Nigel Pearson Interview

[Tuna]

Nigel Pearson was working wonders with Leicester two years ago... so what's he doing with OH Leuven in Belgium's second division?

• OH Leuven beat Roeselare 2-0 in the Belgian Second Division on Saturday
• It was former Leicester boss Nigel Pearson's first game in charge of Leuven 
• The club is owned by King Power, who are also in charge of the Foxes 
• Sportsmail went On The Road to catch up with Pearson out in Belgium 

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-4938908/Why-Nigel-Pearson-working-Belgium-s-second-division.html#ixzz4uJ4x6fns

 

It has just turned 3.08pm on Saturday and a white jeep has come to a crunching halt outside OH Leuven's Den Dreef stadium. 

 

With the exception of a few stewards, the place is deserted, but that does not matter to the man who has just parked up. Out hops Nigel Pearson, resplendent in a grey suit, and he strides in statesmanlike fashion across the car park. 

 

This genteel university town, 30 minutes outside Brussels, is a million miles from the frenzy of English football, but it is where Pearson is relaunching his managerial career, in Belgium's second division. 

 

Almost a year has passed since his abrupt sacking by Derby County, following a furious row with owner Mel Morris, but he is recharged and relaxed as he prepares to embark on this new adventure. 

 

'I'm sure it has raised a few eyebrows for people who are wondering what the motivation is,' Pearson tells Sportsmail.

'But there is a lot more to it than just wanting to get back into football. 

 

'I was close to getting the Middlesbrough job. They wanted to go with Garry Monk and that's fine. But I've always wanted to work abroad and this is something different.' 

And yet, as quickly becomes apparent, it is not different at all. OH Leuven are owned by King Power, Leicester City's backers; their logo is everywhere around this complex, from gate posts to advertising hoardings to the roof of the adjacent tennis centre. 

 

King Power are pumping money into the club. Since arriving in July, they have cleaned up the stadium and have plans to increase the capacity. To improve the playing surface, they sent six Leicester groundsmen to work on it over the summer. 

 

There is even an influence on the playing staff, with Elliot Moore — a towering England Under 20 international — being sent to Leuven for a seasonlong loan. But here's the question: why appoint Pearson? 

 

It was June 2015 when the Srivaddhanaprabha family jettisoned him, after a sordid episode on an end-of-season tour to Thailand led to three players — including Pearson's son James — being sacked.  'This may surprise people, but things happen in life and you have a difficult situation like the one when I ended up leaving Leicester. I do not have to say anything because the very fact I am here will explain everything,' Pearson says.

 

'Anything spoken between us is private. That is a part of history. I know the role I played in Leicester's story, the story of the club over eight years. It's pretty incredible, really. I'm very comfortable understanding my role within that.'  Time has been a healer. There were stories Leicester's players wanted Pearson to return after Claudio Ranieri was sacked, but he makes it clear there were 'never any discussions' and he is 'delighted' for Craig Shakespeare.

 

'I wish him every success,' he says, after revealing his old assistant had called him late last week to bid him good luck.

'I have had a load of messages over the last week. I hope I'm going to enjoy it,' he adds. 

 

He certainly enjoyed Saturday. The visit of KSV Roeselare — and their 46 travelling fans — was Pearson's first official game, having observed the previous week's 1-1 draw with Beerschot from the stands. 

 

Having swapped his smart attire for a black tracksuit, he is like a coiled spring on the touchline, bellowing instructions, offering encouragement and barely sitting down. 

The standard is a few rungs below what he is used to, but the buzz of winning does not change and he is elated after goals either side of half-time from Nikola Storm and Simon Diedhiou secure a 2-0 win.

 

More than anything, he is content. Pearson spent his enforced absence 'wandering a couple of long-distance footpaths' and the time allowed him to get a firm perspective on the life of a modern manager. 

 

Being away from the frenzy, it seems, will suit him just fine. 'Seven managers lost their jobs the other week,' Pearson says. 

'That gives you a measure of the industry. 

 

'Management is not good for your health. You hear a lot of people say that and they're right. I need something with substance. I'm looking forward to my time here. 

 

'I want to be part of something that has an impact.'

 

Edited 2 October 2017 by Tuna

[Fox92]

Good read. Hope it all works out for him there.

[Arriba Los Zorros]

'I need something with substance' 'I want to be part of something that has an impact' 

 

Man's a driven, born winner. Boggles the mind why more people can't see how him being back at LCFC would be the best thing for our club.

