One Of The Best Sports Manager Interviews You Will Ever See

... can be found here.

Alan Pardew of Newcastle is the EPL's second-longest serving manager right now. The league, like most sports leagues, devours managers at a tremendous rate and probably much faster than most. Alan's been at Newcastle for almost three years. Contrast that with the second-longest serving NFL head coach, the Bengals' Marvin Lewis who's been around for 10 years.

Howay the lads!

I've always liked Alan and until today when I watched that video, it was just a feeling I had that the guy was cool under fire. In the interview linked above, Alan gently criticizes the fans, the owner and the team's general manager. The criticisms aren't done to throw anyone under the bus or make excuses, he's just being himself and being honest. He's so comfortable with who he is that he's able to go on local TV and say what's on his mind. Anyone who can openly say that the owner is sometimes confused by the way the game works has tremendous self-confidence.

Unlike someone untouchable like Bill Belichick of the New England Patriots, Alan has been rumored on British sports talk radio as one of the likely early firings for the season. Despite that, he tells you exactly what he thinks. Certainly not everything he's thinking, but what he does say is done fearlessly and calmly.

If you're a sports fan, the interview is worth at least a few minutes of your time even if you don't watch the whole thing.

Newcastle United Tidbit Probably Only Of Interest To Me: After watching that interview, I now understand why he has the team play such an aggressive style of football, one that has frequently cost them games.

H/T: Ed Harrison at The Newcastle United Blog. Ed is the single most prolific single-topic blogger I've ever seen.