Alan Pardew discusses West Brom players’ infamous taxi incident

“Obviously, the players really let themselves down”

Alan Pardew has reflected on the final weeks of his spell as West Brom manager and the damaging effect the incident involving some of the club’s players and a taxi had on the club’s season.

Pardew and his players had taken part in a midseason training camp in Barcelona in the February, where some of the squad members allegedly stole a taxi.

West Brom had beaten Brighton shortly before the trip – their first league win since August – and followed it with a shock FA Cup win over Liverpool at Anfield. Although already very much in a relegation battle at that point, Pardew told Ben Shephard and Chris Kamara on Sky Sports’ Goals On Sunday that he believed the incident in Spain indirectly killed any momentum these results had given his team.

“Prior to that trip, we had a fantastic result. We beat Brighton in the league, we went to Liverpool in the cup and beat them with their strongest team.

“After the Liverpool game, I thought we had it. We there or thereabouts and were going to make  it really tight for everyone else.

“But the Barcelona things was a terrible incident. The players obviously let themselves down and let the club down and let me down and from that moment forward we never really got results that banished that thought.

“We had just got some momentum and we lost it with that incident. The senior players involved were a big, core part of my team.”

Asked if he had not been able to drop the players involved, Pardew responded: “That was probably a decision that some of the players in the group thought I should have [made];  some probably thought I shouldn’t have.

“It was a decision that me and my staff talked long and hard into the night about what we were going to do in that situation.

“Obviously, we didn’t call it right because otherwise we would have had a better reflection than we do now.”

https://twitter.com/GoalsOnSunday/status/1053956686694756357

Pardew was sacked weeks before the season ended, when West Brom’s relegation was al but mathematically confirmed.