Alongside Big Sam at West Ham and Paul Lambert at Aston Villa, loveable head-butting, potty-gobbed Toon-managing rogue Alan Pardew was most people’s candidate for the first sacking of the season. Having witnessed the second half of last season, confidence in him among Newcastle fans opened, on the season’s eve, at 61%, which is far higher than most people would have guessed.
A predictably sluggish start to the season saw that percentage fall into the red zone very quickly, dropping to 36% after the 4-0 defeat at Southampton and 22% after 2-2 draw at home to Hull, but slowly, unexpectedly and in many ways annoyingly, Alan Pardew has turned things around. Five wins in the last five games have propelled Newcastle to eighth place, just one win away from the final Champions League place, and Pardew’s confidence rating has clambered back to a healthier 60%.
During all of this, confidence in the team has gone from 79% (on August 15) to a low of 56% (in late September), back up to 73% as it stands now. And nobody of sound mind saw that coming.
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