Stuart Pearce
Stuart Pearce MBE (born
April 24,
1962 in
Hammersmith,
London) is an
English football coach, and manager of
Manchester City, having been appointed as permanent manager after a period as caretaker following the retirement of
Kevin Keegan. As a player, Pearce had a long and distinguished career, becoming one of the most highly regarded
defenders his country has ever produced. He is best remembered for his time at
Nottingham Forest and his
England international duties.
Born in west London, he failed a trial at
Queens Park Rangers and then rejected an offer from
Hull City, instead settling happily into a career in the non-league game with his local side,
Wealdstone while training and working as an
electrician and
plumber. For almost five years, he was the first choice full back of a highly successful team, then amongst the biggest names of non-league football.
In 1983 Wealdstone received an unexpected offer of £30,000 (then a huge sum for a semi-professional player) for Pearce from top-flight club
Coventry City. Manager
Bobby Gould had been to watch Wealdstone, and was hugely impressed by Pearce's determination and combative attitude. Pearce agreed to the move excitedly - making his professional debut for Coventry immediately. Quickly establishing himself as an uncompromising left back who played hard but fair, he was then bought by
Brian Clough for
Nottingham Forest two years later.
Pearce spent more than ten years at Forest, most of it as club captain and briefly also as player manager, a
caretaker role he held while the club found a long-term boss. This short period in charge saw him win the manager of the month award, although ultimately resulted in
Nottingham Forest's relegation. During his eventful playing career he won two
League Cups and the
Simod Cup, while also scoring from a
free kick in the
1991 FA Cup final, when Forest were beaten by
Tottenham Hotspur.
When Nottingham Forest suffered relegation from the
FA Premier League, Pearce left for
Newcastle United and reached another FA Cup final, though again he emerged on the defeated side. He went on to play for
West Ham United, after being left out of the Newcastle side for over a year by the then manager - Ruud Gullit. Pearce left West Ham after an unsuccessful period and moved to
Manchester City where he was slowed by age and injury.
He made his debut for
England against
Brazil in
1987 (the 999th player to receive an England cap) and, from
1988 onwards, became the first choice left back for his country, in so doing wrestling the number 3 jersey away from Kenny Sansom prior to Sansom's thirtieth birthday. He became Forest's most capped outfield player and ended up with 78 international appearances to his name.
In
1990, Pearce had a goal ruled out from a free kick during a
World Cup group game against the
Netherlands. England progressed to the semi-finals, and Pearce was one of two unfortunate players to miss a penalty in the
shoot-out which took place against
West Germany after the match had ended in a 1-1 draw. Pearce left the field in tears, though was never blamed for England's defeat as his penalty was saved by the
goalkeeper and was on target for the goal, unlike the one which followed from
Chris Waddle, which ballooned over the crossbar.
Pearce played in an unsuccessful campaign for England, when they failed to win any of their group games. He had a thunderous free kick strike the underside of the crossbar and bounce away from goal in a drawn game against
France. Moments before taking the free kick, Pearce was headbutted by French defender Basile Boli, leaving a gash on his cheek. When England won the free kick Pearce immediately disregarded his injury and rushed to take it. The referee insisted on Pearce having the blood wiped from his face first, but Pearce soon returned and unleashed his thunderbolt, which unfortunately failed to go in. England's failure to qualify for the
1994 FIFA World Cup in the
USA included a personal nightmare for Pearce, when his underhit back pass allowed forward
Davide Gualtieri to score for
San Marino (who at the time had never won an international game) inside the first eight seconds of their qualifier. England still won the game 7-1, but qualification was already impossible.
When
Terry Venables became England
coach later in 1994, Pearce lost his place to
Graeme Le Saux but then regained it after the
Blackburn Rovers defender suffered a broken leg. Pearce stayed in the side into the competition, laying his ghosts to rest with a successful penalty in a quarter-final shoot-out against
Spain, which England won. His forceful, emotional celebration before an ecstatic
Wembley crowd became one of English football's most celebrated images. He repeated the feat in the semi-final shoot-out against
Germany but once again the Germans emerged victorious.
After the tournament, Pearce joined fellow England penalty missers Chris Waddle and
Gareth Southgate (who missed in Euro 96) in a light-hearted commercial for
Pizza Hut in which they poked fun at their own misfortunes.
Pearce played only briefly under
Glenn Hoddle and seemed to have completed his international career with 76 caps by the time he scaled down his career at Newcastle and then West Ham. However, the appointment of Keegan to the England job prompted a recall for a 36 year old Pearce for two qualifying games for
Euro 2000. Pearce's broken leg later put paid to further international chances and he ended his international career with 78 caps, which for a time put him in the all-time top ten appearance makers for England.
Pearce's last club was
Manchester City, where he spent one season as a player-coach, missing a penalty in his final game as a professional footballer, even though goalkeeper
Dave Beasant had promised not to attempt a save. Had he scored, Pearce would have achieved 100 career goals.
He remained at Manchester City as a coach, and was appointed caretaker manager of the club on
March 10 2005 following the departure of Keegan. He expressed his wish on appointment to get the job permanently, though accepted that this would depend on the results he achieved during his temporary period in charge. On
May 12, it was announced he would be appointed on a permanent basis. His first season in charge was mixed; a reasonable opening three months, plus some good publicity thanks to Pearce's eccentricities on the touchline, was tempered by a poor ending to the campaign as City lost nine of their last ten games of the season.
Pearce is a known devotee of
punk rock, has met
The Stranglers nearly 30 times, and has had a record label named after him by the band, (
Psycho Records). He also enjoys reading, going to the theatre and owns racehorses with his wife, Liz.
Throughout his career, he was given the affectionate nickname of 'Psycho' for his unforgiving style of play. This was initially a tag afforded to him only by Forest fans, though later it was adopted by England supporters too. A compilation of computer games was released as
Psycho's Soccer Collection in 1992.
Although Pearce, with 78 caps, stands currently as the 12th most capped player for England, he did not even emerge as the most capped left back - his predecessor
Kenny Sansom achieved that with 86 caps, which places him seventh in the all-time list. However, in a 2000 poll to find England's greatest XI, the public voted overwhelmingly for Stuart Pearce to take the left back spot. Sansom and
Ashley Cole, the other candidates in the poll, trailed well behind.
His autobiography,
Psycho, was released in
2001 and became a
Sunday Times best seller.
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Stuart Pearce profile at the League Managers Association
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Stuart Pearce playing statistics at soccerbase.com
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Stuart Pearce managerial statistics at soccerbase.com
