Pardew lambasts youngsters – Is he justified?

With injuries decimating the Newcastle squad this season, Alan Pardew has had to turn to the youngsters to achieve last season’s success, but it’s fair to say the results have not even been close to what the fans would want.

Also fair to expect, the performances of some of the younger players have come under scrutiny and the final results have not been glowing.

This is what Pardew said about some of the younger players.

“Particularly one or two of the younger players, the work ethic needs to improve and they need to improve as individuals. Those younger players have not produced what I wanted them to produce so they’re going to have to work harder or they are going to have to leave this football club.”

One can see that the frustration is clearly there in Pardew’s words, and he expects more from what should be considered the cream of the crop at Benton.

This is not the first time that Pardew has vented his anger over the lack of performance. Last year, on the back of a defeat to Bordeaux, Pardew said:

“It’s highlighted a problem we’re going to look into – our younger players. They’re going to have to do more work – they need to improve.

“All those young players are good players – they could play in the Championship. No problem. But this is Newcastle, and they need to be better.”

Now, I understand that the manager is disappointed with some of the performances, especially since when they were the ones who the club was banking on after bringing in only one senior player during the summer transfer window. But for me, the manager is being a little harsh on some of the young players who need to be given all the confidence in the world.

For me, the youngsters need to be blooded in gradually to gain experience and learn the tricks of the trade, but with Newcastle’s long injury list, they have been forced in all at once. Another thing is that they have been playing with some of the club’s squad players rather than the regulars, so that makes it tougher and mistakes are liable to be made.

Looking at it from Pardew’s perspective, one could understand his point of view too. His job is to get results and what he sees are the displays which are nowhere good enough to get those. His job is on the line and he is answerable too. He also sees some of the other youngsters at other clubs doing well, the likes of Luke Shaw come to mind, and in the past we have seen players like Lennon and Milner doing well at Leeds United.

You can argue both ways, but for me I would wait for a while before completely giving up on all the players. So a complete revamp of the academy like last year would be a step too far for me.