I guess I shouldn't have used Pearce as an example. But I figured if I used an example from my own professional life, I'd be accused of offending some other Bluemoon sensibility, so I thought I'd stick to football...
Okay, here's a much less inflammatory example. Paul Weller has the reputation for being a surly, arrogant, difficult customer. His relationship with the media has always been one of mutual distrust. He is without question one of the nicest, humblest, and generally coolest men I've ever had the pleasure of spending time with. On the flipside, musician X, who is seen as the bloke everyone would want to go and have a pint with. A top block who the media loves, and he loves them, and it's all one big loving fuckfest. Turns out, soon as the cameras are turned off, and no-one is listening, he's the most arrogant, difficult, surly, self obsessed human being you could ever have the dubious pleasure of being stuck with...like I said, public persona, and private persona. Two very different things.