Newcastle keep rolling on

When Chris Hughton was sacked last year I really felt sorry for him, he seemed like a nice guy in footballing terms and seemed to have the backing of his players 100%. Therefore the decision to bring in Alan Pardew on a long term contract to replace a manager who got the team back into the premier league seemed an odd one as Pardew's previous work had been a slight disaster at Southampton. That's what makes football though! Newcastle are now 3rd in the league 3 points ahead of Chelsea in 4th and more commendably 1 point behind Manchester United last years champions who are 2nd.

What makes this transformation even more remarkable ? Alan Pardew has been running the team on negative investment. In the summer he lost a key play in Jose Enrique to Liverpool as well as the big money loss of Andy Carroll last January. These 2 big money signings you would have thought could be some major spending money for Pardew but he has not had the opportunity to use it at all. In addition to that he has also lost 2 key midfielders in Joey Barton and Kevin Nolan. These key 4 losses to a team recently promoted would usually be catalyst to a massive collapse in a teams performance and morale. Therefore i believe Alan Pardew deserves a lot of credit for the signings he has made and the way in which he has galvanized the team together.