“Throw the book at him!”
“Give him a full season-long ban”
The critics have spoken and we concur.
No punishment would be too severe for Newcastle manager Alan Pardew after his head-butt to Hull City midfielder Davdid Meyler in Sunday’s Premier League match.
The soccer world has yet to hear any credible commentators defending Pardew.
Why would anyone come to the defence of the Magpies boss for his disgusting display of sportsmanship? Judge for yourself:
In his post-match comments even Pardew himself acknowledged he had made a grave mistake and also later apologized for the incident.
“I’ll be sitting down from now on, I apologize to everyone,” Pardew said on Monday.
Pardew has until Thursday to respond to charges of improper conduct.
Pardew is not the first football manager to tango with opposing players.
Former Napoli manager Walter Mazzarri was banned for grabbing a Villarreal player in Champions League action in December of 2012. Former Portugal manager Luiz Filipe Scolari was once also suspended for grabbing an opposing player during a qualifying match.
But the handling of this latest incident needs to be a vehicle for the Football Association to send a clear message that violent physical confrontation of any form cannot not be tolerated.
RedCardTheRef has never been a venue to applaud England’s Football Association for their handling of fines, suspensions and disciplinary action or the majority of its match officials, but so far so good.
Take a bow referee Kevin Friend.
Thanks for not blanking out - like Mike Dean - on this one!
Friend was correct to deliver an automatic red card to Pardew for his head-butt, and the FA correct for it’s swift response.
But the FA needs to go further and hand Pardew the maximum suspension possible. The pundits concur.
“Oh my goodness Alan Pardew, the book is about to be thrown at you,” exclaimed SkySports Jeff Sterling.
“…He will be hit huge, enormous, massive, massive trouble.”
As the soccer world tried to digest the incident - the most bizarre happening since Liverpool’s Luis Suarez was banned for biting Chelsea opponent Branislav Ivanovic –
many tried to understand what was going through the veteran manager’s mind?
Former Premier League referee Graham Poll who writes a column for The Daily Mail may have hit the nail on the head declaring Pardew is “the Jekyll and Hyde of football management” citing numerous examples of Pardew’s temper.
If you think Pardew’s replacement can provide a more level-headed approach, don’t get your hopes up.
Newcastle assistant John Carver is also known for his lack of self control and has been banned for dissent on several occasions and once came to blows with one of his own players, former Newcastle bad boy Craig Bellamy.
On first impression, you wouldn’t know that a monster lurks within the mind of this footballing genius.
As a reporter I had several dealings with Carver while he coached Toronto FC of Major League Soccer. He was indeed a feisty individual on the sidelines and often let his temper get the best of him, but nothing could be further from the truth off the field.
He once called me and another soccer reporter into his office BMO Field and had a long talk with us asking the question “what can I do to be more engaging to the press” and “how am I doing?“
Wow what a nice warm and friendly guy, I thought to myself after the meeting. How on earth did he ever become such an unhinged werewolf behind the bench?
On far too many occasions though the passion and devotion of players and coaches makes us lose sight of the bigger picture.
They don’t need a full moon for this to happen but sometimes ‘Nice guys’ seem to make that wolf-like transformation that Poll describes when they get on the field or in the dugout.