Grant backing Pardew to lift Magpies

03 February 2011 17:00
Peter Grant is backing Alan Pardew to unite Newcastle and help them to recover from the hammer blow of losing star striker Andy Carroll to Liverpool. Grant was number two to Pardew when he was in charge of West Ham and faced a similar scenario when prized asset Jermain Defoe was sold to Tottenham in 2004. But Pardew led the Hammers back to the Premier League the following season, then an FA Cup final in 2006 and signed Carlos Tevez and Yossi Benayoun. Grant, currently first-team coach at Birmingham, is confident Pardew will be able to banish the current doom and gloom among Newcastle fans after Carroll's £35million switch to Anfield. Grant said: "People ask how Alan will galvanise the squad after losing Andy Carroll but I think he will do fantastically well because he is a great man-manager. He will be disappointed (at losing Carroll) but people will say £35million for Andy is a lot of money. "Probably some people forget they were in the Championship not long ago, and £35million is a lot of money, and sometimes you've got to say we need cash and move on. But I am sure Alan will have ideas in his mind of who he would like to replace Andy."

Source: PA