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Although against the odds he led us to the play-offs last season, upon his return the 43-year-old will face a wall of abuse for the circumstances in which he walked out on the Royals.
For Pardew, Reading’s most successful manager in recent times, shunned the club; the club that gave him his first chance in management in order to take the reigns at Upton Park as valiant chairman John Madejski attempted to cling on to his exit-hungry manager.
Although it is now ten years since Mark McGhee walked out on the Royals in a similar manner and in similar circumstances Reading fans still hurl abuse at the original Judas every time he visits the Madejski Stadium.
Pardew can expect the same but worse next Saturday, a sell-out Mad Stad crowd will be heckling and jeering their former favourite. Unsurprisingly, the ex-Reading boss is not looking forward to the game.
Speaking after the Hammers last-minute win over Gillingham yesterday, Pards said: "It's not going to be a comfortable afternoon for me personally but the focus should be on the team. We'll deal with the pressure next week in the same way as we have done today."
However, the former Royal is relying on his Hammers side to deliver a better performance on their travels than they have managed of late. West Ham’s 2-0 away defeat at Sunderland two weeks ago was disappointing, but no where near as their humiliating 4-1 thumping at the hands of Millwall last weekend.
Hammers fans have suffered a lot of pain following that atrocious result, so Pardew will be doing his utmost to avoid another away defeat.
"In our last two away games we've not been as good as we could have been. We’ve had a terrible week (following the 4-1 defeat at Millwall). Not just the players and management but everyone who works for West Ham. We've had to endure the ridicule, and so have the fans," added Pards.
A late Matthew Etherington goal yesterday gave West Ham a 2-1 victory over Gillingham at Upton Park. Although the win was hardly comprehensive in manner it was perhaps the perfect warm-up for next weekend’s ‘cup final’ encounter at the Madejski Stadium.
Yesterday the Hammers merely wanted a victory of some description following their hilarious 4-1 hammering at the Lion’s Den last weekend. Pardew was clearly pleased with the result.
"Today we've restored some of our self-belief," he said.
"The crowd would have had question marks after last week. Have we got character? Can we dig deep? I think we answered some of those questions today but we ain’t answered them fully because there's seven games left and we need to make sure we win them all."
Following Reading's win at Coventry yesterday, the West Ham game takes on added importance as the result could have a major say in where the Royals and the Hammers finally end up in the Division One table. The Hammers are currently fourth on sixty-three points, whilst Reading lie ninth but are only three points behind Pardew's side.