ALAN PARDEW was not a popular appointment when he arrived at Newcastle – as Joey Barton made very clear on his first day in charge.
Having replaced Chris Hughton in December 2010, the former midfielder was slated by fans before a ball had even been kicked.
Looking back, Pardew feels his depiction as a pawn of Mike Ashley’s lambasted regime set him on the road to ruin.
“The fans are saying, ‘why is he here?’,” Pardew told the A Pint with Eamonn and the Gaffers podcast, in association with Heineken.
“Obviously, I was from London which probably didn’t go in my favour because I think they had a thing about London with Dennis Wise and Mike and everybody else, so I was coming in on a negative and an even double negative.
“The first day I was there, the door goes and Joey Barton’s at the door, he comes in and typical Joey – no informalities goes, ‘just to let you know that me and the players don’t want you here, we don’t think that you should be here and you need to know it!’.
“That was his opening line so I’m like, ‘Okay.’
“I like that though because at least with Joey you know where you stood; big characters like him and Kevin Nolan, you’ve got to win respect from, and the only way you can do that is to win it on the training ground and by getting results – you need to win games to raise the spirit of the club.”
He can lose the plot over a dog having a wee up a tree, it doesn’t take a lot.
Pardew on Barton
Pardew went on to win the 2011/12 Premier League Manager of the Season award and even sign a famous eight-year contract extension before getting sacked in December of 2014.
But he views his time on the north-east fondly and says he “loved it” while fans learned to “cope” with him.
Handling players like Barton, on the other hand, was one of the most unique factors of the job.
Pardew continued: “There are times with Joey, as you’ve seen, where he loses the plot; he can lose the plot over a dog having a wee up a tree, it doesn’t take a lot.
“Numerous times I took him off the training ground and made him stand with me and he was going mad and I’d think he was going to attack me from the back but he never did, calmed down and I put him back on the training ground.
“Those type of characters you’ve got to be strong with and others you have to be very soft with their self-confidence.
“Joey’s self-confidence, if you actually asked him on a lie detector, ‘where would you put yourself on a list of the best players of all time’, he’d probably put himself about sixth.”
