Stuart Pearce

[Keeper!]

Pearce, Reid and Neal, embarrassing figure heads of the club, FFS what a shambles we were back in those dark days.

 

[Kinkladze 1]

 

[colesy]

That just shows he’s a cnut, and great how most of the current day ex City players, have such an affinity for the club.

 

[youngbob]

Definitely the worst manager we've had in my lifetime. Boring, turgid, uninspired, negative football. The David James incident came during a high point at the start of his tenure but was probably a sign of things to come.

But with full hindsight and 15 years to think on his time here, I think he'd be remembered much more fondly if Andy Cole hadn't gotten injured during that 05/06 season and thrown a wobbly. It all went wrong after that point.

We were 7th over Christmas 2005 and even by February we were still in the fight for Europe (7 points off the top four). Cole was on to finish the season with 15 goals, Vassell not far behind - they had that cracking partnership.

But then Cole got injured and went to Portsmouth, Barton put in that transfer request and had a tantrum, and Samaras, the Great Greasy Hope, was garbage. We collapsed to 14th and Pearce never turned things around.

That 06/07 season, terrible as it felt, was probably just about the best Pearce could get out of those players. The squad was old, save for a few youngsters, and largely comprised of Championship-quality players.

The only quality we had in the team was at the back. Richards, Dunne, Distin. We (famously) didn't score many goals but we didn't concede many either and had the second best defence in the bottom half (only Villa conceded fewer).

Pearce played football that would drive anyone insane with boredom. It was definitely the worst time I've ever had following City. A huge malaise set in across the fanbase. Home attendances were as low as 30,000 sometimes.

But as others have pointed out, he didn't get us relegated when we easily could have been. John Wardle had to put £2m of his own money into the club to stop us from going under. The squad was really badly stretched.

Pearce delivered the absolute bare minimum. He didn't help himself with the David James substitution, Beanie the Horse, taking the England U21 job while still at City. But at least there was enough for Sven to work with.

 

[Stephen230]

He was a poor manager - nobody could dispute that, but most of the antipathy towards him is caused by his attitude towards the club since he left.

If Joe Royle was the manager when you started supporting City - which will likely be the case for those aged 25-35 then Pearce will have been the worst manager you've seen at City.

Well you could argue that he was better than the only manager to ever take us into division 3 and also relegated in his one and only season in the Premier League but that’s not necessarily my opinion.

 

[bobbyowenquiff]

Off the field Pearce seemed okay. On it as a player he would give it all. In the dugout, at best a number 2. Those seasons weren't the worst or the best. A caretaker after Keegan was needed. It always felt like Pearce would be gone the next day. That the club could have been viewed by overseas bidders at any stage during Pearce, would surely have ended any interest. I guess the website and media machine at City was better than the rest. Pearce's football was relegation fodder.

I knew one lad who missed the game when we scored 3 that season, against Fulham. Only 30% of our home league goals. Seemed like Match of The Day were showing us last every game weekend too.

Also, under Pearce our squad wouldn't make the current crop of the EDS. Although the reserves were closer to the first team than ever before.

Pearce wasn't our worst manager but his team played the worst football to watch. We have had some truly dreadful teams over the years but they were not negative and boring like the Pearce era.

 

[Fordyboy46]

Looks absolutely mortified, you would never have guessed he played and managed us. I remember Cheesy bumped into him for one of his matchday blogs a couple of seasons ago, and I thought he came across as a right knob, he really didn't want to speak to cheesy full stop. ****!

 

[City Mike 1969]

Well you could argue that he was better than the only manager to ever take us into division 3 and also relegated in his one and only season in the Premier League but that’s not necessarily my opinion.

the fact that you reference Royle as worse on the grounds that he was 'the only manager to ever take us into division 3' - without also referencing that he took over as manager at the culmination of 30 years of boardroom madness, inherited a playing squad consisting of over 60 players and was in fact manager for less than half the league games played in that relegation season - shows exactly how much context you're prepared to add.

I get that you liked it when we had a manager that abdicated his tactical responsibilities to a cuddly toy, but quite a lot of people didn't enjoy it one bit.

 

[Stephen230]

the fact that you reference Royle as worse on the grounds that he was 'the only manager to ever take us into division 3' - without also referencing that he took over as manager at the culmination of 30 years of boardroom madness, inherited a playing squad consisting of over 60 players and was in fact manager for less than half the league games played in that relegation season - shows exactly how much context you're prepared to add.

I get that you liked it when we had a manager that abdicated his tactical responsibilities to a cuddly toy, but quite a lot of people didn't enjoy it one bit.

I quite clearly said it wasn’t necessarily my opinion but a valid argument. And I didn’t offer any opinion at all on how much I liked it under Pearce.

Of course there’s a whole bunch of reasons why a team with City’s resources ends up in division 3. But to totally absolve the bloke who took us there is as lacking in context just as much as anybody blaming it all on him.

 

[City Mike 1969]

My bad... I didn't realise I was conversing with Pontius Pilot.