Alan Scott Pardew (born 18 July 1961 in Wimbledon, London) is an English football manager and former player. He is currently manager of Southampton.^[1]

His highest achievements in the sport include reaching the FA Cup Final twice, as a player with Crystal Palace in 1990 and as a manager with West Ham United in 2006, though he ended up on the losing side both times. He has also achieved promotion three times in his career, as a player with Crystal Palace and as a manager with Reading and West Ham.

[edit] Playing career

[edit] Early career

Pardew started his career as a part-time player in non-league football at Whyteleafe and Epsom & Ewell, whilst working as a glazier and a cab driver.^[2] He grew up as a Fulham fan and at one stage he gave up football for six months whilst working in the Middle East,^[2] but he returned to football at Corinthian Casuals before later having spells at Dulwich Hamlet and Yeovil Town. Pardew was also in the England Semi-Professional squad during this time.^[3]

[edit] Crystal Palace

Pardew moved to Football League Second Division side Crystal Palace in 1987 for a fee of £7,500.^[3] In 1989, he helped Palace win promotion to the First Division after beating Blackburn Rovers in the play-offs. The following year, he scored the winning goal as Palace beat Liverpool 4–3 in the semi-finals of the FA Cup at Villa Park, and then played in both the final and the final replay as Palace lost to Manchester United.^[3]

[edit] Later career

Pardew moved to Charlton Athletic in November 1991, and was Charlton's top scorer in the 1992–93 season with ten goals.^[3] In 1995, Pardew appeared four times on loan at Tottenham Hotspur in the UEFA Intertoto Cup.^[3][4] After rejecting an opportunity to play in Hong Kong,^[3] Pardew then moved to Barnet, and became a player-coach under manager Terry Bullivant. When Bullivant moved to Reading in 1997, he took Pardew with him as reserve-team manager.^[2]

[edit] Managerial career

[edit] Reading

Pardew's first experience as manager came in March 1998 when he was appointed as caretaker after the departure of Bullivant. After the appointment of Tommy Burns he remained as reserve team manager until the end of the 1998–99 season, when Reading disbanded their reserve team.^[5] Nevertheless, he was promoted to manager of the club after a successful spell as caretaker in 1999. He turned the club around from relegation fighters to promotion candidates through players, such as Jamie Cureton, and his régime to increase the fitness of the squad. Pardew also coined his motto "Tenacity, Spirit and Flair" to give his side a psychological edge. This resulted in a 3–2 Division Two playoff final defeat to Walsall at the end of the 2000–01 season, but was redeemed the next season by achieving automatic promotion to Division One. Pardew's first season in the higher division was outstanding, as the club finished 4th and lost in the play-offs once again, this time to Wolves. Pardew was on the map as one of the game's best up and coming young managers.

[edit] West Ham United

Early into the 2003–04 season, West Ham United asked Reading permission to appoint Pardew as their new manager. Although Reading refused permission, Pardew resigned from his position forcing the issue. Eventually, a compromise agreement was reached allowing Pardew to become manager at West Ham.^[6]

Pardew's first season at West Ham resulted in a play-off final defeat to his former club Crystal Palace.^[7] In the 2004–05 season West Ham struggled to find promotion form, with Pardew coming under pressure from the club's supporters.^[8] West Ham eventually succeeded in gaining promotion to the Premier League after defeating Preston North End in the play-off final.^[9] Pardew guided the Hammers to a respectable start to the 2005–06 season, which culminated in an appearance in the final of the FA Cup. After drawing 3–3 with Liverpool at the end of extra-time, West Ham lost on penalties,^[10] resulting in the second FA Cup Final defeat of Pardew's career.

