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.