Manager association: Pardew headbutt is unacceptable

Hull City's David Meyler, left, reacts after Newcastle United's manager Alan Pardew, right, delivered a headbutt to him during their English Premier League match at the KC Stadium, Hull, England on March 1, 2014. Newcastle manager Alan Pardew is facing a potentially lengthy touchline ban after the incident that overshadowed Newcastle’s 4-1 victory. Lynne Cameron / AP PhotoShow less

Newcastle United manager Alan Pardew's head-butt on Hull City player David Meyler has been labelled "unacceptable" by England's League Managers' Association (LMA) chief executive Richard Bevan.

The Newcastle manager clashed with Meyler during his side's 4-1 win at the KC Stadium on Saturday.

Pardew was fined £100,000 (Dh615,000) by Newcastle, who stopped short of dismissing the Englishman, who seems certain to face disciplinary action from the England Football Association (FA).

Bevan told the BBC yesterday: “It’s unacceptable, it’s inappropriate and it’s insupportable from every perspective and Alan knows that. He immediately realised the serious error, [made] sincere apologies to all parties and obviously [has] deep regret.

“It was good to see [Hull manager] Steve Bruce’s reaction and Hull accepting [Pardew’s apology].

“But Alan does need to think hard about how not to put himself in that position again.”

Pardew said after the match he would have to “sit down and stay out of the way”, rather than roam his technical area, to avoid getting caught up in similar incidents in future.

“I was pleased to see Newcastle in a very short period of time making a very swift, professional response that provided Alan with a very heavy fine and a formal warning,”said Bevan, who added that the LMA was looking at ways to have managers positioned farther away from the touchline in a bid to prevent future flare-ups.

“We did a technical report six or seven months ago, interviewing 40 referees and 40 managers, and we’re looking at the moment at how the technical area works in America, for example, in other sports and seeing how we can look to improve several problems that occur because of the positioning,” Bevan said.

He accepted that the tight dimensions of some of England’s older football grounds would pose problems, particularly given the need to keep managers and coaching staff away from supporters.

“But what we can do is make a serious effort to look at how the technical area should be placed,” Bevan said.

Former FA executive director David Davies said it was “conceivable” that Pardew could be suspended for the rest of the season, adding the incident was “a very serious matter which I suspect will be dealt with very severely”.

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WENGER NOT WORRIED ABOUT ARSENAL’S TITLE CHANCES

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Long-time leaders Arsenal may have slipped out of the second spot in the Premier League table for the first time since September, but manager Arsene Wenger is remaining calm about his side's title prospects. Saturday's 1-0 loss to Stoke City leaves Arsenal four points adrift of leaders Chelsea with 10 games to go.

Of Arsenal’s chances of winning a first championship since 2004, Wenger, right, said: “I don’t assess them at all, because I think what we have to focus on is our performance, and play well in our next game.”

Wenger tried to take the positives from the Stoke loss, adding: “I think our defensive performance was outstanding.”

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ELSEWHERE

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WEST BROMWICH ALBION

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Nicolas Anelka and the English Football Association will both decide today whether to launch appeals over his five-match ban for making a “quenelle” gesture. Both parties will receive written reasons from the independent regulatory commission that imposed the suspension – the minimum ban for an aggravated offence under the FA’s rules. The West Brom strike, who made the gesture on December 28 after scoring against West Ham United, can appeal against the ban, but the FA is also permitted to appeal to try to have the ban increased. The quenelle salute has anti-Semitic connotations in Anelka’s home country of France, but the commission accepted there was no intent to be anti-Semitic. Under strict liability rules, however, he was found guilty of an aggravated offence. New rules brought in this season mean any racial or discriminatory offence carries a minimum five-match ban, and FA chairman Greg Dyke said the governing body would look to see if these changes had been effective. He said: “This is an evidence-based inquiry and what did Mr Anelka say and what was basis for the decision – we will see that on Monday.”

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CHELSEA

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Andre Schurrle may have taken the plaudits for his hat-trick for the Premier League leaders in their 3-1 win at Fulham on Saturday, but the German international said it is Eden Hazard who really deserves the credit. The Belgian midfielder set up two of Schurrle’s goals at Craven Cottage, and the 23 year old said of his teammate: “Eden is awesome. He is a great player and everybody knows that. When we are on the pitch, he can take on two or three people, we make a run and he sees us.”

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EVERTON

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Steven Naismith said learning to play a waiting game is something Everton still need to improve on, but a return to winning ways against West Ham United proves it is a strategy which works. Substitute Romelu Lukaku returned from a month-long absence to score the only goal, nine minutes from time, and end an afternoon of frustration for Everton. “We need to learn to get better at being patient at home,” said Naismith, the Scottish forward. “It is about controlling the game and not feeling you need to go more direct and we showed that.”

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LIVERPOOL

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Jordan Henderson has played down Liverpool’s Premier League title chances despite moving up to second place in the table on Saturday after winning 3-0 at Southampton. The Merseyside team have won their past four league games to close within four points of leaders Chelsea. “We have just got to keep our feet on the ground,” the midfielder said. “We are very confident, but at the same time, there is a long way to go, so we’ve just got to take each game at it comes. We’ve got some quality players here and are working very well, so we will take each game as it comes and see where we finish.”

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HULL CITY

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Steve Bruce demanded better from his Hull City defence following their 4-1home loss to Newcastle United on Saturday. The Hull manager said: “We’ve made more mistakes today than I’ve remembered us making in six months. Collectively and individually we’ve made just basic, bad schoolboy errors. We’ve gifted them three goals in my opinion.”

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