Perspective: Pearce - March 2005-May 2007

[Corky]

The Pearce days... hmmm.... we lost at Spuds then did okay at Charlton considering we hardly threatened their net...

It might have been easy for a young manager to get carried away by the quality of City's first-half performance, but Pearce quietly resisted.

On being informed that Charlton's manager Alan Curbishley had said the visitors "played like Brazil first half" and "were just fantastic", the former England full-back just shrugged. "Let's hope we don't play like Albania next week, eh?"

We should have had 5 at Charlton like we did the year after.

 

[bluefromleve32]

pearce was, and still is one of the worst managers in football. one season we didnt score at home from 1st jan until the end of the season. when he did get some money he didnt have the football knowledge, contacts or scouting set up to spot a decent player and bought samaras and corradi.

this is also the same "hard man" who brought a fucking stuffed horse for luck making us more of a laughing stock than ever before


pearce is a **** of the highest order and he's now been found out........the first thing hodgeson did was fucked him off

i hate the twat with a passion!!!

 

[Seosa]

That's another thing, as noted by 'bluefromleve32'. Pearce was known for his passion and aggression during his playing days, so why was he such a woman as a manager? The same applies to his players, there was no passion whatsoever.

 

[jimharri]

Grim, grim times. Watching City at that time was like listening to the tuneless offspring of Leonard Cohen and Morrissey. It's hard to believe it's only 5 years ago; it seems like a different era altogether to what we're watching now. And that fucking soft toy!

 

[baildon blue]

In perspective you make a good point about pearce.I dont think mansoor would have bought city if pearce hadnt kept premier league.But the football was still crap!!!!!!!!

 

[Mr Partridge]

pearce was, and still is one of the worst managers in football. one season we didnt score at home from 1st jan until the end of the season. when he did get some money he didnt have the football knowledge, contacts or scouting set up to spot a decent player and bought samaras and corradi.

this is also the same "hard man" who brought a fucking stuffed horse for luck making us more of a laughing stock than ever before


pearce is a **** of the highest order and he's now been found out........the first thing hodgeson did was fucked him off

i hate the twat with a passion!!!

You hate him with a passion for not being Mourinho, Mancini or Guardiola?

I don't like criticising other people's posts on here but that is way over the top. Yes Pearce is a poor manager and I personally wish he'd accept that fact and stop kidding himself, but it's not in his nature to give up. He's a grafter, a passionate man with football running through his veins and a never say die attitude who will do anything to succeed. He showed all of those qualities while he was at City. He gave it all for this club but it wasn't meant to be. I just find it difficult that someone who worked hard for the club and tried his best should be called a "twat" and a "**** of the highest order" clearly we are very spoilt with the success we have now.

Yes he made mistakes, bought crap players, played dreadful football, made shocking team selections and used a toy horse given to him by his daughter(who is probably in her teens by now, think how embarrassed she is when she looks back at that!) to give him luck, but on the budget we had back then and the team left behind by Keegan, the most we could have hoped for that season was to stay in the Prem and he did just that. A more adventurous manager than Pearce could well have taken us down that year and I reckon a good few would have done with the players we had.

At the end of the day if I was given a chance to manage City I'd be total shite as well, but I wouldn't turn it down and I'd give it my all just like Pearce did. He just wasn't cut out for management, and if that makes him a twat in your eyes then I guess that says a lot about you.

 

[silverblue]

I just remember the long diagonal ball to Trevor Sinclair's head on the right wing. hoping to win a throw-in near the corner flag.
Plan B was a long diagonal ball to Ishmael Miller's head on the left wing.

Lots of 0-0 draw's on a Monday night in the pouring rain and refusing to criticise the referee, even when he had every justification. Noble when it's another team, but infuriating when you've just been cheated at Doncaster.

Fucking hell thats brought back some memories lol

Didn't we beat Arsenal 1 - 0 doing that diagonal to Sinclair with a ropey penalty? Terry Henry with a shocker of a game.

The first match I took my lad to. He set us up defensively ok. We just couldn't score from open play, for 2 years solid.

Pearce did his honest best and genuinely cared. The football was mind-numbing to watch but he DID keep us up in difficult times and we wouldn't be where we are now without that, as the OP says, spot on. Who knows what might have happened with anyone else who might have taken that job, with those resources and problems to face, back then? So I could never dislike the man and would give him a cheer if he came back with a visiting team or whatever.

 

[GSW Blue]

Still not forgiven the penalty miss in his last game when I (and what seemed like half of MR) had money on him to score any goal at 12-1. He couldn't even hit the target and it was Dave Beasant in nets. Dave fuckin Beasant!!!!

 

[Oystercatcher28]

The Pearce days... hmmm.... we lost at Spuds then did okay at Charlton considering we hardly threatened their net...

It might have been easy for a young manager to get carried away by the quality of City's first-half performance, but Pearce quietly resisted.

On being informed that Charlton's manager Alan Curbishley had said the visitors "played like Brazil first half" and "were just fantastic", the former England full-back just shrugged. "Let's hope we don't play like Albania next week, eh?"

We should have had 5 at Charlton like we did the year after.

Okay, irony does not carry in text. Sorry for the lack of clarity.

Pearce lacked bite as a manager, Royston Keane hardly did well, Andy Morrison is assistant manager at Airbus UK FC - I think it takes shrewdness of the highest order and absolute faith in what is around your club. Perhaps Pearce wasn't supported fully by the backroom staff and board? I'd imagine he lost a few players along the way. His first season signings legged it sharpish.

You can't blame a footballer who had a fantastic career (not perfect but he knuckled down) from wanting to remain in the game. It beats going off to the USA and selling phones/pretending to be an Olympic torch bearer.

Pearce kept us up, simple as. The likes of Norwich, Wigan etc have the same task at hand now - being up means future investment and off the field improvements. One relegation and you're out of the shop window and into the unknown.

Open play against any other team in the top half of the league, we would have been lambs to the slaughter, we were so far behind the elite clubs.

 

[blueonblue]

Pearce kept us up, simple as. The likes of Norwich, Wigan etc have the same task at hand now - being up means future investment and off the field improvements. One relegation and you're out of the shop window and into the unknown.

Open play against any other team in the top half of the league, we would have been lambs to the slaughter, we were so far behind the elite clubs.


That in a nut shell is a good summing up of how SP should be remembered, for me he did wonders with what he had to work with, he brought Joe Hart to the club for what must be the bargain price of the century lets not forget, and was influential in straightening Dunnie out when it looked like he was determined to f*ck his carer up.