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ALAN PARDEW’S job is on the line after four senior West Brom stars allegedly stole a taxi in Barcelona.

Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill are accused of nicking the cab and leaving the driver at a McDonald’s drive-thru at 5.30am on Thursday.

Defeat by Southampton in the FA Cup today could spell the end for rock-bottom Baggies boss Pards.

He said: “They broke a curfew and that’s unacceptable. I feel letdown by that. It wasn’t what I wanted.”

Spanish cops are investigating the incident and Pards — who saw chairman John Williams and chief executive Martin Goodman sacked by the club’s Chinese owners — admitted his job is under threat.

Pardewadded:“When your chairman and financial director have been moved on, you can’t be certain of your job.

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“We went there to get ourselves up for the run-in.

“It’s been a tough week. In hindsight, maybe I’d have stayed in England.”

In their joint statement, veteran stars Barry, Livermore, Evans and Myhill apologised “to our team-mates, the Head Coach, the Club and especially the supporters for the events which have been the subject of widespread and negative publicity”.

When he flew to Catalonia on Tuesday, Pardew probably thought things could not get much worse.

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After all, he was in charge of a rock-bottom West Brom side which has won just once in 13 Premier League games since he took over — and is seven points from safety.

Even in the hours before taking off, Pardew was having to get round the hamstring injury that saw loan star Daniel Sturridge hobble off after just three minutes of their 3-0 defeat at Chelsea.

But for Pardew, the week of hell was only beginning.

First, he lost the two men who appointed him — with owner Guochuan Lai sacking chairman John Williams and chief executive Martin Goodman.

Later that day, Pardew’s phone was stolen as he sat eating in a restaurant.

By the time he arrived back in the West Midlands yesterday, he seemed to have lost his remaining authority within the squad.

Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill had all ignored his curfew during warm-weather training in Barcelona. And they ended up being accused of stealing a taxi and driving it back to their city-centre hotel at 5.30am.

If his shamed players cannot dig out a win for him over Southampton in the FA Cup today, bookies will expect to make a payout on Pardew being the next boss axed.

Pards looked like a man who had gone through the wringer as he faced up to four days of chaos at West Brom’s Palm Training Ground in Walsall.

Claiming he had been “let down” by his players is unlikely to wash with Lai, who may be starting to feel enough is enough — both on and off the pitch.

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Pardew conceded: “You can’t get away from it being on your watch if you’re the manager of a football club.

“If something happens at your football club and you’re making the calls in terms of where we should be and where we shouldn’t be, it’s on you.

“In hindsight, after the incident, would I have gone? No. But before, if I knew there was not going to be an incident, would have I gone? Yes I would.

“We needed to go away and get ourselves right for the run-in. I have done that many times to good effect. This time it hasn’t worked out.”

The Albion fans may view that as the mother of all understatements.

Evans, Barry, Livermore and Myhill — with 238 games for Baggies and 146 international caps between them — pledged to “co-operate fully” with an internal inquiry launched by the club yesterday. They added: “In the meantime, we would like to assure our supporters this incident does not reflect the determination and resolve we possess to do all we can to recover a difficult season.”

That was another gross underest­imation of the state the Baggies find themselves in.

Asked if the club was in crisis, Pardew replied: “We’re bottom of the league so I don’t care what word you want to use.

“But that’s where we are — we’ve got to face that and deal with it.

“The facts in terms of the curfew for me, that is hard.

“I didn’t want anybody to break a curfew. I don’t usually set too many curfews and I’ve had many, many trips as you can imagine — mid-season, pre-season, end of season — with football teams.

“So I do know how to handle players in terms of their conduct.

“The curfew was 12 o’clock because it was a Champions League night.

“It was a sort of, ‘Go into the city, enjoy a restaurant and watch the game’.

IDENTIFIED West Brom stars Jonny Evans, Gareth Barry, Jake Livermore and Boaz Myhill named as players who allegedly stole taxi in Barcelona

“Burnley are away, Everton are away, Liverpool are away.

“We tried to get somewhere where there was a scenario in a city where we could get good training and come together. Unfortunately, this incident has hampered that.

“I’ve never had an incident before, so yeah, I’m a bit disappointed.”

It all sounded like a manager who fears the worst and clearly knows his players — the four in hot water are available for selection today — owe him.

But Pardew added: “I’m an experienced manager and I’m going to try to use my experience to get us out of this situation.

“We have to respond with a performance. After the events of the last few days, any win is important.

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