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Pardew: Survival my responsibility

SoccerNews in English Premier League 29 Jan 2013

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Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew says the club’s top-flight survival is now down to him after the arrival of five new faces in January.

Pardew’s men, who sit 16th in the English Premier League, have welcomed Moussa Sissoko, Mapou Yanga-Mbiwa, Yoan Gouffran, Mathieu Debuchy and Massadio Haidara to St James’ Park this month.

Ahead of his 100th game in charge of Newcastle against Aston Villa on Tuesday, the Englishman said he had no excuses should his side be relegated.

“I think the challenge for me is to get a team quickly here. We’ve worked on that. The importance of the fixture is hard for them to comprehend,” he told reporters.

“What happened to this club four years ago at Aston Villa (when Newcastle were relegated) is a message that will be difficult to portray to them unless you felt it.

“The most important thing is that we get performances and we hit the ground running with this team.

“There are some players that you just know are at the level, are going to hit the ground running and I don’t envisage Moussa Sissoko having a problem in this division or settling in quickly.”

Pardew, 51, also underlined the importance of the club’s owner Mike Ashley witnessing Newcastle’s recent demoralising home defeat to relegation rivals Reading.

“I think it was a significant move that the owner was there (for the 2-1 defeat by Reading),” Pardew said.

“In some ways, it was a watershed game in terms of the problems we were having – his reaction and that of (managing director) Derek (Llambias) has been very strong.

“Therefore, when I turn around at Aston Villa I’m going to see a lot stronger bench and it gives me a much greater chance of turning a situation around or improving a situation, or actually making sure the situation doesn’t change.

“I think the signings have shown he (Ashley) is committed to the club because you don’t sign players at that age if you’re not committed to the club.

“If it was a short-term option he probably would have given me the signal to go and buy some older players to make sure we stayed in the division. If they were any good next year, it wouldn’t really matter.

“His vision is much more long-term than that and that’s why we’ve bought the players we have. That didn’t happen because of the Reading game.”

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