This Alan Pardew story confirms all your suspicions about him
Tough times for Alan Pardew, who is now punching the clock in Bulgaria after the Premier League job offers dried up. “I feel a bit aggrieved because, for whatever reason, people turned their backs on me,” the former West Ham and Newcastle gaffer complained this week.
Yeah, what reasons could they possibly have? Sadly a High Court injunction prohibits us from sharing our preferred answer to that question, but perhaps Pards’ breathtaking arrogance also played a role in his decline.
For example, take this story from his West Ham days, courtesy of club photographer Stevie Bacon.
Bacon was sat with Pardew and fitness coach Tony Strudwick in the club canteen, waiting for their dinner, when Pardew asked the pair what food they ordered. Bacon recalls:
Pards then turned to Struds, who revealed whatever it was he’d asked for. “That sounds good,” said Pards. “Tell you what; if yours is better than mine when it turns up, I’m having that.”
That was one of the things he’d always say: I’m having that. “See that bloke’s haircut. I’m having that.” He said it all the time.
Anyway, I wasn’t “having that” at all. So I said “Well, you’re certainly not having my dinner. You’ll get a fork in the back of your hand!” Pardew sort of laughed, before turning back to Struds and saying, “Yeah, if yours is better than mine, I’m having that.”
Our meals eventually arrived and Pards looked at Tony and said, “Yeah, I was right, yours definitely looks much better than mine; I’m having that.” And he went to swap the plates over. “You can’t do that!” I said.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
“You can’t just take somebody’s else’s dinner,” I said in disbelief.
And he replied, without any hint of a joke, “When you’re the King, you can do anything.”