In the 2006–07 season Pardew was criticised after seeing West Ham through their worst run of defeats in over 70 years which included a League Cup defeat to Chesterfield.^[11] Although West Ham's new owners stated their support for Pardew,^[12] on 11 December 2006, following a 4–0 defeat away at Bolton Wanderers the previous weekend, it was announced that Pardew had been sacked by West Ham. The club statement read "The chairman Mr Eggert Magnússon and the board have been concerned by the performances of recent weeks and feel that it is the right time to make a change in the best interests of the club."^[13]

[edit] Charlton Athletic

Pardew's absence from management lasted less than two weeks when he was appointed manager of Charlton Athletic on Christmas Eve 2006, signing a three-and-a-half year contract.^[14] He took over with Charlton in 19th place in the Premier League, with just 12 points and a –20 goal difference, the lowest in the league. Although Charlton's form improved under Pardew,^[15] he was unable to keep Charlton up, resulting in the first relegation of his career, both as a player and manager.^[16]

Many expected Charlton to bounce back from relegation into the Premier League with signings such as Chris Iwelumo and Luke Varney in the 07/08 season. But Charlton failed to mount a serious promotion challenge and finished the season in 11th. This put Pardew under pressure going into the 08/09 season but Charlton started the season off well with victories over Reading and Swansea. Although Charltons' form very quickly deteriorated and they were near the foot of the table and after 8 games without a win and a 5-2 home defeat to Sheffield United on 22 November 2008, Pardew parted company with Charlton by mutual consent.^[17]

[edit] Southampton

Pardew was named the new manager of Southampton in the early hours of 17 July 2009,^[1] after the new owner Markus Liebherr had taken over the club and sacked Mark Wotte a day after completing the deal to save The Saints. Pardew's first signing for the club was Dan Harding who signed on a free after being released by Ipswich Town. His first league match in charge was against Millwall on 8 August, which ended in a 1–1 draw.

[edit] Controversies

So far in his career, Pardew has been involved in several controversial issues and events. In 2003, the BBC described him as being a "dangerous and distant animal" in the media, referring to his public relations abilities, which has led him to making several rash comments.^[18] When at West Ham, the club employed a media advisor for Pardew to help him win over sceptical fans.^[2] The following is a list of controversies Pardew has been involved in:

• In September 2003, Pardew resigned from Reading after being refused permission to become manager at West Ham. Reading's chairman John Madejski attempted to create an injunction in the High Court to prevent him from moving to West Ham. Eventually Reading's legal action was dropped, and Pardew joined West Ham after a period of gardening leave.^[6]
• In December 2005, Pardew stated a public interest in Crystal Palace striker Andy Johnson, without informing Palace manager Iain Dowie.^[19]
• In March 2006, Pardew had a dispute with Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger, after he criticised Arsenal for failing to field an English player in their UEFA Champions League win against Real Madrid.^[20] Wenger suggested that Pardew was being xenophobic,^[21] a claim Pardew denied, citing his marriage to a Swedish wife.^[22]

• In November 2006, Pardew had another dispute with Wenger after celebrating West Ham's win over Arsenal.^[23] Wenger claimed he was "provoked" into pushing Pardew after Pardew's celebrations at West Ham's late win.^[24] Wenger was later fined by the Football Association,^[25] whilst Pardew was cleared of the charges in January 2007.^[26]
• In February 2007, shortly before Pardew's new club Charlton faced West Ham, The Sun published a report documenting a video of one of Pardew's media training sessions he took whilst manager at West Ham. In the video, Pardew jokingly made several disparaging comments about West Ham's fans.^[27]
• In October 2007, Pardew intervened on the pitch in a match against Hull City to try and break up a confrontation between Charlton and Hull players after Lloyd Sam and Ian Ashbee were sent-off. Pardew denied he made the situation worse by intervening.^[28]
• In March 2009, on Match of the Day 2 Pardew stated that Chelsea midfielder Michael Essien "absolutely rapes" Man City player Ched Evans during a midfield tussle for the ball, in the sense that he bested him physically.^[29] The BBC have said there will be no on-air apology, despite 35 viewer complaints, insisting it had been misheard as "rakes", and expressing no certainty that Pardew would appear, or not appear on the show again.^[30]

[edit] Managerial statistics

Team	Nat	From	To	Record
				G	W	L	D	Win %
Reading		13 October 1999	10 September 2003	211	102	57	52	48.34
West Ham United		20 October 2003	11 December 2006	163	67	58	38	41.10
Charlton Athletic		24 December 2006	22 November 2008	89	28	35	26	31.46
Southampton		17 July 2009	Present	30	14	6	10	46.67
Total				493	211	156	126	42.80

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Alan Pardew career stats at Soccerbase
• Alan Pardew management career stats at Soccerbase
• Alan Pardew profile at the League Managers Association