Alan Scott Pardew (born 18 July 1961) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who most recently managed Greek Super League club Aris Thessaloniki.
Pardew's highest achievements in the sport include reaching the FA Cup Final three times: as a player with Crystal Palace in 1990 and as a manager with West Ham United in 2006 and in 2016 when his Crystal Palace side lost to Manchester United. He has also achieved promotion three times in his career, as a player with Palace and as a manager with Reading and West Ham. He managed Newcastle United from 2010 to 2014.
As manager of Newcastle, Pardew won both the Premier League Manager of the Season and the LMA Manager of the Year awards for the 2011–12 season after guiding the Magpies to European football for the first time since the club's return to the Premier League. He later managed Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and ADO Den Haag, as well as working as a Sky Sports pundit for the 2017–18 Premier League season.
Pardew was born in Wimbledon, London. He started his career as a part-time player in non-League football at Whyteleafe and Epsom & Ewell, while working as a glazier. At one stage, he gave up football for six months while working in the Middle East, but he returned to football at Corinthian Casuals, before later having spells at Dulwich Hamlet and Yeovil Town. Pardew was also in the England semi-professional squad during this time.
Pardew moved to Second Division club Crystal Palace in 1987 for a fee of £7,500. In 1989, he helped Palace win promotion to the First Division after beating Blackburn Rovers in the play-offs. The following year, in 1990, he scored the winning goal as Palace beat Liverpool 4–3 after extra time in the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park.
He then played in both the final and the final replay as Palace lost to Manchester United.
Palace continued to impress in the First Division, and in 1990–91 secured their highest-ever league finish of third, with Pardew also featuring as Palace beat Everton to win the Full Members' Cup at Wembley Stadium.
Pardew moved to Charlton Athletic in November 1991, and was Charlton's top scorer in the 1992–93 season with ten goals. In 1995, Pardew appeared four times on loan at Tottenham Hotspur in the 1995 UEFA Intertoto Cup. He played in the team who suffered the heaviest loss in Spurs' history, when they lost 8–0 away to German side 1. FC Köln. Spurs had fielded a team made up of reserves and loanees, including Pardew, for their final group game in Cologne.
After rejecting an opportunity to play in Hong Kong, Pardew then moved to Barnet, and became a player-coach under manager Terry Bullivant. When Bullivant moved to Reading in 1997, he took Pardew with him as reserve-team manager.
At international level, Pardew was a member of the England semi-professional squad during his time playing in English non-League football for Dulwich Hamlet and Yeovil Town.
Pardew's first experience as manager came in March 1998 when he was appointed as caretaker after the departure of Bullivant. His first match in charge was against Huddersfield Town on 21 March 1998, which Reading lost 0–2. After the appointment of Tommy Burns, he remained as reserve team manager until the end of the 1998–99 season, when Reading disbanded their reserve team. Nevertheless, he was promoted to manager of the club after a successful spell as caretaker in 1999. He turned the club around from relegation fighters to promotion candidates through players, such as Jamie Cureton, and his régime to increase the fitness of the squad.
Pardew's Reading side lost 3–2 to Walsall in a Division Two play-off final at the end of the 2000–01 season, but this was redeemed the next season as the club achieved automatic promotion to Division One. Pardew's first season in the higher division was impressive, as the club finished fourth. They lost in the play-offs again, this time to Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Early into the 2003–04 season, West Ham United asked Reading permission to appoint Pardew as their new manager. Although Reading refused permission, Pardew resigned from his position on 10 September 2003. Eventually, a compromise agreement was reached, allowing Pardew to become manager at West Ham.
Pardew's first season at West Ham resulted in a play-off final defeat to his former club Crystal Palace. In the 2004–05 season, West Ham struggled to find promotion form, with Pardew coming under pressure from the club's supporters. West Ham eventually succeeded in gaining promotion to the Premier League after defeating Preston North End in the play-off final. Pardew guided the Hammers to ninth place in the Premier League in the 2005–06 season, which culminated in an appearance in the final of the FA Cup. After drawing 3–3 with Liverpool at the end of extra time, West Ham lost on penalties, resulting in the second FA Cup final defeat of Pardew's career.
In the 2006–07 season, Pardew was criticised after seeing West Ham through their worst run of defeats in over 70 years, which included an exit from the UEFA Cup to Palermo in the first round, and a League Cup defeat to Chesterfield. West Ham's new owners stated their support for Pardew, but on 11 December 2006, following a 4–0 defeat away at Bolton Wanderers the previous weekend, Pardew was dismissed by the club.
Pardew's absence from management lasted less than two weeks, after which he was appointed manager of Charlton Athletic on 24 December 2006, signing a three-and-a-half-year contract. He took over with Charlton in 19th place in the Premier League, with just 12 points and a minus – 20 goal difference, the lowest in the league. Although Charlton's form improved under Pardew, he was unable to keep Charlton up, resulting in the first relegation of his career, both as a player and manager.
To spearhead their return to the Premier League, Pardew signed Chris Iwelumo and Luke Varney in the 2007–08 season. But Charlton failed to mount a serious promotion challenge, and finished the season in eleventh place. This put Pardew under pressure entering the 2008–09 season, but Charlton started the season off well with victories over Reading and Swansea City. Charlton's form, however, quickly deteriorated and they were near the foot of the table after eight games without a win. After a 5–2 home defeat to Sheffield United, hundreds of supporters remained for more than an hour to condemn their manager, chanting, "We want Pardew out" and "We want our club back" after Charlton had slipped into the Championship's bottom three. On 22 November 2008, Pardew parted company with Charlton by mutual consent.
Pardew was named the new manager of Southampton on 17 July 2009, after the new owner Markus Liebherr had taken over the club and dismissed Mark Wotte a day after completing the deal to save the Saints. Pardew's first signing for the club was Dan Harding, who signed on a free transfer after being released by Ipswich Town. His first league match in charge was against Millwall on 8 August 2009, which ended in a 1–1 draw. He brought many new signings to the club, including League One strikers Rickie Lambert and Lee Barnard, the first of whom cost £1 million. Pardew led his side up the League One table, and, despite their ten-point deduction, their challenge for a playoff place was kept alive until there were just two league games remaining.