Ashton...

I think Pardew has a fair point that Ashton was carrying too much bulk, and to take him to the next level he needed to lose it. However, to blame the club or the manager is very wide of the mark. Clearly, in Worthy's position, after relegation were we really in any position to tell Deano to lose weight and get fitter? If he doesn't take kindly to it he asks to leave and we don't get to keep him til' January as it turned out.

Yes Pardew is right, Dean is better for losing weight, but he is very wrong to level this at the club. The player and the situation are the key factors here, when a player WANTS to get fitter, when a player WANTS to work on various aspects of their game, then they can e.g. Dickson - quite clearly Dean did not prioritise it, he saw himself as a big fish, now he's found his level he is under great pressures to meet the new demands.

Posted By: vstevenson, Aug 12, 17:38:50