[MPH]

It's like discovering your old girlfriend is dating someone else 

[surrifox]

Sounds a bit pissy about missing out on the Boro job

[Soar Fox]

10 minutes ago, surrifox said:

Sounds a bit pissy about missing out on the Boro job

What???  

 

"I was close to getting the Middlesbrough job, they wanted Garry Monk and that's fine" 

 

How have you interpreted that as being pissy. He's said that little about it, it's hardly worth writing. 

[surrifox]

Why mention it at all ?

[Webbo]

10 hours ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

'I need something with substance' 'I want to be part of something that has an impact' 

 

Man's a driven, born winner. Boggles the mind why more people can't see how him being back at LCFC would be the best thing for our club.

Maybe that 6 months rooted to the bottom of the table has unfairly tainted people's views?

[Soar Fox]

31 minutes ago, surrifox said:

Why mention it at all ?

Because he wanted to get back into football he was close to getting the Middlesbrough job but he didn't and that's how he's ended up in Belgium. 

[ScouseFox]

2 hours ago, Webbo said:

Maybe that 6 months rooted to the bottom of the table has unfairly tainted people's views?

bugs me that people think this way. he was employed to get us out of league one, to get us out of the championship and to keep us in the premier league. he did all 3 (two of them within a season). who cares how we did it, we’re always being told football is a results business and his results here were either on or above target pretty much every single year. 

 

would people have preferred it if we’d been like blackpool or hull and been mid table most the season after a good start but ended up going down? 

 

not sure how “we were bottom for a while but didn’t finish bottom” is really a stick to beat him with. 

[Webbo]

49 minutes ago, ScouseFox said:

bugs me that people think this way. he was employed to get us out of league one, to get us out of the championship and to keep us in the premier league. he did all 3 (two of them within a season). who cares how we did it, we’re always being told football is a results business and his results here were either on or above target pretty much every single year. 

 

would people have preferred it if we’d been like blackpool or hull and been mid table most the season after a good start but ended up going down? 

 

not sure how “we were bottom for a while but didn’t finish bottom” is really a stick to beat him with. 

We were never bottom under Ranieri and aren't yet under Shakespeare but people are allowed to judge them negatively.

 

Pearson did a good job for us in league 1 and the championship but he wasn't good enough for the premiership and couldn't cope with the attention in the top league. Why are people desperate for him to return?

[Arriba Los Zorros]

8 hours ago, Webbo said:

We were never bottom under Ranieri and aren't yet under Shakespeare but people are allowed to judge them negatively.

 

Pearson did a good job for us in league 1 and the championship but he wasn't good enough for the premiership and couldn't cope with the attention in the top league. Why are people desperate for him to return?

Because under Pearson, we actually looked like winning games for the most part. We attacked with pace, passing the ball, played some lovely one-touch stuff, had a gameplan. Got many plaudits from neutrals despite being bottom. the effort and heart that team showed made many of us proud to support this team.

 

We finished mid-table in our first season back in PL under Pearson without having spent the money we have on the team subsequently. How does that make him not good enough for the Premier League?

[TAFKA Castroneves]

The irony is without Pearsons media handling heading into the Great Escape - i honestly don't think we would have survived that season.

 

Creating the "us verses them" mentality brought it out of the players to go on and keep us in the division, without that there would have been no league title for us. What some deem as an terminal failing of his character was probably the biggest reason he was successful.

 

It makes me laugh how everyone was moaning about our application against Bournemouth - yet the man who has proven himself over and over to be able to get more out of this group of players than anyone is pretty much a dirty word when mentioned as an option again going forward, you want a Leicester who will have a go? We know that's what Pearsons about.

 

It's just nice to see him back on terms with the owners, i never thought that would happen

 

 

[Captain...]

23 hours ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

'I need something with substance' 'I want to be part of something that has an impact' 

 

Man's a driven, born winner. Boggles the mind why more people can't see how him being back at LCFC would be the best thing for our club.

I would love to see him back as director of football, and it's a shame he hasn't gone to OHL as DoF to over haul the non playing side of things. I don't think he could return as manager, but to keep the football club on the right track off the field as DoF he would be perfect. We had amazing recruitment and sports science  departments and he oversaw parts of the academy, now our recruitment is appalling, we are getting lots of niggly injuries and we don't look fit.

