Pardew On Ranger: "He's getting better...It's up to him now"
By Tyne-Talk
March 6 2011
When manager Alan Pardew arrived at Newcastle United, his first response was to adopt a zero tolerance policy with young striker Nile Ranger. The 19 year old footballer who is currently lacking the professional capacity, which is evidently frustrating Pardew, has been told to improve his attitude to the day to day aspects of a football career, to enhance his on pitch performance.
In an interview published in the Sunday Sun, Pardew referred to Ranger as a player who is coming along, but needs to take a more proactive approach to his career to gain the respect of senior players.
He said;
“We see him day-in and day-out, and I said from day one he needs to sort himself out as a professional footballer.
He’s always on the cusp of being late – we’ve stopped him from being late but he’s always on the cusp. We’ve only improved him five per cent on that factor.
If we had improved him to 50% and he was here early and preparing himself – and the other players see him preparing himself – and when he trains he’s here on time to warm up and he’s doing the right things, then the other players will start to buy into him.
At the moment the other players are looking at him and thinking ‘You’re a young boy, you need to learn’. And he does. And that is reflected in his game.
He’s had big opportunities for us, but to be fair they are opportunities he’s created for himself. And that is the point – he has got talent. We’ve got to just try and eke it out of him . . . it’s not going to be overnight, but it’s coming. He’s getting better.”
He reflected on his experience and added;
“Of course, it is a little bit more difficult these days – as it would be in my day for a manager coming through in the 40s and 50s. There are your eras and you expect certain things.
But I still have young players here who I haven’t got a problem with who are on time, who are professional and have similar backgrounds to Nile. So I’m not accepting that (as an excuse) – I’m not accepting it from Nile, I’m not accepting it from any young player.
There are certain strategic things at a football club that need to be done. You need to practise on your weaknesses, the senior players need to see that. Then they’ll buy into you, then they’ll ‘have’ you.
The thing that he does is really cause danger in those final few minutes. If I was the opposing manager I would be adding a little PS to the bottom of my report saying ‘That sub has got to be looked after in the last 10-15 minutes if that’s when he appears’.
If only he had worked back onside against Bolton . . . but that is back to my earlier point – one step inside and he would have had the goal. I’m confident that Nile going to be a player.
Whether he’s a Newcastle regular, it’s all down to him. We’re putting it all in front of him – the only excuse he has got is himself."
When asked whether or not Ranger recognises this, Pardew added;
“I think it is. Slowly. It’s on a piece of string, this penny! But Andy Carroll is a perfect example to him of what is there for him.
It’s up to him now.”
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If it were 100 to 1, you'd have been singing "You'll Never Walk Alone"...
Dave/Tunyc. Im with you on the Liverpool thing. Its hard to watch Carroll now pulling on their colours and even harder listening to the little smug scottish cnut. I cant forgive him for the job he did at Newcastle and listening to the press climb up his ar5e about how great and attacking he is really grips my @#$%&.
I would be lying if I wanted carroll to do well as either way he is going to be over 20 mill better off in five years. Its all in his hands though and has the tools and make up to either be a top player or a tool who never really reaches his potential.
Surely it would make more sense to get the likes of Smith or Nolan to be like a mentor to him, put a big brotherly arm around him and try and help him grow up a bit, i often think people forget how young these lads are sometimes, when i was his age i was still living with my parents and they would be making sure i got to work on time etc, i'm not sure if his family have moved up here with him but if not then he's probably living on his own for the first time and missing that parental guidance which the club should be taking on.
My grandma and great grandmother used to take in the young lads who played for Barnsley FC years ago, they would have 4 or 5 boys live with them at a time and would be like a second mam to them, doing their washing cooking proper meals, being there if they needed someone to talk to and making sure they weren't out till all hours of the night, does this still happen or are the lads left to it on their own?
I mean if you give me 30 grand a week when I was young I would have went off the rails, hell I would probably go off the rails now if you paid me it.
But all clubs seem to have this problem we just have to find a way of dealing with it.
I do like the idea of mentoring it can work, but failing that couldn't we just close the door to all the press and give him a slap.