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Pardew’s comments about the SPL upset a Scotsman

Posted on May 24th, 2011 | 27 Comments |

Peter Houston responds to Pardew's comments.
Och, I'll have you Pardew
Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew voiced his doubts about the quality of Scottish football yesterday. Peter Houston makes the case for the SPL today.

Dundee United manager Peter Houston has struck back at Alan Pardew who yesterday said that the standard of Scottish football was basically rubbish.

Pardew, talking about his decision to bring Fraser Forster back from his loan period period at Celtic, said:

“We have watched that division [the SPL] and watched him all year. We’ve been very disappointed with the quality of the games, other than the occasional Rangers versus Celtic game. And even some of those have been poor, if I’m honest.”

Houston has however got his tartan in a twist over the comments and countered with:

“It is not even worth commenting on it.”

But he does anyway …

“We have international players playing in the SPL who could walk into the Newcastle team.

“They play at a very high level in European football, on a number of occasions as well. If you take Rangers, for instance, their runs in Europe in the last couple of years have been fantastic, so that is them playing at a high level and in the SPL.

“Also (Celtic and Scotland midfielder) Scott Brown has played in the Champions League as well.

“Alan is entitled to his opinion, but it is not something with which I agree.”

When people say things aren’t worth commenting on, but comment anyway, I am always reminded of a chap I once knew whose girlfriend would ring him up just so she could give him the silent treatment, which is a strange sort of logic. Given the lack of response at the other end of the line, he’d have no option but to hang up and would then have to take the flak for hanging up on her. I believe they’re happily married now.

Anyway, it seems like Pardew has brewed up a minor storm in a teacup over his comments.

NUFCBlog Author: Hugh de Payen I'm a baby-boomer of the punk rock persuasion, currently exiled in Somerset for crimes committed in a previous life where locals keep trying to poison me with something called 'scrumpy'. Hates sprouts, coat-hangers, Cilla Black, ornaments, Steven Seagull movies and 50 Cent (he's not worth 10). Hugh de Payen has written 634 articles on this blog.

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27 Responses

  3. I’d like him to name these players who would walk into the Newcastle team. I can’t think of any who we’d be interested in buying.

  4. Pardew says there are only 2 teams in the SPL who are any good,houston disagrees then only mentions players from celtic and rangers.Q.E.D

  5. Pockets players that would walk in Mcgregor Kayal Jelavic Izaguirre (depending on jose)

  6. of course the SPL is going to be utter crap if sky choose not to invest in their own product and instead pump millions upon millions to premiership clubs. although no matter how much money english team have, rangers or celtic will always give them a game.

    ps croat striker Nikica Jelavic could EASILY walk into Newcastle team, bilic said he’s the future of croatian football, he’s far too good for SPL. only a matter of time

  8. Celtic or Rangers out of the SPL and it would be the standard of the Blue Square ,So even if Mildew sorry Pardew is a tool most of the time, He is right on this one

  9. What’s their problem? He’s only being honest – brutally ok, but honest non the less.

  10. I just think that it gets many scottish people’s back up the constant slagging of their league when financially they are not even on a par with championship, other than Celtic and Rangers. It isn’t as bad as reported as people who watch it reguarly will tell you.

  11. na andy… i work abroad and some of the chanels out here have spl on and while its crap, its footy none the less and i do watch it sometimes if there is no real prem stuff on… honest, its is proper bad and its clear to see there is no money invested in this league, or at least not enough to bring it along to a higher level. I think its a level lower than our championship other than the obvious two teams of course. pardew was very brutal though in his appraisal of their league though. funny though and i guess we will not be doing any good business north of the border for a few years yet.. mind you, i dont know if i would call boumsong good business. He looked the nuts guts up there and when he came to the prem..my god, what a donkey he was.

  12. Craig for every boumsong there is a Charlie Adam who was terrible up there but down here he is a top player. I’ll have to disagree with you.

  13. who was that awesome striker that came down this year? was it boyd? Whats he done in the prem as he was prolific in spl?

