Is Alan Pardew a coach or a manager?

There is a lot of confusion at Newcastle United at the moment regarding a whole host of affairs. From questions of ambition, to player unrest, to finances, to signings, questions have been asked of them all. How about another?

How about Alan Pardew? Is he manager, as titled, or is he just technically a coach with a fancy title? Like a Binman, or Environmental Agent I should say, or a Civil Enforcement Officer, formerly known as a Traffic Warden. That kind of thing.

Funnily enough questions have been asked of Pardew and about his credentials for the job. To me he's not been given enough time with his own team yet to show me either way, but I'll give him time. What else can we do? It will be the results that will do his talking for him this season so I'll see what he brings to the table before making any firm judgement.

Anyway, back to my question. I guess the best thing to do before trying to work out just what Alan Pardew's job role is, is to ascertain just what each job does. To me a manager makes the bulk of the decisions at the club, including when it comes to transfers. Obviously certain managers have more sway, like Alex Ferguson or Arsene Wenger, as they have earned it through success over time, but generally speaking in any case it's the managers who make the calls.

Then there are others that go by the name of Head Coach or something like that. They are generally responsible for footballing matters only, such as picking the team, answering the press, training etc etc. They may have an input into what goes on above them, but generally speaking they are there to deal with football whilst the men upstairs get on with the rest.

Now, which camp do you think Alan Pardew fits into?

Personally I think it's the latter. It's not a problem, in fact it's not even a bad thing provided everyone is working together and knows their job spec. If it stays that way then there is no reason why it can't work, but if people don't understand their role and responsibility, or indeed get misled over their role and responsibility, then you can end up with a mess. Sound familiar?

Fortunately I don't think this is the case this time around. To me Pardew is bigging himself up and making it look as though he has more authority than he actually has, which is why he can sometimes say something and then face criticism when the polar opposite happens.

Think about what Alan Pardew actually does. He deals with the team, deals with the press, picks the team, sorts the training. As for transfers he has "Cheif Scout" Graham Carr sorting things and when it comes to player sales or contracts he clearly holds little sway in negotiations. Does that sound like a manager?

The problem is that it's all we'll have working under the current ownership. They've tried to implement it before, with disastrous consequences, but I feel they are trying to do it again this time around.

People call Alan Pardew a "puppet" or a "liar", but is this really the case? Are people really so anti-Pardew that they are willing to forget that the ownership have pulled the rugs out from underneath previous managers like Keegan, Shearer, Hughton? What is to say that they aren't doing much the same with Alan Pardew?

Food for thought, maybe?