Transfer fees for managers are still sufficiently rare to invite suspicion if they are really worth it but the £3.5m Crystal Palace spent on Alan Pardew is shaping up to be one of the best investments of this month. The 53-year-old has a 100% record in charge of the Eagles, but that initial consistency owes much to his combination of contrasting attributes.
The early evidence is that Pardew has shown an ability to put an arm around the shoulder and use a footballing brain, the capacity to offer impassioned support and provide dispassionate analysis. If his skills as a strategist have helped him win each of his first three games, the most obvious beneficiary of his appointment arrowed in on his motivational prowess as the reason for his success.
“The new gaffer has come in and instilled a little bit of confidence,” said Dwight Gayle, who has scored four goals under Pardew. “He’s boosted our confidence as a collective. He gives everyone little pats on the back, talks to people individually and he’s got everyone going. He’s a good man-manager.”
Some men have been managed more than most: the attackers. “I think they are better than they think they are,” Pardew said. “I keep trying to tell them.” His positivity seems productive. Pardew inherited a side that had scored just twice in seven games. Victory at Burnley took their total under him to nine. Gayle, Wilfried Zaha and Jason Puncheon looked imbued with belief. Pardew, who had wondered if a regimented, organised side required a little individual inspiration, now feels he has three players with a capacity to make a difference.
“You can use the word maverick but the player needs to bring it out,” he added. “I thought Punch today was a real class act. It is that kind of exuberance that can get you a win.” Exuberance was allied with acumen. After his goalscorers, Pardew was the fourth game-changer, his mid-match recalibration of his team transformed 4-4-2 into 4-1-4-1 and a 2-0 defeat into a 3-2 victory.
It was a triumph that owed much to his turbulent spell at Newcastle although Pardew argued the demands of the job, not the recent hostility, prompted his development. “I’d be foolish if I hadn’t learned over the four years to become a better manager,” he said.
“I had to respond to some difficult times at Newcastle. I don’t mean things that happened off the pitch. When you are a big team and are expected to beat a lot of opposition and are behind, you need to find a way so I am armed a little bit better for this kind of battle.”
If he is older and wiser, Burnley deemed themselves too naive. Victory would have taken them to 12th, their highest position of the season. Defeat left them distraught. “It makes it worse to be 2-0 up,” said the centre-back Michael Keane. “We haven’t learned quickly enough.”
