Pardew: Getting over Carroll sale was my greatest managerial achievement
Published 23:00 29/12/11 By Simon Bird
Alan Pardew has revealed the fall-out caused by selling Andy Carroll to Liverpool – and hailed the way Newcastle bounced back as “incredible”.
He reckons overcoming the difficult weeks after the striker’s £35million deadline day departure and then guiding the club to within minutes of a top-10 finish was one of his best achievements as a manager.
Pardew led the Geordies out of the turmoil caused by Carroll joining Liverpool – who host Newcastle tonight – to their current position of seventh in the table. They have reached their target of 30 points by Christmas and Pardew claimed it was “extraordinary” to be only a point behind Liverpool given their relative transfer investments.
With Carroll due to face his former team, Pardew gave an insight into the impact of his exit 11 months ago.
He said: “When Andy Carroll left it was as disappointing a week as I’ve felt at this club. You don’t expect to lose a player of such significance on the last day. It put us in to a very vulnerable position.
“It might well be I look back on my career and say the second half of last season was possibly the best as a manager.
“We never got sucked into the relegation area and we lost a key, key player.
“Even though we were short we almost got ourselves in to a top ten finish. It was a great period of togetherness for the group and defensively we were sound in that period.
“That carried over in to the new season with new signings. It’s a young squad that has done very well.
“After selling Andy Carroll we lost at Fulham which was probably my worst game of my stewardship. There’s no doubt it was an after-effect of the Andy Carroll sale.
“We felt it on the pitch. Even I was feeling a bit dejected at that time. You arm yourself never to be in that position but you can’t help human emotions, so I couldn’t fault the players either.
“Then we had the comeback against Arsenal, from 1-4 down at half-time and that was amazing. We carried the Fulham mood into the first half against Arsenal but then really turned our season around in the second half.”
Newcastle have not looked back and but for a second-half collapse against West Brom to draw 3-3 on the last day of the season, would have finished in the top 10.
The Boxing Day victory over Bolton calmed nerves at St James’ Park by ending a six game run without a win.
Pardew said: “Bolton was an important landmark for us. To get to 30 points before half way is very, very good.”
Asked to compare their position with Liverpool’s he replied: “It’s not realistic for us to be where we are. We’ve done extraordinarily well to be where we are.
“Liverpool have invested a lot of money and are expecting to compete.
“They’re a very good side. I would expect them to be stronger in the second half of the season than they have been so far.”
