Former Newcastle United boss Alan Pardew still feels he was a bit hard done by during his spell at St James' Park.
Pardew came in as the successor to the highly-popular Chris Hughton in December 2010, just a few months after Hughton he had led Newcastle to promotion back out of the Championship.
A fifth-place finish in Pardew's first full season in charge only briefly quelled the doubters, with Newcastle finishing 16th and 10th before Pardew was finally dismissed in December 2014.
"I’m convinced Mike Ashley would have given me the money to compete in the Champions League"
Pardew believes things were against him from the very beginning, reflecting to FourFourTwo: "My welcome wasn’t particularly warm.
"Rumours started that Mike Ashley had only appointed me because I’d run up huge gambling debts in his casinos.
"There wasn’t a grain of truth in the stories. Maybe I should have addressed them rather than let them run.
"On day one at training, within five minutes, Joey Barton came up to me and said how much the players had loved Chris Hughton and no-one wanted me there. Charming!
"Fortunately, we started out by beating Liverpool 3-1 and our first goal was something we’d been practising on the training ground the previous day so that helped.
"After the game, Joey piped up, thanking me for that routine I’d introduced. That was a great moment."
However, Pardew acknowledges that he didn't win over everybody on on Tyneside.
Pardew said: "I had a difficult relationship with some of the North East media.
"Two or three had an agenda I couldn’t quite understand and at times, it led to a toxic atmosphere.
"We came desperately close to qualifying for the Champions League only to lose our last game at Everton. We still finished fifth and I was named both LMA and Premier League Manager of the Year that season – the last British boss to win those awards.
"Had we come fourth, I’m convinced Mike would have given me the money to compete in the Champions League."
