in the Mail on Sunday
The Charlton manager, normally a smart act, is shaking his head and pulling a face. "Not sure about your suit. Brown? I’ve got one, but whenever I put it on, I soon change it to black or blue. Brown is a bad colour for a suit."
Thanks. So I’ve trekked across London in the snow and he’s come off the training pitch full of himself. Even worse, he likes the velvet suit the Sportsmail photographer is wearing. Proof that there is no accounting for taste.
It is less than three months since Alan Pardew lost his job at West Ham, but he looks settled in his new home. It was Christmas Eve when the call came from chairman Richard Murray, nine days after being ridiculously, prematurely sacked by the new Icelandic owners of West Ham.
Charlton, having gone through two managers already this season, could not believe their luck. While West Ham have since gone into freefall, Charlton have moved on to the same points as their neighbours across the Thames.
Deliciously, the teams meet in two weeks at The Valley. "I’m just looking forward to getting that game out the way," Pardew insists. "I get stopped in the street and people say to me, 'I bet you’d love it if West Ham went down and Charlton stayed up' and nobody believes me when I give them this answer: 'I wouldn’t'.
"I don’t care what anybody thinks. I know. I wouldn’t want them to be relegated. I want West Ham to finish 17th — and us to finish 16th. I hope we can both drag a couple of other clubs into the scrap.
"I keep looking at it, working it out. With 12 games to go, we’ve got two more points than Portsmouth had last season and they finished four points clear of 18th place. They got 20 points from nine games. It can be done."
Difficult questions will precede the game, but he promises this: "I will deal with it in a mature and honest fashion that I hope will be understood by Charlton and West Ham fans alike.
"I am not going to try any mind games, or to rev up the game — it’s revved up enough. I still have strong feelings for the players at West Ham and I want them to succeed. I am not going to cause any waves, but I am the Charlton manager and my priority will be three points."
You will have to wait for the book he is proposing to write "one day" for a clearer picture of what went wrong. His P45 from Upton Park is in a leather folder on his desk, but there are no clues that his sacking has changed him.
"You have to learn lessons when that happens," he explains. "In four months, I went from having a very successful team to having a team in the relegation zone. You can put that down to a number of issues, but I can’t apportion blame, I have to say, 'What about me?'
"I’ll keep my conclusions to myself. I will remember them, take them on board. I’m not arrogant enough to think that everything that went off at West Ham was the fault of the other people, but I know my flavour. I know what I do and that what I am about makes me a good manager."
The fascinating subject of the scientific approach to his job excites him. "How do you get the best message across to your players? How do you find the X-factor managers like Jose Mourinho and Sam Allardyce and Harry Redknapp have?
"In the old days, you had a board and a manager and his pen. Now you have computer images and graphics that help present messages to your players.
"You can slow down play, you can replay, you can position players, move them on the video — from where they were to where they should have been. That’s cutting edge in the Premiership now and we all do it.
"When I was a player, you arrived at training, did your bit and then off home in the afternoon. We spent no time in the classroom, none at all. How can you expect to learn?
"I was interested in other sports and early in my coaching career I discovered, in American football, there are books on moves and plays. Diagrams, information that the Superbowl-winning players had to learn, remember and apply in pressure situations. In this country, we struggle to get players to remember six set-pieces.
"As an English football manager, you are trying to emulate the very best, so you look at their success and try to be better. How can you be better? Maybe by looking elsewhere, looking outside. That’s what I do."
Pardew’s methods have galvanised Charlton. "I’ve got a tough call here, but it didn’t stop me coming. Since then, I’ve found a well-run club. Now, my focus is on the first team, but after that, there isn’t much to repair."
There is praise for his players and he reveals: "I’ve tried to change the mindset, to convince them that we can win every game, regardless of the players that we have injured [Darren Bent, Luke Young, Hermann Hreidarsson], regardless of past results."
Even at Manchester United on Saturday? "Even at United." Following their daunting trip to Old Trafford, Charlton will take a break in Spain to prepare for the run-in — and West Ham.
"We’ll be getting down to hard work, but there will also be room to relax. We have some go-karting planned, a table tennis tournament and Matt Holland is preparing a quiz, which we hope isn’t about farming and pigs and cows and whatever he does out in Ipswich.
"We’ve done not bad, but now is the time. This is the start of the recovery. After the United game, we have to kick in and kick on. Also, being away, it gives us the chance to change the training ground.
"There are grey areas in this building and that’s what I am about — eradicating grey areas so that we can give ourselves the best possible chance.
"Cleanliness, responsibility of looking after your patch, staff looking after their areas and making sure they are managed correctly. The restaurant is loose, so we’ll change that.
"I don’t want everyone thinking that I am an interior designer, but you want an environment that you can have some pride in. Players, and I was one of the worst, will take short cuts, will take liberties.
"It’s a natural thing. Life is easy for all of them. They have loads of money, they come in at 10am, then they drift off. So, when they come to work, they are here to be disciplined professionals.
"This is how it is, this is how it works here. It doesn’t work to your rules, it works by our rules. It’s the message you are sending, not just to players, but to all the staff.
"I say to the secretaries, 'Don’t let the players into your area'. "They say that the players want to look at the internet. Now the banter is that they may put up a kiddie gate. Not a bad idea, but the players would go over the gate or open it.
"The girls have to learn to say, 'This is my area'. It’s a small thing, but it’s an example. I’ve never been a disciplinarian. I hated it if I was late for training after an awful journey, genuine incident and bang! Half a week’s money when I hadn’t been late for five months.
"I’ll listen to somebody. If I think they have a legit story, I might not fine them at all. Yeah, all right, I can be a softy."
It’s the second time I’ve visited his new home and, slowly, Pardew is stamping his influence on this club.
His inspirational slogans and messages, including quotes from the players, are on order and will be delivered and hung in time for their return from Spain. A lick of paint is being added to the building, too. Safe to bet that the colour will not be brown.
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Comments
As has been said before- even if we go down, we'll go down with a fight to the end and have a far greater chance of going straight back up.
Bring on the Hamsters!