Newcastle rejected the future Premier League and Champions League winner because he “wasn't good enough”

Alan Pardew remembers being denied the chance to sign a future Premier League and Champions League winner while he was Newcastle manager.

Pardew was designated as the new Newcastle manager in December 2010 as replacement for Chris Hughton.

He moved to Tyneside after a spell in League One with Southampton, who had the promising Adam Lallana within their ranks.

The attacking midfielder, then 21 years old, scored 15 league goals in the 2009/10 season and netted a further five in all competitions.

Unsurprisingly, Pardew was impressed and was eager to join him in Newcastle, but the Magpies did not allow the move to happen.

Speaking on talkSPORT, he commented on the importance of clubs “headhunting” the “best” players from the lower divisions when promoted to the Premier League.

“When you have this new technical development team, suddenly they go and find all these statistics from a guy who is in Belgium, who actually just got 32 assists and 18 goals,” he said.

“They say, 'Oh, he's got to be better than that guy from Preston.' And you say, 'Hmm, by the way, I'm not so sure about that.' I'll give you an example of exactly what happened in Newcastle. When I got to Newcastle , I just got by in Southampton.

“They said, 'What do you think?' I said: 'I want Adam Lallana here now, get Adam Lallana here now.' The team they had there, the scouting team at the time, said to me: 'He's not good enough for Newcastle.'

“'He may be good enough for Southampton, but not good enough for this football club'. So there's some kind of example and we didn't take it! I mean, he was in his prime… Can you imagine if would we have taken it?

“And they said that based on what?” asked presenter Jim White, and Pardew replied: “They based it on the fact that I was going to the Premier League and he was two divisions below.

“My argument, and this is a little lesson for all managers, is that if you have really worked with the player, you know. And I had been in the Premier League, so I knew his quality.

5

5

5

“(Yossi) Benayoun, Teddy Sheringham, (Carlos) Tevez, I knew what it takes to be a Premier League player. So to put that down to myself, I was a little bit like, 'Ooh, really? Is that okay?' “.

Pardew was then asked about his response to the rejection and said: “Not very well actually, not very well at all.

“And I kept pushing him, and I pushed him too for the next window, he was still there.”

Lallana left Southampton in 2014, four years after Pardew's departure, and signed for Liverpool.

He scored 22 goals and assisted a further 22 in 178 appearances in all competitions for the Reds, racking up a host of trophies.

During his six years at Anfield, Lallana won the Premier League, Champions League, UEFA Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup.

Brighton signed him on a free transfer in 2020 before returning to Southampton in June, making six appearances so far this season.

5