Leicester will win the title but I would be dishonest if I said I would be happy for everyone…

[dylanlegend]

I know this is FT and lots of people can only see in black or white. But the real world isn’t like that. Whether you think Pearson deserves “Loads” of praise, “some” praise or a “little bit” of praise really doesn’t matter. Praise doesn’t come in metric measures that you can distribute evenly to different people! Just because Pearson is praised doesn’t diminish the amount of praise you’re allowed to give to Ranieri!

Try and look at it another way:

If Ranieri had taken over at West Brom at the start of this season, do you think he would have taken them to the top of the Premiership? I’m fairly certain most people will think not. In which case it’s a fairly obvious logical step to conclude that the previous set-up at the club had some part in our current success.

I think people should remember the last game we played under Sven. We lost 0-3 at home to Millwall with a team of overpaid, aging players who did not give a flip about LCFC and who moaned in the papers when they weren’t in the starting 11. That was the situation Pearson picked up.

We’re now top of the League.

Well said.

Built a team with potential, we have now moved on and luckily kept a similar structure. Long may it continue and thanks Nige for all you did for LCFC.

[Bob Weasel Fox]

I'll always have mixed feelings toward Pearson. He got us back on the map..The lad did great.

But I could never warm to him as a bloke, as I've said before. And the stuff he did prior to getting sacked was bizarre.

That said, he should now be back in work and he'll be a success all over again I believe.

I agree with you Col, I could never warm to him either but he did a good job overall bless him

[hackneyfox]

Doubt its the owners he'd be upset with, he must realise by now that his son was to blame for his sacking.

He wasn't sacked because of his son but because of his reaction to his son's sacking.

[ajthefox]

 

 Hahahahahahaha what the fvck are you doing Nige..?? Trying way too hard.

 

 

All he needs is a sports car and this could be the cover for a Clarkson DVD.

[RoboFox]

Absolutely unbelievable, a fantastic two page spread and honest interview and the Mail picks on that one quote.

 

What's new? The Mail's a reactionary s**trag.

 

Has Ranieri profited from the set up Pearson left us with at the end of last season?  Of course he has.

 

Has Ranieri taken us to another level due to his superior tactical knowledge over Pearson?  Of course he has.

 

 

Both have proved to be a good fit for us at the stage the club was/is currently at.

 

Leave it at that. 

 

With a FT Pearson / Ranieri debate? Please... We've got scores of pages to look forward to! 

[filbertway]

 

 Hahahahahahaha what the fvck are you doing Nige..?? Trying way too hard.

 

 

All he needs is a sports car and this could be the cover for a Clarkson DVD.

 

Stud!

[CosbehFox]

Pearson needs to stop dwelling back on his past here and more think about getting himself a new job. Yeah Pearson has done a lot for this club and been part of Leicester success this season to, but I think the guy needs to move on.

Manager wise Pearson is a good boss, but as a person he comes across as a nasty piece of work. He comes across as someone who is a bit of a big head who his happy to criticise people but won't accept it himself.

That's just the character the media have built.

This is a manager who was happy to be approachable to players. Best example is Gallagher who he sorted a move to Preston after his wife had a miscarriage.

You compare this to Benitez who famously wouldn't allow Xabi Alonso time off for the birth of his first child

[Dan]

Wonder how many of Pearson's players will criticise him. I'd say they're a far more important judge of him than some tabloid writer.

[Carl the Llama]

Millennia from now the Earth will be little more than a barren, scorched husk.  Millennia after that the sun will explode, adding our dead solar system to the billions of others slowly eradicated by the forces of entropy.  Whole galaxies will die one after another until the entire universe is nothing more than a bleak and empty expanse of nothingness.

 

Maybe then the people in the 'ignore all the hard work he did on and off the pitch as well as his charitable endeavours in the community so we can make hyperbolic statements about him being an arrogant cvnt who abused the fans' camp can finally put this shit to bed.

[Bluetintedspecs]

I agree with those who say non story.

Nige did great things and some frankly strange and flawed things.

Will remember his great achievements fondly but do hope everyone moves on now.

The king is dead ..........

[Jordan]

Edit, wrong thread

[UpTheLeagueFox]

Wonder how many of Pearson's players will criticise him. I'd say they're a far more important judge of him than some tabloid writer.

 

Players I've spoken to held him in very high esteem. They wanted to play for him. He protected them. The key phrase that came out was that he was "a player's manager". 

[EnglishOxide]

Ah I do love a good Pearson thread. The place wouldn't be the same without one.

It's been surprisingly civil so far!

[Sharpe's Fox]

Is Ranieri had come in after Hull at home last season we'd be in the Championship. If Nige was still here we wouldn't be top of the league. Both have equal credit in where we now in my view.

[Sionnach gorm]

Nigel tried the 4-4-2...unfortunately it didn't work for him too well. Sometimes luck, sometimes just not doing it right. I guess we'll never know for sure what would have happened if he was still on. My feeling is we would be a good mid table team.

[Guest Basildon Fox]

He's just stating the obvious. Without Nigel Pearson we wouldn't be where we are today. FACT.

While he is a part of what has happened to get us to where we are, do you think we would be top of the league if he was still in charge? I would doubt it myself.

