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.