Alan Pardew insists he is not bitter about his exit from Newcastle United – but says he “needed the leave” because supporters didn’t accept him.
Pardew has been out of work for a year after his dismissal at West Brom , who were relegated after a disastrous run. And he has largely kept his counsel – admitting that he needed to decide whether he was going to return to management after his Hawthorns misery.
He now says he does want to come back but he also spoke to the Telegraph about his time at Newcastle – insisting he lost the fans because he was “linked to the owner”.
“I wasn’t forced out but the fans linked me 100 per cent with (the owner) Mike Ashley,” he said.
“I left to go to Palace and people say to me ‘Oh, you were great at Newcastle but I am sorry how it ended’. Well it wasn’t sorry how it ended. I left them ninth! I wasn’t sacked. I needed to go because it was right for the football club. It didn’t matter whether I finished sixth that year, the fans were not accepting me.
“There were rumours that I went to casinos and that’s how I knew Mike. But I never go to casinos. I didn’t know him before I got the Newcastle job but that rumour never left me. I am not bitter about it. It is what it is.”
On the failure at West Brom he says: “I am not going to let that define me. I have to think about the positives and say: ‘Ok, when I go to my next club I want to be able to deliver what my teams traditionally do: front-foot football, attacking football.
“I did almost take a job in China because I thought it might be good for me to go abroad and experience what I think the best coaches in the Premier League have had. It helps you learn. You have to evolve.”
He says he is prepared to go below the Premier League to return to the game. “I needed to take a big step back and go: ‘Ok, right, what do I really want to do?’ And I want to go back into managing,” he said.
“Ideally that will be in time for pre-season. You can get things in place, you can get the discipline in place and there are things you know rather than find out mid-way through a season. But in the situation I’m in you have to accept that your ego cannot get in the way, you have to accept what comes your way. I honestly don’t know where that will be but I’m open-minded.”