[UpTheLeagueFox]

I've seen some with an anti-NP agenda say that Pearson is a worse top flight manager than Peter Taylor but that's not comparing like for like. One took over a side which had finished top ten in four successive seasons (and proceeded to wreck it) and the other had just taken a squad into the Premier League, establishing building blocks for the future.

[richardsfoxes]

Love Pearson for what he did for us, a great man manager but tactically there is no comparison to him and Ranieri. 

[Jordan]

Pearson's success came from him steadfastness, but his downfall came from stubbornness. If he wants to get back into the football--and football may well be a better off with him in the game--and become an elite manager, he'll have to get a grasp on the subtle differences between the two.

I wasn't a fan of some of his antics, but his patience in long-term planning and his willingness to stick up for his players as long as they play hard are attributes that are a little more rare amongst managers than they should be. And to be fair, he might not have the tactical nous of Ranieri, but he's decent enough and in most of his management career, he's used players and tactics that compliment each other. I hope he's learned that the media and PR game are bigger parts of the game in the Premier League than perhaps they should be, but I think he can learn a few things without changing the core of who he is.

I don't think the quotes other media have pulled from thus show that Pearson is bitter. Rather, he's not one for public shows of sentimentality.

Regardless, I'll always be thankful of what he achieved at this club, and I wish him well.

(A few edits because I can't type for shit today for some reason)

[Fox Ulike]

While he is a part of what has happened to get us to where we are, do you think we would be top of the league if he was still in charge? I would doubt it myself.

 

Interesting question.

 

My guess is no. I think that we would have started this season as we finished the last. Pearson might even have took us to the top of the League early on. But somehow I doubt he would have been able to keep us up there the same way Ranieri has.

 

Pearson was tactically a lot weaker than Ranieri, and I don't think he would have coped with the pressure of top spot.

 

This is a wild guess of course, but I reckon under Pearson we'd be around 6th/7th along with West Ham/Southampton...

[sdb]

Time to move on Nige. Definite club legend, took us to the poem from rock bottom, but CR has proved himself as being at another level. 

[CloudFox]

I really liked Person when he was here, and will always appreciate what he did for our club over the years.

However, towards the end of that article he sounds quite arrogant. Whether the journalist has portrayed it that way or not is anyone's guess, but it does seem as if he's asking for as much credit as possible. Everyone knows he did well, but that shouldn't take anything away from how improved we are under Claudio.

[EnglishOxide]

Love Pearson for what he did for us, a great man manager but tactically there is no comparison to him and Ranieri.

Of course not. Ranieri is Italian (known for their tactical ability) and ten years older with much more experience at the top level where as last season was a learning experience for Nige and the players.

Having said that, Pearson WAS underrated tactically. The suggestion that he stumbled into that back three/back five last season and it was all Cambiassos idea is nonsense. People forget that for a time in the 12/13 season and at the start of the Championship winning 13/14 season we used a back three too. If Pearson was so bad tactically we wouldnt have been within touching distance of a result in every game last season.

And arguably, if we had tried 442 this season with Pearson's signings (Fuchs > Konchesky, Kante > Cambiasso, Shinji > Nuge) we would still be doing quite well, not top 4 perhaps, but top 10 certainly.

I also don't see why people bring his personality into it. Alex Ferguson was an arsehole but the best manager around. It has no effect on the job they do. And make no mistake, the only job I care about them doing as a fan is running a football team, not looking after the King Power brand.

[Captain...]

Interesting question.

 

My guess is no. I think that we would have started this season as we finished the last. Pearson might even have took us to the top of the League early on. But somehow I doubt he would have been able to keep us up there the same way Ranieri has.

 

Pearson was tactically a lot weaker than Ranieri, and I don't think he would have coped with the pressure of top spot.

 

This is a wild guess of course, but I reckon under Pearson we'd be around 6th/7th along with West Ham/Southampton...

 

It is hard to say, he probably would have kept the 532, but would it have been effective during normal season, was the formation change as big a factor as the fact a lot of our opponents were on the beach by the time we played and the 2 that still had something worth fighting for, Chelsea and Sunderland, were the ones we didn't beat, impossible questions to answer.

 

But if you compare it to last season though we know that we started out with a 442, picking up some great points with great performances, but we were conceding a few too many, not too dissimilar to this season. The difference this season was that instead of trying to get the whole team to play in a different way (bloody midfield diamond) Ranieri kept the formation and a settled line up and just tinkered with personnel and small tactical changes. He wanted to shore up the defence without weakening the attack, so he changed the defenders and allowed the attackers to continue attacking. Pearson wanted to stop us conceding so many so changed up the team experimented with a diamond, a 4231 whatever bloody formation he tried to cram this team into: Schmeichel, De Laet, Konchesky, Drinkwater (Cambiasso 67), Morgan ©, Hammond (King 67), Vardy (James 67), Moore, Ulloa, Mahrez, Nugent  

 

The result was that we went on an awful run of 5 games without a goal.

 

Don't get me wrong, I still have a  lot of love for Nige and he did some wonderful things for this club, but he also took some bloody daft decisions at times. 

[UpTheLeagueFox]

I still have a  lot of love for Nige and he did some wonderful things for this club, but he also took some bloody daft decisions at times. 

 

That's a very fair point. Fortunately he got a hell of a lot more right than he got wrong.