Alan Pardew eyeing return and considering role as technical director

The 57-year-old has been out of management since leaving West Bromwich Albion a year ago

Alan Pardew has declared that he is ready to return to football and is considering becoming a technical director.

The 57-year-old has been out of management since leaving West Bromwich Albion by mutual consent a year ago after a run of 10 games without a win, admitting that he needed a break from the game.

But Pardew is now hopeful of returning in time for pre-season, ideally in the Premier League, although he is open to overseas approaches having already considered a move to China.

However, after two decades in management, Pardew believes he has acquired the skillset to oversee a club’s operations in the capacity of technical director and is keen to take on the role in the future, believing the days where managers could handle the vast majority of matters at a club have long been consigned to the past.

Speaking to The Telegraph, Pardew said: “The technical director’s role is very important – not jus​t on contracts, not just on signing players and seeing through the philosophy but also in taking a bit of weight off the manager.

“Look at the Cowley brothers at Lincoln and think, ‘what a job they’ve done’. If I was a technical director I’d be getting those two, for sure.”