Has the Europa League saved Pardew?
It is a point of contention a lot of Newcastle fans may not have considered until recently, but having reached the last 16 of Europe’s un-fancied competition has added a gloss to their season in the North East.
Pardew has consistently spoken about how it has been difficult to juggle the competition with so many injuries, but whilst the threat of relegation has always been a flirtation rather than a genuine reality, winning the Europa League is a huge possibility.
There may be those that never even thought that sacking Pardew was necessary, but had Newcastle just had a mid-table showing for their efforts this season you suspect the former Southampton and West Ham boss would be under heavy fire.
The doubters of the 51-year-old would have been able to say that Newcastle just were a one season wonder and that Pardeux as he’s called upon Tyneside these days got lucky and stole the team spirit that Chris Hughton had already developed.
It may have been a difficult season for the Magpies but managing to beat Metalist away in Ukraine and beat Southampton only 3 days later shows great composure and improvement from the squad.
There is a long term plan to have a squad that can deal with European football and reaching the later stages of this with the new French signings as well as clawing themselves away from relegation has shown that the future can be bright under Mr Pardew after all.
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