Alan Pardew Continues His "How To Win Geordie Friends And Influence The Geordie Public" Tour

The sports world is full of hyperbole and unrealistic expectation.  That much I think we can all agree upon.  Particularly in some nouveau riche type places where two losses in a row represents a club in crisis, heads can be called for (or at least speculated wildly upon) without much calm consideration as Alan Pardew has pointed out through quotes in Louise Taylor's latest on the Guardian.  There is a slight difference between a club like Chelsea and Newcastle United, however.  Theirs is a situation of transfer promises delivered upon, big dollars splashed, purchasing a monopoly of the burgeoning Belgian youth system and more... a world in which these investments have seen return in the form of Premier League, Champions League or yes, Europa League titles - that is to say that they have reason to expect things.  For Newcastle United, these things are not expectations.

During the Mike Ashley era, things have largely not been flowers and rainbows and basketsful of delivered-upon promises.  Things are rarely what they seem.  The club is for sale... or it isn't.  The stadium is Sports Direct Arena, only for a loathsome sponsor to ride in on their white steed and set things right to ease the Toon Army's conscience some little bit.  It has been a time of star players being sold off without replacement... a time during which we have been repeatedly told that we "must temper our expectations".  All of this is to say - we have been rather carefully conditioned to NOT expect things.  Our expectations are largely guided by the words coming directly from the mouth of Alan Pardew.  Even those, though, we have learned how to interpret.  "We're looking at 5 players" ≈ "We will buy two players, tops".  As such, when we spend all summer hearing "Mike will make money available for a Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang type player" and we hear "we will buy a striker (but not one who costs over £10m).    This is what Alan Pardew has said in his most recent comments:

I thought there was an over-reaction to what happened in the summer but there always is with Newcastle. Whether it's good or bad, we get an over-reaction, and that's the way the media is with the Premier League as well.

Any expectation we have is based on words coming directly from representatives of the club.  More often than not, these words are from Alan Pardew himself as Mike Ashley never talks publicly and Bedo Fif has fallen off the face of the planet, apparently.  If you don't want us to "over-react" then tell us the truth.  Say there's no one coming in.  At least let us have our bitch about the real situation.  Stop jerking us around, and stop blaming us when we react to said jerking.