Despite the fact Im not looking at Alan Pardew through rose tinted spectacles, I do firmly believe he should stay at the club. 

In recent months many people on this site have taken various comments I have made regarding performances and tactics as criticism of Alan Pardew, in a way they are right, but it is always constructive criticism rather than blind loyalty, because as we all know, in football often those who back a player or manager in that situation are often those that easily turn against him when things go wrong.

Of course we all feel very lucky to have a club this season, however given the circumstances of the new owner, we also have to accept that we are in a different ball game than we have ever been in, both in terms of league position and the money available to spend.

Of course there are extenuating circumstances as to why we havent made the play offs, but to be frank they are excuses and not unsurmountable reasons, Leeds for example overcame a 15 point loss to make the play offs, and Norwich this season have been in more disarray than us at the start of the season, Alan Pardew at least had the luxury of a pre season no matter how short, whereas Paul Lambert was thrown straight into the fray with a team that was demoralised after an opening day 7-1 home defeat. Lambert also did not have the advantage of being able to spend millions of bringing in the top players in the division.

To be frank football clubs are different in stature and resources, take this season in the Premier for example, for half of the division finishing fith and a Europa League spot would be seen as success, but for Man City it is a disaster, they have spent big to get in the top four and have failed and parallels can be drawn with Saints.

That is why Nicola Cortese is reportably unhappy with his manager, he will feel that Pardew was given the tools for the job and certainly the money, a realistic target for the Club was a top six position, we were within 7 points of that in December and we are now farther away from it than then despite a big spend in January, Cortese will cite that and say pardew has not delivered and he has a point.

Out of 92 League clubs some will succeed and most will fail in a season, we should be disapointed for failing to make the play offs, we should have done it end of, if we had still had mark Wotte in charge and say Leon Crouch as Chairman and resources were limited then 7th would be seen as success, but that is not the position.    

However that does not mean that Pardew should be sacked straight away for failing to make the play offs, as I said in football nothing is guaranteed, Liverpool spent all the money had the big name manager etc, but lost in the Europa League semi finals, Fulham did not, football is not a game that goes to plan.

So we have to recognise our failings and look to next season and make sure that they dont happen again, Alan Pardew has succeeded at Saints in many areas and he now has to be given the chance to continue to progress and hopefully take us up at the second attempt, but and its a big BUT, the supporters have to be as patient with him as they were this season, if he makes a bad start, that doesnt make him a worse manager, he has to be given a reasonable time to prove that he has learnt from this season and isnt repeating the mistakes made, this is coming back to blind loyalty again, many fans seem to be giving him leeway because of the ten poit deduction and whats seen as lack of time to build the squad at the start, if he doesnt win in the first three games then those same fans will turn quickly and that wont help us, over a season things even themselves out over a long time, and as Norwich proved, bad starts mean little and both Charlton & Leeds realise that good starts dont guarantee anything either.

What Saints need now is continuity, Pardew needs the backing of the Chairman, who now has to show the fans that firstly, he recognises that building anything takes time and foundations need to be laid and secondly that he is in tune with the supporters. Of course supporters demands can often make or break a team, as we saw last year when Jan Poortvliet was destroyed by the crowd from the start purely for being seen as the puppet of Rupert Lowe, even after making a better start than Alan Pardew did in his first ten games, there are lessons to be learnt there as well.

So if this club is to be united, lets look at our season, learn from our mistakes and then get behind the manager for next season, but the backing Pardew will get, both financially and otherwise cannot be done from internet keyboards, Cortese will want to see a big season ticket renewal take up so that he can set a good transfer budget for the summer and the big crowds at St Mary's, after all if we want Markus Liebherr to keep putting his hand in his pocket, then we supporters have to do likewise by buying tickets.                

Photo: Action Images

Queens Park Rangers Polls