ALAN PARDEW: THE NEW JOHN GREGORY

Newcastle United did brilliant last season and credit for that to Alan Pardew.

But this term they are in a relegation battle and so some of the criticism for that must also fall on Pardew.

I was surprised when the Toon took him on - he never struck me as a particularly top-class manager.

I always saw him as a sort of glorified bean counter who had been drafted into the job.

He can talk a good talk and would make you believe that football success can be formulaic.

That is what appealed to Mike Ashley when he took him on - that Pardew told him he could bring success on a shoestring and that any players they bought they would also be able to sell for at least the same money, if not a good profit.

This is football by the balance sheet, not football as something magical and wonderful.

And so it comes as no real surprise to me that the bubble seems to now have burst for Pardew on Tyneside. The bean counter is having to make do with bargain buys and cannot spend big money on big players.

Pardew reminds me a lot of former Aston Villa boss John Gregory. You remember him? He was smooth and could also talk a good talk - but he eventually got found out.

If I were a Newcastle fan, I would want a manager who was ambitious but also a dreamer; someone who believed the game is magical rather than to be played out to a rigid financial formula.

How about someone like Roberto di Matteo?