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Pardew ‘If Colback’s Name On Sunderland’s Team Sheet They Seemed To Get A Result’

The summer break doesn’t appear to have done Alan Pardew any favours when it comes to bizarre comments, the latest coming when he was talking about new signings Jack Colback, Ayoze Perez and [intlink id=”44489″ type=”post”]Siem De Jong[/intlink].

The Newcastle manager’s quotes on Jack Colback being especially strange.

Pardew has again repeated his claim that Colback is very adept at leading fightbacks from losing positions, which may or may not be accurate…but to put forward his goalscoring (four in Colback’s entire Premier League career) as any kind of a positive doesn’t really stand up.

Even worse is Alan Pardew’s claim that, “I know Sunderland’s results last year, you only had to see his (Colback’s) name on the team sheet and they seemed to get a result, so that tells you something.”

Well I suppose technically you can’t deny the Newcastle manager is correct because draws and defeats are ‘results’, just not very good ones.

However, if you consider what Pardew is really claiming, which is that results were supposedly much better when Colback was playing, well in 33 Premier League matches Jack Colback took part in last season, Sunderland managed to win 10 and fail to win (get a result) in the other 23. The fact that Colback was involved in all but five of the mackems’ matches in a predominantly desperate season that almost led to relegation, would tell anybody that Newcastle’s new signing appearing wasn’t really shown to be a massive positive at the end of the 90 minutes.

In the five Premier League matches where Colback wasn’t involved, Sunderland two and got a point in each of the other three.

Speaking to the club’s official tv channel the manager had this to say;

“Jack gives us that ability we didn’t have last year, to be able to get back into games when you are behind.

“He can score a goal, he’s going to get better…and I know Sunderland’s results last year, you only have to see his name on the team sheet and they seemed to get a result, so that tells you something.”

As for Ayoze Perez who was plucked from the Spanish second division, Alan Pardew showed a little more restraint, though many of us worry that how quickly we get to see him in the first team will depend a lot more on who else we do or don’t buy, rather than any careful taking it slowly development;

“He is going to have to do some development to get into the first team, but we are aware of that, and so is he.

“He could surprise us though and come through quickly – fantastic potential.”