Alan Scott Pardew (born 18 July 1961) is an English football manager and former professional footballer, who most recently managed Greek Super League club Aris Thessaloniki. Pardew's highest achievements in the sport include reaching the FA Cup Final three times: as a player with Crystal Palace in 1990 and as a manager with West Ham United in 2006 and in 2016 when his Crystal Palace side lost to Manchester United. He has also achieved promotion three times in his career, as a player with Palace and as a manager with Reading and West Ham. He managed Newcastle United from 2010 to 2014. As manager of Newcastle, Pardew won both the Premier League Manager of the Season and the LMA Manager of the Year awards for the 2011–12 season after guiding the Magpies to European football for the first time since the club's return to the Premier League. He later managed Crystal Palace, West Bromwich Albion and ADO Den Haag, as well as working as a Sky Sports pundit for the 2017–18 Premier League season. Playing career Early career Pardew was born in Wimbledon, London. He started his career as a part-time player in non-League football at Whyteleafe and Epsom & Ewell, while working as a glazier. At one stage he gave up football for six months while working in the Middle East, but he returned to football at Corinthian Casuals before later having spells at Dulwich Hamlet and Yeovil Town. Pardew was also in the England semi-professional squad during this time. Crystal Palace Pardew moved to Second Division club Crystal Palace in 1987 for a fee of £7,500. In 1989, he helped Palace win promotion to the First Division after beating Blackburn Rovers in the play-offs. The following year, in 1990, he scored the winning goal as Palace beat Liverpool 4–3 after extra time in the FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park. He then played in both the final and the final replay as Palace lost to Manchester United. Palace continued to impress in the First Division, and in 1990–91 secured their highest-ever league finish of third, with Pardew also featuring as Palace beat Everton to win the Full Members' Cup at Wembley Stadium. Later career Pardew moved to Charlton Athletic in November 1991, and was Charlton's top scorer in the 1992–93 season with ten goals. In 1995, Pardew appeared four times on loan at Tottenham Hotspur in the 1995