I hated Pearce with a passion.
As a player he was full-throttle and full of passion and to be honest, that was his limit. He wouldn't get past Ashley Cole and wouldn't get into City's team at his peak. He was full-throttle but limited from what I remember. He never seemed to have any 'nous' about him and I can imagine that his team talk would be about screaming, shouting 'three lions' and getting a red face.
It's amazing to think that when we had Pearce, teams in Europe etc had managers like Pep, Mourinho, Simeone etc etc coming up through the ranks. I can imagine that Pearce had a very limited understanding of tactics (run harder, defend like a lion) whereas the others would've been STREETS ahead of him. it's shocking he was ever placed in charge of us, he was absolutely shite.
The football was so bad I almost gave up my ST. I remember one game against someone shite like Boro or Birmingham at home where we made NO attempt to win the game and just sat back all game. That summed him up - shite.
When he put James up front to try to score a goal, it was both extremely funny but summed him up. It was PATENTLY clear that James simply could not play football AT ALL and had no reason to be up there as he couldn't even head it. All he give was give fouls away.
How he got the England U21s(?) job after us astounded me and just summed England up at the time.
