Wally meets... Alan Pardew

By Mike Walters

Published 22:30 26/03/10

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Alan Pardew's perverse reward for landing only the fourth trophy in Southampton's history tomorrow could be the sack.

Saints will take 44,000 pilgrims to Wembley for the Johnstones Paint Trophy final against Carlisle, but it still may not be enough to keep Pardew in his job next season.

Ungrateful men who run the club think promotion from League One should be a formality, even after a 10-point penalty and a pre-season shambles with hardly any players.

Swiss billionaire Markus Liebherr, the owner, and his impatient chairman Nicola Cortese want to build a new team, a new training ground and restore Saints to the Premier League. And they want it yesterday.

Pardew admits there have been times this season when he has wondered if he made the right decision to drop into the lower leagues. When his paymasters are so demanding, his doubts are in danger of being vindicated.

Four years ago, he could have named his price for any managerial vacancy in football until Steven Gerrard sprayed graffiti over his job application.

Liverpool were down to the last few grains of sand in the hourglass, seconds away from defeat, when Gerrard's rocket sabotaged Pardew's finest hour with West Ham at the 2006 FA Cup final.

If the maxim is true that you don't become a bad player overnight, the same is true of managers.

Pardew's recruitment of 31-goal Rickie Lambert has given Saints fans their biggest hero to worship since Matt Le Tissier was at large, while new signings Lee Barnard and Jason Puncheon are talents suited to a higher level.

So if Cortese believes another manager can do a better job, in such a short space of time, than 48-year-old Pardew, he is as deluded as the oil barons at Manchester City who think Champions League glory is only a chequebook stub away.

"I have played and managed in an FA Cup final, been involved in three play-off finals and won the Zenith Data Systems Cup with Crystal Palace," said Pardew. "But this will be one of my proudest moments because I am leading out such a great club.

"It is a fantastic achievement to take 44,000 people to Wembley and it is an illustration of the size of the club and what we are trying to do here.

"I know what it is like to go to a final and not turn up and not do yourselves justice but I also know what it is like to go a final and win.

"The biggest pressure game I have ever been involved in was taking West Ham back to the play-off final against Preston in 2005 after we had lost against Palace 12 months earlier.

"The club was in a very bad way financially, worse then they are now. David Sullivan would have had a fit if he had seen the books then. The staff were aware of it and we had to try and shield that from the players.

"The biggest disappointment would be the Liverpool FA Cup final when the game was won apart from one last bit of magic from Steve Gerrard.

"This is a chance to put Southampton back on the road to recovery because, at the start of this season, this club was in dire straits.

"The owners have put great investment into the club. They want success and it is my job to deliver. Markus has given Nicola a list of objectives to fulfil and they want to get the club back where they belong, and I have to deliver both on Sunday and in the play-offs. That is what I am paid to do.

"Nicola is a person that wants success and I have no problem with that. He is putting pressure on us to do well and that is his job.

"Will winning the JP Trophy and not reaching the play-offs be enough to keep the board happy? I cannot answer that question. All I can say is my staff have done an incredible job, as have the players.

"It was a big decision to step down into League One. I have to stay a few times I have wondered if I made the right decision, like standing on the touchline at Swindon when we lost 1-0.

"But this is a club with massive potential and I am proud to be the manager. Hopefully Sunday will be the start of us achieving that potential."

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