Pardew pleased with first year in charge

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew is pleased with the stability at St James’ Park since he took charge a year ago.

Pardew took over from the sacked Chris Hughton in December last year and kept the Tyneside team in the top-flight, finishing 12th following their promotion from the Championship the season before.

The former West Ham boss believes the club have established a good platform to launch a fruitful future, with players such as Davide Santon, Haris Vuckic and Hatem Ben Arfa establishing themselves in the starting XI.

“The biggest progress we have is stability at the football club because the results and the way we have conducted ourselves here at the training ground have suggested that hopefully we can have a period where the manager stays in place and we can build a team,” Pardew said.

“We have brought young players to the club – Davide Santon, Haris Vuckic, Hatem Ben Arfa, people like that, young players who we can build on.”

The 50-year-old also believes the 3-1 victory over Liverpool at St James’ Park in his first game in charge last year helped break the ice with the club’s supporters following the controversial dismissal of Hughton.

“That first game was a daunting game because in terms of how I came to the football club, it was important I won it,” Pardew said.

“It will always be right at the top of my list of the most important wins at this football club until such time as we get near the big prizes. But we are not there yet.”

Newcastle host the Reds at St James Park on Friday.