Does Alan Pardew really deserve an eight-year contract at Newcastle?

Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has been rewarded for his good work with a four-year contract extension.

The news has emerged over the last few days that Premier League Newcastle have handed Alan Pardew a four-year contract extension.

The former-Southampton boss already had four years to run on his old contract and now his contract will last for the next eight years.

Stability

According to Newcastle managing director Derek Llambias it’s a move designed to bring stability to the club.

He told Sky Sports News:  “What we believe, is that for one we have the right manager and he has ambition and it is all about stability and we believe Newcastle needs to have this to go forward and have success,”.

Risk

I have to say that although Alan Pardew has done a great job on Tyneside I think it’s a massive risk giving a manager that sort of contract. His team was superb last season and their form is starting to pick up this season.

However, should they go through a bad run of form and struggle to perform the Newcastle board are in an awkward position. They have extended Pardew’s contract and his staffs. That means if they want to sack him they will have to pay huge amounts of compensation.

The Newcastle board and chairman Mike Ashley have been very clever with their financial dealings in recent years. The club are now on a very good financial footing, but this deal could prove to be their undoing.

Length

There are only three managers in the top flight of English football that have even been with their present clubs that long, only Manchester United’s Sir Alex Ferguson, Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger and Everton’s David Moyes have been at their clubs for that period of time.

A manager does really well to stay in a job eight months these days, never mind eight years. Will Alan Pardew last that long at Sports Direct Arena? That remains to be seen, but it’s highly unlikely.

Fickle

Football fans and boards are very fickle. Alan Pardew may be the toast of Tyneside now, but a few bad results and there will be people saying he should be sacked. The Magpies board have just made life more difficult for themselves.

Bright

Who knows Newcastle may not need to sack the former-Reading boss. Newcastle may keep progressing under Pardew and go onto brighter things. I must say he has surprised me with how well he has done.

In fact I think he has surprised a lot of people with the job he has done on Tyneside. He does deserve credit, but enormous credit needs to go to the Newcastle scouting team, especially Graham Carr.

He has found some real gems for very reasonable prices. Carr was recently rewarded with a contract extension and it’s richly deserved, without Carr’s foresight the job at Newcastle would have been much harder for Pardew.

Confidence

I always wondered why Alan Pardew always seemed so confident about his coaching ability, until last season that was. I don’t think he had ever achieved anything particularly extraordinary in the game, but he was always so sure of his ability.

Helping Newcastle to finish fifth in the Premier League is extraordinary in my eyes and his coaching ability is finally starting to shine through.

Unnecessary

I can’t say that Alan Pardew doesn’t deserve security in his job after what he has achieved with Newcastle. However, it wasn’t like his contract was due to expire in the next few years. Pardew still had four years to run on his contract and I think the extension was unnecessary.

I disagreed with Newcastle when they appointed Alan Pardew and was completely wrong there, so who knows maybe the Magpies board know something we don’t. I just hope they do or the contract extension could be a major mistake.

Was it the right decision for Newcastle to give Alan Pardew a contract extension?