St Mary’s where the Argentinian has struggled to make an impact during his brief time in charge and may well pay the price in what looks like being a brutal summer of discontent in the Premier League.
Antonio Conte looks certain to go through the Stamford Bridge exit door at the end of the season after his Russian boss, Roman Abramovich, appears to have come to a bizarre conclusion that failing to win the league title for a second consecutive year is a failure.
Then, of course, you have the ongoing saga of Arsene Wenger’s future at Arsenal, where his American boss, Stan Kroenke, has sent his son, Josh, over from the States to try to sort out the Gunners demise.
To be fair the American has stood by Wenger rather more than other football club owners from other parts of the world.
And just in case you think I’m a ranting old racist – which I vehemently deny, by the way – I refer you to two other managers facing the chop sooner rather than later, who are run by Englishmen!
Rafa Benitez may choose to jump before he’s pushed at Newcastle, where Mike Ashley has, in his defence, poured million into the Geordies. But now he is now dithering to such an extent that the Premier League future of the club he has generously funded is now threatened.
Peter Coates has been similarly supportive at Stoke, but I can’t see Paul Lambert surviving there beyond the end of May if the Potters are relegated, can you?
Same story at West Ham where the Davids Sullivan and Gold somewhat surprisingly gave David Moyes the job until the end of the season, but if past dealings are anything to go by won’t hesitate to send him on his way if expectations are not realised.
You couldn’t make it up, could you? Even good old John McEnroe (and Alan Pardew, of course) might say of our Premier League sack race: You can not be serious!
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A STRANGE request, I know, but is there anyone out there prepared to loan me £140million. Interest free?
I would ‘buy’ Sunderland Football Club with the money, and although none of the present squad is worth a brass farthing the Stadium Of Light would fetch bit if the worst happened, wouldn’t it?
I haven’t actually spoken to owner Ellis Short since he offered to give the club away for free to anyone prepared to take on its £140million debts, but I’m sure we could come to some sort of arrangement if he would like to get in touch.
Unlike his present managerial team I would hand P45s to every single one of the players who have virtually guaranteed Sunderland’s relegation to League One – and fight them in court if need be.
What’s happened to the club I’ve supported all my life is a disgrace by players who ought to be ashamed of themselves. So if anyone does have £140million to spare, I’m ready, willing, and able to spend it wisely!