  14. Nobody claimed he was awesome but playing in a team that provided him with chances, he does little else. Put him in a top side he’d do it again

  15. there’s no need to be shocked at some scottish people for sticking up for their clubs and their under funded league. it’s like a manager of a london club saying “the standard of football in the north east is bollox compared to down here” prob also true, but something tells me the people from the north east would be letting that manager know all about it

  16. Scotsmag proves the point – mentions one name and follows it with “he’s far too good for SPL”.

  17. we can all see its true seanp. we’re not idiots. but there’s a difference between disrespecting and acknowledging the obvious gulf in class. Pardew’s comments are disrespectful and there was no reason for him to make them public.

  19. i’m english,but it f**ks me right off,when people have a go at scottish football.for a start it’s a country of 5 million people ffs,if you look at it in that respect,the clubs are well supported.look at countries with similar populations like denmark,sweden,norway,the’re the same,where you only have two or three big clubs.the same clubs will win the league most years,oh but hang on is it not the same in england,where a top four exists,and the rest are also rans.yes scottish football has its problems with sectarianism etc,but at least it’s good honest football,with tackles flying in etc.
    the bottom line is,scottish football doesn’t get the money lavished on it,as the premiership does.imagine if rangers and celtic were admitted to the premiership,with their fan bases and the television money,and other revenue streams,they would hold their own no problem.
    people will not want to here this,but you could even go as far as saying they would be up there challenging within a few years.

  20. hey i see the tv rights money info is out.. we still got 1 million more than the mackems …we got 47,275,106 on tv rigths alone. not bad. that was 1.1 million more than sunderland.

  21. Agreed, Trojan. For a country the size of Colorado, they do alright, the Scots. Our weather’s better though.

  22. Tripp says:
    May 24, 2011 at 10:26 pm

    “Agreed, Trojan. For a country the size of Colorado, they do alright, the Scots. Our weather’s better though.”

    Aye Tripp, though not as good as some like the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and a few other small countries.

  23. No argument really, is there?

    Outside of the usual 2, there’s not much competition in the scots leagues.

    If those 2 wanna join in down here, it just proves the point really.
    If they do, they should start at the very bottom, like afc wimbledon have.
    The they can defect all they want, not very ‘independent’ like, is it?

  24. @workyticket,

    Czech Republic has a population double that of Scotland and the Netherlands has a population of nearly 16 million. Compared to countries of comparable size (Croatia – and arguably Slovakia – aside), Scotland don’t do too badly in national football terms nevermind in domestic football. Out with Spain, England, Germany and Italy, the middle-level leagues such as Holland, France and maybe Russia, Scotland does fairly well compared to other countries considering the huge differences of cash involved.

  25. Anon1888 says:
    May 25, 2011 at 2:55 am

    “Czech Republic has a population double that of Scotland and the Netherlands has a population of nearly 16 million. Compared to countries of comparable size (Croatia – and arguably Slovakia – aside), Scotland don’t do too badly in national football terms nevermind in domestic football.”

    Aye Anon, I won’t disagree with you there. In the grand scheme of things, Scotland have produced some truly great players in the past, and back in the old days, quite a few of Newcastle’s greatest ever players such as Hughie Gallacher, Ronnie Simpson and many others came from north of the border, so it is perhaps a little churlsh for some Newcastle United fans to deride Scottish football. However it cartainly isn’t having it’s finest days at the moment. Scotsmag does have a point about lack of investment.

  26. Pardew was foolish to take a swipe at Scottish football. Fact is, Forster gets first team games at a team which has the potential to play in Europe most seasons. That will be attractive to a young player. If you’re not going to play him, sell him. If you think Forster has big things in his future then give him a run in the side, or, if you think SPL isn’t testing him enough, loan him to a championship team. Either way taking a cheap shot at Scotland, a country we may draw on for talent, was uncalled for. Pardew should leave the gimmicks to Holloway and Warnock, they’re better at it.

  27. JayDee says:
    May 25, 2011 at 7:40 pm

    “Pardew was foolish to take a swipe at Scottish football.”

    Aye JayDee, it’s usually a bad idea to take a swipe at our esteemed neighbours north of the border, ’cause you usually never hear the end of it!