Eagles boss felt he couldn’t take Newcastle forward.
Crystal Palace’s new manager Alan Pardew has lifted the lid on his recent departure from Newcastle United, which was largely down to player sales, according to the Daily Mirror.
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Pardew had mixed success during his spell at St James’ Park, helping the club finish 5th in the Premier League in 2011/12, but struggling to build on that as some key players left for bigger clubs.
The Magpies had to cope with the departures of the likes of Demba Ba, Yohan Cabaye, Loic Remy and Mathieu Debuchy, and Pardew regrets that he could not keep some of his best players together to help take the club forward.
It has been suggested that Pardew felt a lack of support from the Newcastle board, but overall he says he enjoyed the high pressure of the job before deciding it was time to move on and take the position at Selhurst Park.
“I’d be foolish to say everything was hunky-dory at Newcastle and I was happy-go-lucky. It’s a serious business in Newcastle,” he said.
“You have to deliver and I got used to the pressure. But that doesn’t mean it goes away. I had two really good sides at Newcastle. The one that finished fifth – in a way you kind of won the league for a team like Newcastle.
“But I thought we had a better team than that only 12 months ago, when we had Loic Remy, Cabaye, Mo Sissoko, Cheick Tiote, Fabricio Coloccini, Tim Krul – that team was really strong.
“And I really was hurt we never really got back to that team.”