Embattled Newcastle boss defends Ben Arfa exit and insists he will continue to take tough decisions

Ben Arfa’s controversial deadline-day exit to Hull City has led to renewed calls for Pardew’s head, with the protests that were evident in the latter stages of last season expected to reappear when the Magpies travel to Southampton tomorrow.

The embattled Newcastle boss will be without injured duo Siem de Jong and Rolando Aarons at St Mary’s, but his attacking options would have been enhanced had he not fallen out with Ben Arfa and sent the French winger on a season-long loan to the KC Stadium.

The dispute angered a large section of the Magpies support, but Pardew makes no apologies for washing his hands of Ben Arfa, citing the need for a strong commitment to the team ethic as a clear motivation for moving him on.

“It would have been an easy decision to keep him,” said the Newcastle boss. “But you have to make tough decisions and I made the decision because I think the players we have here have a love and passion for the club, the shirt and the fans. They want to win for them, and that’s very important.

“I’ve never been openly critical of players who have been here in the past in any shape or form. That’s for other people to decide. But what I do know is that this group, and that’s all I’m talking about now, have a real love and passion for the club.”

Nevertheless, the decision to release Ben Arfa, allied to Newcastle’s failure to win their opening three league games of the season, has reopened many of the wounds that were apparent as the end of last season brought just four victories from the final 16 games.

There have been suggestions that Pardew is only two games away from dismissal, and while it is always dangerous to second guess the mindset of Mike Ashley, there is no doubt that his position has become increasingly tenuous over the course of the last nine months.

The optimism that accompanied the arrival of de Jong and Remy Cabella in the early months of the transfer window has dissipated, with even Pardew admitting the scale of the recent negativity has caught him by surprise.

“If you ask most Premier League managers, they’ll say their treatment is much the same, but it’s probably a little bit more focused here,” he said. “It seems to be slightly more revved up here. Everybody in the Premier League has it coming, but for me it’s probably come a little bit quicker than I expected and I have to deal with that.

“It’s important for the fans to respect and honour what you’re doing, but I think maybe some of that trust was lost at the back end of last season. There could be a number of arguments why you would consider that to be my fault, and I would have to accept those if that was the opinion of the fans. All I can do is honour what I think I do for this football club, and that’s an honest job.”

Having signed nine players this summer – two of which were immediately loaned back to Nottingham Forest – Pardew remains confident he has laid some important building blocks for the future.

However, he also concedes that will count for nothing if Newcastle continue to drop points and find themselves scrambling for safety in the bottom half of the Premier League table.

“I have to try to look at the bigger picture,” he said. “A bigger picture than the local media and some of our fans, although I also understand there’s an immediate world we live in. Immediate results are important, and I can’t take my eye off that.

“But by the same token, I do have to have a bigger vision. I think we’ve got better, and we’re a stronger club than when I arrived, a lot stronger. I don’t know how else you can gauge it.”

That strength has been reduced via the absence of de Jong and Aarons, with the former expected to be out until Christmas after suffering a serious groin injury and the latter set to be sidelined for four weeks after damaging his hamstring in training on Tuesday.

“The decision still hasn’t been made about whether or not Siem has an operation,” said Pardew. “That will determine how long he is out for, but I would say it will be a minimum of three months.

“Unfortunately, Rolando’s picked up a hamstring injury this week too. He hasn’t had a scan yet so we’ll know more then, but we’re waiting for it to settle down.”

Cheick Tiote is available again, but the midfielder will only be on the substitutes’ bench at St Mary’s after making two 90-minute appearances for Ivory Coast during the international break, a workload that was way in excess of what had been agreed with his country’s management team.

“I spoke to him and thought we had an agreement with his FA that he would play part of both games, but of course he’s played a full 90 minutes in both,” said Pardew. “I’m astounded by that.

“Now I have a player who is arriving on Friday after playing two 90 minutes, and is expected to be brilliant at Southampton. It’s just not going to happen. I’ll take him because he is important to us, but he won’t start.”