Clumsy, and thinks he is a playmaker, every time he gets the ball and wants to take on the opposition I cringe.
He is not longer the Soldier he was. Offload now.

To be fair we all knew that we had no left back after Souare’s accident or a holding midfield player and that Delaney was past his sell by date but I agree that the signings were decent. I seem to remember that there was a deficiency of pace in the team and PVA and Schlupp both brought some.

Schlupp was dismissed as being crap by a fair proportion of our fan base but Roy has really helped him as a player IMO.

Allardyce’s tenure is the only time in the last eight years that I thought we were gone but he pulled it out of the bag with the wins at Chelsea and Liverpool.

Klopp and guardiola have taken thier teams to heights several previous managers couldn't reach despite being very well resourced. Allardyce required far greater resources than any of his predecessors or successors just to stay at the same level they did.

His skill in organising a team doesn't seem any greater than that demonstrated by Pulis or Hodgson, neither of whom had his backing.

As for us probably getting relegated, did Sam tell you that?

Edited by TheBigToePunt (03 Jan 2021 12.37pm)

People seem to forget just how poor the options Pardew had in defence or holding midfields

A lot was down to the policy of slowly building by making marquee signings and the age of the players that got us promoted. We had to take some risks too, leaving some positions vulnerable (particularly left back) as the squad needed strengthening in so many areas.

Pardew, Roy, and Holloway aren't particularly strong in the transfer market.

Allardyce immediately identified 4 players that would make a big difference.

When we signed Schlupp I asked a Leicester supporting friend about him... he described him as, very fast, very strong, very very stupid. Which is fair. He can carry the ball up the pitch well which compliments Zaha and Eze. He always seems a bit slow to react to most things, I don't think he reads the game well.... thats probably why he didn't make it at Leicester and we have him.

In my opinion, selling Tompkins or Sakho would be foolish and leave us exposed.

The age of Cahill and Dann surely make them the more likely players to offload first. Or Kelly, due to lack of appearances. Offload all 3 and we will have £150k in wages saved, that can be used to find an upgrade on Sakho BEFORE we offload him.

Decisive action by Mr Parish.

We weren't in the bottom three when Pardew was removed of his duties but we had lost 8 of our previous 10 games.
Had Allardyce not been available would Pardew have been given more time ?

Precisely. Yet Allardyce had far greater backing and blew his own trumpet far more.

We had a terrible run of results under Pardew but that does not mean that we would have gone down. Parish later admitted to having panicked and overreacted if I recall.