When Newcastle visited earlier in the season, then Toon Army manager Alan Pardew was ridiculed with chants of "your getting sacked in the morning" this time we should be more respectful

Some Saints supporters have short memories, whenever Alan Pardew returns to St Mary's he should be warmly applauded for the work he did in building the foundations of the club in the Liebher era, not ridiculed.

Perhaps many of the supporters who poured scorn in his direction and taunted him that he was getting the sack were not going to St Mary's back in 2009, but if they were keeping a close eye on the club then they will know the work that Pardew did for Saints.

Don't forget that when Markus Liebherr took ownership in July of 2009 he and his finacial advisor Nicola Cortese had no idea how to build a football team and had never heard of players like Rickie Lambert.

What they had though was a team working for them in England who were drawing up plans before any Saints fan had heard of Liebherr, before the contracts were even agreed Alan Pardew was identifying players and looking at what he would need to do to build a much depleted Saints squad made up mainly of kids.

The moment Liebherr took over Pardew could be appointed and get to work and get to work he did, he had done his homework on who the best players at this level would be, back then we had no player aquisition department, the likes of Rickie Lambert, Dan Harding, Dean Hammond & Rahdi Jaidi, were signed very quickly and lets be blunt they were not household names in Switzerland.

They were soon followed by Jose Fonte, Jason Puncheon, Frazer Richardson, & Lee Barnard etc, all of these players had been identified by Pardew and it is testimony that he signed 4 of those players for League One who would go on to play in the Premier for the club.

So when Alan Pardew takes his seat on the bench on Saturday he should be warmly welcomed as without him there would have been no Rickie Lambert fairytale and Jose Fonte would not be captain of this club now, Pardew played his part in our rise back to the top and indeed one of the most important parts in that he built the foundations and he built them well.

Sadly he was treated badly by Nicola Cortese and he did not deserve that, nor did his successor Nigel Adkins for that matter but that is another story.

So I for one will applaud Alan Pardew, his contribution should never be forgotten

Photo: Action Images

stmichael added 15:22 - Jan 22 totally agree not to mention he gave us the day at wembley where 51,000 saints fans experienced the club winning a trophy for only the 2nd time in our history
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Zambucco added 16:09 - Jan 22 51,000? I'm sure it was only 44,000? Anyway it was a great day out and we could have filled the stadium!
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sidsaint added 16:54 - Jan 22 Quite agree.I was mystified when he was sacked after a good away win if I remember correctly.
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Mushty added 17:00 - Jan 22 44,000 officially but Saints fans took over most of Club Wembley which took it well over 50,000. I know someone who did the official Wembley Stadium Tour it was mentioned that Saints had taken the most fans the new Wembley, Millwall took similar numbers in their first visit. Pardew deserves a warm welcome btw.
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A1079 added 17:28 - Jan 22 Completely agree. I have said it before, but he, Adkins and dare I say it, even Pochettino have all played a part in this club being what we are now, especially the first 2 in that list.
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rankxerox added 19:12 - Jan 22 A1079, I was with you until I read Pochettino
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corkcitysaint added 19:17 - Jan 22 Totally agree. We weren't in a great place as a club back then. For a manager of his experience and calibre to come to a League 1 club which had financial difficulties / new owners and no team as such has to be admired. He started our climb up the ladder.
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davepid added 20:03 - Jan 22 Nick totally agree with your positive appraisal of AP. But how was he treated unfairly by NC? If he was dismissed purely for footballing reasons then NAs appointment was a stroke of genius- getting us back to back promotions and to comfort in the Premeirship. I seem to remember you did a comparison piece between NA and AP points to games ratio. You showed that NA had a slightly higher return and it was that which got us promoted in his first year.AP might have done that but Corteses man did and he deserves the credit for moving the club forward .

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perazi added 22:01 - Jan 22 Completely agree. Pardew was and is a good Manager and set the foundations for the position we now fill. As you point out Nick, Ricky Lambert and Jose were inspired signings and he should be given a warm reception on Saturday.
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SaintNick added 23:09 - Jan 22 Davepid, Pardew was treated unfairly by Cortés, ironically his treatment mirrored that of Adkins, firstly rumours that manager and cortese had fallen out, then club statement saying all was well, then more rumours etc, its easy to say Cortés moved club forward, but the timing stank, rumours I know but there are those that say Liebherr was happy with Pardew and liked him and it was his death that enabled Cortés to sack him.

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patred added 09:09 - Jan 23 Davepid..I am of the opinion that our rise was DESPITE Cortese.. it could be said that he held us back with his interfering and undermining managers.. considering how well we have done since KAT DUMPED HIM.
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CovSaint added 09:56 - Jan 23 Well said Nick, Pardew did a good job for us... and if I remember correctly, his last game in charge for us was a 4-0 victory... he even left on a high!
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davepid added 10:54 - Jan 23 Hi Nic, I have no wish to fall out with you as your site is absolutely fantastic. I also accept you have far better sources of info than me . But in a post of yours 18 or 19/ 5/11 at 9.40 you give the impression of being sympathetic to what Cortese was trying to do in sacking Pardew. Cortesse was ambitious and didn't accept the prevailing explanation that the 10 pt deduction was too much of a handicap. Of course the rest is history - Adkins win ratio was 59 ( excluding the premiership games) against Pardews 53 percent. Back to back promotions, attractive play and a tangible team spirit followed. Indeed you've had posts talking of the best post war saints manager and you've always considered Adkins a serious name for the short list, never Pardew. We are sold out on Saturday, we have more televised matches coming , we are third in the league and pushing for second because of results. Cortese knew that ,and that's why Pardew had to go and ultimately Adkins. Brutal, not part of the southampton culture but it's what I want as a supporter right now.

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