ENGLISH PREMIER LEAGUE: Newcastle Utd v Manchester Utd: ALAN PARDEW has been out shopping for a special bottle of red wine with which to entertain Alex Ferguson tonight.
Whatever the vintage and provenance, it will surely be infinitely more palatable than the breakfast Manchester United’s manager once served his Newcastle United counterpart.
“When I was between jobs I went to see Sir Alex at their training ground and he said: ‘you’ve got to have some porridge’,” recalled Pardew, whose side host the Premier League leaders tonight.
“He convinced me salty was the way to have it. It’s 100 per cent the Scottish way of course but, being a soft southerner, I stood up a good argument for sugar and then, when he wasn’t looking, I removed a bit of salt. I’m off porridge now.”
As a pillar of the League Managers Association, Ferguson is famously generous to unemployed or inexperienced colleagues and, providing they survive his breakfasts, invariably dispenses wise counsel. “It often goes unrecorded that Sir Alex is a big part of the LMA and he’s always got a word for younger managers, he invites people to the training ground and looks after them; not everybody does, I can assure you,” said Pardew.
“It’s very good that we’ve got somebody at the top of the game who does that. To give up time for a coach coming to view a bit of training is always a really nice bonus. It was for me and I’m sure it is for the others who’ve taken advantage.”
Between spoonfuls of porridge, Pardew picked the Scot’s brains.
“I can’t remember exactly when it was, sometime before I got the Southampton job and after I was at West Ham, but I asked him for a bit of advice – I think it’s always wise to ask the main man. He told me: ‘I think the football world should see that you can work outside London. You’ve spent all your career in London’.”
Relocating Pardew’s former club Reading to the capital may have been a minor geographical faux pas, but Newcastle’s manager is no pedant and accepted the general point. “I thought Sir Alex made sense,” he said. “It gives you more opportunities if you’re not only based in and around London. I couldn’t have come much further away now, could I, so it’s worked, in a weird way.”
Pardew’s happiness on Tyneside will be heightened if he can guarantee Newcastle’s Premier League future by recording his first win as a manager over Ferguson. “We need two or three points to be absolutely safe,” said the 49-year-old.
The United team will include the returning Wayne Rooney but Pardew has a particular treatment in mind for the England forward every bit of special as that bottle of post-match red awaiting Ferguson.
“You can’t position someone to take care of (Rooney) because his movement is everywhere,” said Pardew. “So, as a team you need to layer him. When he gets possession you need to be alive because Rooney’s a creator as well as a goalscorer.”
Loan signing Stephen Ireland has been included in the Newcastle squad for the first time.
The 24-year-old could make his debut despite spending the last few days at the bedside of partner Jessica Lawlor after she suffered multiple injuries in a road accident last week.
Midfielder Cheick Tiote and defender James Perch return from suspension, but skipper Kevin Nolan completes his two-match ban. Goalkeeper Steve Harper has had an injection in his knee and is doubtful.
Paul Scholes misses out following his red card at Wembley but fellow veteran Ryan Giggs is expected to return, whilst Jonny Evans returns from his own ban.
Guardian Service