[filbertway]

9 hours ago, Webbo said:

We were never bottom under Ranieri and aren't yet under Shakespeare but people are allowed to judge them negatively.

 

Pearson did a good job for us in league 1 and the championship but he wasn't good enough for the premiership and couldn't cope with the attention in the top league. Why are people desperate for him to return?

Sorry what?

 

Pearson had a squad that included Paul Konchesky and Gary Taylor-Fletcher when we came up. Compared to now our wage budget and overall spending was nowhere near what it is now. I don't think it's fair to hold them to similar expectations at all.

[Webbo]

27 minutes ago, filbertway said:

Sorry what?

 

Pearson had a squad that included Paul Konchesky and Gary Taylor-Fletcher when we came up. Compared to now our wage budget and overall spending was nowhere near what it is now. I don't think it's fair to hold them to similar expectations at all.

Also included Mahrez and Vardy who won the player of the year awards the following season. It had a top player in Cambiasso as well.

 

Ranieri won the league for us (a bigger achievement than winning league 1) and people were calling for his head by the following October. Nobody's calling for his return.

[ScouseFox]

9 minutes ago, Webbo said:

Also included Mahrez and Vardy who won the player of the year awards the following season. It had a top player in Cambiasso as well.

 

Ranieri won the league for us (a bigger achievement than winning league 1) and people were calling for his head by the following October. Nobody's calling for his return.

ranieri completely lost his marbles. nobody can deny that. pearson lost his marbles but then found them again and kept us up. then was sacked for “non footballing reasons”. 

 

we went so far backwards so quickly under ranieri and we never did anything bar move forwards under pearson. 

[Webbo]

20 minutes ago, ScouseFox said:

ranieri completely lost his marbles. nobody can deny that. pearson lost his marbles but then found them again and kept us up. then was sacked for “non footballing reasons”. 

 

we went so far backwards so quickly under ranieri and we never did anything bar move forwards under pearson. 

Kept us up is the most you could expect from Pearson. If you are happy to be the next Sunderland, staying up by the skin of our teeth for years then Pearson's your man.

[Soar Fox]

Didn't Pearson improve Leicester year upon year? 

[CockneyFox]

Would rather have Pearson than Shakespeare in charge at the moment!

[Buzzell]

[KingsX]

The job of a PL manager is not only inward facing.  It does not provide the luxury to excel at the other parts and crap the bed with media or fans.  By creating incidents, NP did not show the emotional maturity required. 

 

To many supporters, that was irrelevant -- but owners do not hire managers to make needless distractions that land in their laps.  Blame the media and you miss the point.  Success brings more latitude, but Pearson overstepped.

 

If he has learned further lessons about self-control, dealing with stress, and tactics, he may be a hell of a top-level manager.  If not, he has hit his ceiling.

 

A year at OHL may help clarify that for the owners.  (It suggests great flexibility and smarts that they took a long view and rehired him.)  But it can’t compare to the stress or glare of a PL job.  And that would be a tricky bridge for all parties to cross.

 

[Stadt]

GOAT manager, we'd be lucky to have him back.

Edited 3 October 2017 by Wookie

[ScouseFox]

1 hour ago, KingsX said:

The job of a PL manager is not only inward facing.  It does not provide the luxury to excel at the other parts and crap the bed with media or fans.  By creating incidents, NP did not show the emotional maturity required. 

 

To many supporters, that was irrelevant -- but owners do not hire managers to make needless distractions that land in their laps.  Blame the media and you miss the point.  Success brings more latitude, but Pearson overstepped.

 

If he has learned further lessons about self-control, dealing with stress, and tactics, he may be a hell of a top-level manager.  If not, he has hit his ceiling.

 

A year at OHL may help clarify that for the owners.  (It suggests great flexibility and smarts that they took a long view and rehired him.)  But it can’t compare to the stress or glare of a PL job.  And that would be a tricky bridge for all parties to cross.

 

the thing that made pearson’s leicester teams what they were was his hatred of everything other than his leicester team. 

[Dan]

19 hours ago, Webbo said:

We were never bottom under Ranieri and aren't yet under Shakespeare but people are allowed to judge them negatively.

 

Pearson did a good job for us in league 1 and the championship but he wasn't good enough for the premiership and couldn't cope with the attention in the top league. Why are people desperate for him to return?

That's literally just wrong. He's had one season there and finished 14th with a newly promoted side. How is that not good enough?