Alan Pardew sets the record straight as he opens up on his Dutch adventure so

Alan Pardew could only sit and wait for the phone call. There was nothing else to do as the fate of ADO Den Haag’s season was debated and then fixed in a series of video conference calls involving the Dutch football authorities.

When it came, on Friday, the axe had fallen in his favour. Den Haag were spared the ignominy of dropping out of Eredivisie despite being adrift of safety as the league was ruled null and void — ending without promotion or relegation and without a champion.

There was no sense of celebration. ‘We’re not partying about it,’ said Pardew as he reflected from his home in Surrey on an emotional spell in Holland which started with a win in January and featured a training session interrupted by irate fans.

Alan Pardew says he is ‘not celebrating’ ADO Den Haag’s survival in the Eredivisie

‘The decision was great for us, and we’ve now got to react to it. It’s difficult for me to say whether I think it was right or wrong.’

No athlete wants a sporting contest to be decided in a meeting room, he was keen to stress, and nor was he certain the Dutch solution could be considered as a precedent for football in England.

‘The TV rights situation is much more problematic in the Premier League,’ said 58-year-old Pardew, manager of seven different English clubs since he started out at Reading in 1999. ‘If you bring in the same model you will end up with huge court cases.

‘There might yet be some in Holland because promotion is important and it’s all relevant with the salaries.

‘From the managers, chairmen and chief executives I’ve spoken to in the Premier League, it seems they are determined to finish the season, subject to that being allowed by the Government. Some think it will definitely be finished and that it’s more important than starting next season, because the financial implications are probably too big to contemplate. They will go to the very last moment to try to retrieve it.’

The Dutch football season was declared void on Friday with ADO Den Haag seven points adrift

One of Pardew’s training sessions in February was interrupted by angry supporters 

Even if English football gets the green light from Government to complete the campaign behind closed doors, the Dutch identified two key problems.

‘One is the strategic medical side,’ said Pardew. ‘Coming back at a time when coronavirus is still in society, what if someone catches it within a team structure? What happens if the whole team have to stay away for 14 days?

‘And the other real problem which kept surfacing in Holland was the significance of June 30.

‘What happens to all the players who have contracts ending on June 30? Some might have moves already arranged. Are they going to put themselves at risk? Are they in the team? Or they might feel they’re not needed.

‘Are a few players going to leave? Are you going to renegotiate with some but not others? Are the chairmen going to say, “You’re not using him so I won’t renegotiate with him”? Are players going to accept…