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3 weeks ago
7 When it was announced that Burnley had approached Alan Pardew for the vacant managerial post, there appeared to be widespread incredulity amongst the football fraternity.
The 62-year-old hasn’t managed in England since 2018, and since then has taken in stops at ADO Den Haag, CSKA Sofia and Aris.
Aside from those posts, he has also done the rounds on the radio punditry circuit.
Pardew is too old school for the modern game
In many respects, he’s been so long out of the English game that, whilst it would be unfair to label him a dinosaur, he’s certainly lacking in terms of modern managerial footballing principles.
There’s a reason why the likes of Pardew and Sam Allardyce et al get passed over these days, and Stan Collymore hit the nail on the head when talking to CaughtOffside for his exclusive column.
“Old school managers have no place in the modern game, although they should because the Premier League should be about different styles and different systems,” he said.
“Whether it be longer ball versus Pep ball or 4-4-2 versus 4-3-3, most clubs, on the back of a three plus goals per game Premier League season, want a manager now with all the bells and whistles and whose team defend on the halfway line. Who are a guarantee of three or four goals a game, so the clubs can get punters In.
“It’s somewhat of a surprise that Alan Pardew would be considered for the Burnley job because I don’t see his of play being conducive to anything exceptional for Burnley as they’re trying to get back into the Premier League.
“You look at the clubs that they’re going to be competing with, pretty much most of them are going to be those that can finish at the top. They’re going to be footballing teams.
“Maybe Burnley have identified something and said ‘We’re going to be a bit more industrial. We’re going to be a bit more pragmatic. We’re going to have use old school management to get into them a little bit more,’ and maybe they see something of a Sean Dyche in him, but I just think that what got Burnley out of the championship into the Premier League in the first place was quality on the deck football.
“The Sam Allardyce’s, the Neil Warnock’s, the Harry Redknapp’s and the Alan Pardew’s are great at going on podcasts and telling the great tales of yesteryear, but I don’t think in reality, they have the attention to detail or the energy levels that a modern coach has.”
Pardew and his fellow old school managers mentioned above certainly had their time in the limelight and rightly so. All of them should be able to look back on their careers with an element of pride.
However, just like the boxer that always wants to go one more round, they need to know when to bow out gracefully.
What makes it worse for Burnley is that Vincent Kompany is clearly a modern thinker and an excellent manager of men.

That Bayern Munich have taken him on says everything about how highly he is regarded in the game.
Compare and contrast that to Pardew who, could only manage a fifth placed finish with Aris in the Greek Super League the season before last – some 21 points behind title winners, Panathinaikos.
Steer clear.
