With Newcastle United’s 2-0 win over Liverpool on Sunday having all but secured a top-six finish for the Magpies, Alan Pardew – whom lest we forget no-one could quite believe had been appointed to replace Chris Hughton in December 2010 – is being talked about as being a strong candidate for Manager of the Year.

In other words, Pardew is quite entitled to permit himself a hearty “Sssssshhhhhh!” in pretty much everyone bar Mike Ashley’s direction at this moment in time.

Let’s see how it all squares up on Football Burp’s patented Sssssshhhhhh-o-Meter…

What the St James’s Park faithful were saying when he was appointed…

“Er…what?”

What everyone else was saying…

“Haha, look at this.”

What the Toon Army are saying now…

newcastlenumber1isback, NUFC-Forum.com…

“Pardew has done a great job, we’d all be lying if we said we exspected this. But it looks like hes found the right club for him, where hes matured as a manager and the setup suits him.”

patto1992, NUFC-Forum.com…

“Who could have predicted we would be sixth at this stage of the season. It is remarkable and Pards deserves a lot of credit for that. He has given players a chance eg Ba and Cisse and they have worked out for him.”

Tillsworth, NUFC-Forum.com…

” I know Pardew gets a lot of stick when we lose and play rubbish football (and rightfully so) but I do believe he genuinely wants this club to do well. I’ve heard he’s a stats man and will take a lot of time preparing and analysing each game. He seems to talk very well in public, comes across as calm and intelligent and there’s never any drama with him. After some of the managers we’ve had, that’s the kind of guy I want managing this football team. He’s got quite a long deal from the sounds of things, and seems like someone who can bring stability to the club. He also sounds like he values effort and commitment, which is good. We’ve had too many ‘big name’ players come to this club and rely on their reputation.”

David Kelly, Toontastic.net…

“I was very critical about Pardew a few weeks ago after dropping points against the scum and Wolves at home when he started the games too negatively with Ben Arfa on the bench. But fair play to him hes not been afraid to change things round and its paying off. Like others have said, he’s getting some very good performances from some very average players but more importantly he seems to have played a blinder with Ben Arfa. I still think he could have made better use of him earlier (the Swansea game immediately springs to mind) but what he has done is something that we’ve failed at a few times in the past and that’s getting a player who’s came here from another league who wasn’t immediately suited, and got him playing well and fitting in with our style. That can only be a positive thing for the future.”

mrmojorisin75, Newcastle-Online.org…

“fair play to pards, questions were being asked and he’s answering the fuckers. what did people think of the obvious tactical decision to run the game down the left in the second half? i found it interesting, presumably the intention was to compress the play down there with their RB on a yellow and then switch to hba in plently of space…while the switching wasn’t as frequent as you’d expect it did result in a goal one of the few times they moved it over to him. assuming that was a very conscious tactical move it was pretty astute.”

OmegaprimeVKM, NUFC-Forum.com…

“I think Pardew is the way forward, I am not sure we can expect the team to replicate their achievements this season consistently, and if I had my way I would probably want him encouraging a more attractive style of passing play (every loss this season can be blamed on wasteful possession and poor ‘grinding/breaking play’ tactics), but the results are coming in at the moment so until that changes you can’t really complain too much.”

Lake Bells tits, Toontastic.net…

“I was very critical of pardew during the hoof wars early 2012, he seems to have rectified this – well done on him.
We have seen glimpses earlier whenever Ben Arfa had cameos though, we instantly start to play better fotball.
I still think we should have played ben arfa every week ( even if just for 1 half) from september/october on, and noone will convince me otherwise. Its criminal to have him warm the bench.”

rogerbarton, Toontastic.net…

“I still don’t understand what was going through his mind a few weeks ago with the hoofball, even when we had all these players back at our disposal vs. Wolves (what an appalling result that seems in hindsight) and first half vs mackems, but clearly Ben Arfa’s introduction in that game showed up how much better we are with the ball on the floor and he seems to have found something that really works.”

Dontooner, Newcastle-Online.org…

“Just watch the game on replay, great game, credit due to Pardew where the flair players are doing 10 times better. Well much of its recent improvements was Ben Arfa being introduce into to the team, there seems to be a game plan now when on the counter and Cabaye being used to great effect during yesterdays game. A tad unfortunate for Guthrie with the injury i thought he and tiote pass the ball very well in the middle of the park. It seems this 4-3-3 with will work out very well, if this is the Brand of football Pardew is envisioning credit to him, he is much better than i thought but he has to continue to allow positive football. We have good players and they are great with the ball at thier feet , let them play and dont be afraid.”

What everyone else is saying now…

“Well, f**k my old boots.”

Sssssshhhhhh-o-Meter rating…

93%