I know Newcastle United were bad in the second half of their Premier League match against Fulham at Craven Cottage, but I didn’t think they were this bad. Newcastle manager Alan Pardew obviously thought he needed to take drastic measures and decided to take to the pitch during training!
With the Newcastle players enjoying the sun at a mid-season camp in Tenerife, Pardew has rolled back the years, got more involved in training and here he is with David Santon and Danny Simpson. Newcastle could have done with a tough-tackling midfielder against Fulham, with Cheik Tiote sorely missed.
In all seriousness it’s good to see that Pardew still has a smile on his face, as he should with Newcastle in 6th position in the Premier League table, and keeping team morale high is imperative for the rest of the season. Losing is never enjoyable, but it’s how you respond to the loss that tells you most about team.
Newcastle have done well this season and one bad performance shouldn’t take anything away from that. Drastic measures aren’t needed and hopefully Fulham will be a warning to the squad that they can’t take anything for granted. Otherwise established players will have to make way for youngsters, including Mehdi Abeid who doesn’t look sure about Pardew taking to the pitch below…
