Nigel Pearson Interview in the Mail On Sunday

[Tuna]

'I did things I'd probably choose not to do again...' But ex-Leicester boss Nigel Pearson says he's still no softy

• Nigel Pearson has been out of football since OH Leuven sacked him in February
• He pulled off the Great Escape with Leicester a year before the club won the title
• Pearson has a reputation as a fiery character and he admits he made mistakes
• He once throttled Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur on the touchline
• Pearson also told an abusive fan to 'f*** off and die' during his time at Leicester

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6943303/Nigel-Pearson-not-big-softy-overnight-Im-me.html

 

Some aspects of Nigel Pearson remain as familiar as ever and you get the sense they always will. The handshake is still robust; the grip not quite so tight as to cut off all blood supply around your knuckles but strong enough to make you understand it is as much a test as a greeting.

The hair style has not changed either. Still short and clipped. The sergeant major look. It comes as little surprise when the former Leicester manager reveals when he was younger he was close to embarking on an assessment to the join the Royal Air Force.

And then there’s his deep love of the outdoors. Most people, by now, know the story of Pearson fighting off a pack of dogs in the Carpathian mountains. The 55-year-old recently spent three days on a small island in Badachro, a fishing village in north-west Highlands of Scotland. No dogs this time, just Pearson ‘mooching about’, staying alone in a bothy with trips back from the pub on a local fisherman’s boat. About as far removed from the intensity of football management as you can find. And just the way Pearson likes it. 

‘Whenever you are out of work, you need to take the opportunity to do things you like to do,’ says Pearson. ‘I know some people immerse themselves in football and go and watch a million and one games. I am a bit the other way. I tend to do the things that I like doing, which is trying to get used to being back at home.’

Pearson is having to do just that having been sacked in February as manager of OH Leuven in Belgium’s second division. Leuven are backed by King Power, the same company who owns Leicester and who also sacked Pearson back in 2015, the season before they won the Premier League title under Claudio Ranieri. Those who know Leicester know that much of that squad and culture had been built by Pearson, over two spells, starting with hauling the club from the depths of League One ten years ago.

What also hasn’t changed is Pearson’s reputation. Not yet, anyway. The former Shrewsbury, Sheffield Wednesday and Middlesbrough defender spoke recently to sports journalism students at Birmingham and Derby University and business scholars at Wembley . The youngsters came away surprised at the easy, engaging Pearson in front of them.

‘I am sure they had fixed ideas of what I might be before I walked through the door,’ he says.

There is good reason for that. The back end of this tenure at Leicester, one which saw him keep the club up despite having spent 140 days at the bottom of the table, was marred with a series of high-profile incidents: throttling Crystal Palace midfielder James McArthur on the touchline, telling an abusive Leicester fan to ‘f*** off and die’ and, most famously, calling a journalist an ostrich in a post-match press conference. 

It is this side of Pearson that does seem a little different now. He is calmer, more relaxed, less snappy in the face of questions which, in a former life, may well have left the interviewer scrambling for a safe zone.

‘Maybe, I’ve changed a bit,’ says Pearson. ‘Yeah, I’m not managing a club and I don’t need a win to keep my job but I also think I’ve changed. We all change.

‘I accept that in that year I was under pressure, from myself too, and I did some things that I’d probably choose not to do again. Not all of them. Some I would gladly do again, actually…and do them with a smile on my face.’ He refuses to say which.

‘Look, I have not become a big softy overnight. I am still me, but in four years, when you experience different things, you have to reflect on what happens in your life.’

Pearson says working in Belgium changed him. It is a different football life over there. Things move much more slowly than in the Premier League and there is also far less scrutiny. It was also a chance to reconnect with former Leicester chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha. Pearson found the whole experience, while ultimately unsuccessful on the pitch, cathartic.

He believes his short, combustible tenure at Derby changed him too. He only lasted four months with the Rams amid conflict with owner Mel Morris. That experience almost made Pearson give up management.

‘It might also be what happened at Leicester and then losing my job and the subsequent success they had,’ he concludes.

For Pearson, the end of his Leicester tenure was hard to take. After winning seven of their final nine games of the season to survive relegation, Leicester’s players and staff travelled to Thailand, the home country of the club’s owners for an end-of-season tour. Pearson’s son, James, was one of three of the club’s youth players involved in an incident with some local women. James was dismissed and Pearson was later sacked. 

‘It was tough,’ Pearson admits. ‘I am not condoning what happened, but we are a close family. When you lose your job and it is about football, I can quickly put things in order and move on. When things are a bit more complex, it is more difficult.’

It became more difficult still as Leicester went on to win the title the following season under Ranieri. Pearson is willing to discuss it, but you sense the lingering frustration of a topic that people continue to bring up.

The two sat next to each other at the King Power Stadium this season for Leicester’s game against Burnley — their first home match since the helicopter tragedy that took the lives of five people including Leicester chairman Khun Vichai. When Pearson introduced himself, Ranieri replied: ‘Don’t worry, I know who you are’. You should hope so too.

‘I am ease in my role in the story,’ says Pearson. ‘It was painful at the time because I had invested an awful lot of time and energy. Nothing to do with jealousy, it was just quite raw still. But there was also a feeling of pride.

‘I have been asked a few times if I had still been there would you have still won the title. My honest answer is that it probably wouldn’t have happened. I think we would have done really well but…I don’t know. I think Ranieri managed particularly well that year. It was a perfect storm of circumstances coming together. Does it really matter?

‘By the same score, I am not in the head where I am snapping your head off for asking a question I have heard a million times.’

He laughs. Maybe he has changed. Pearson also believes Leicester have changed. Since that title win, Ranieri has been sacked. So has subsequent boss Craig Shakespeare, Pearson’s deputy during his time. And so has Claude Puel, replaced in February by Brendan Rodgers. 

The team is different now, too. Jamie Vardy, Kasper Schmeichel and Wes Morgan still form a key part of Leicester’s spine but there is fresh young blood in that squad with Harry Maguire, Ben Chilwell and James Maddison.

Much has been made of the player power within the Leicester dressing room, with reports of unrest often leaked into newspapers under Ranieri and Puel. The Leicester players were heavily criticised after Ranieri’s dismissal just nine months after the title win.

‘Player power equates to how the squad evolves over a period of time,’ says Pearson. ‘The fruition of that squad achieving something and then them becoming bigger than the influence of the manager thereafter.

‘There are lots of strong characters in that dressing room who have achieved an incredible amount. Squads have to continually evolve. Maybe the development didn’t continue in the same sort of way.’

Pearson believes Rodgers is the man to take that development on. ‘He is the best appointment they could have made,’ he says. ‘He has the credentials, he is successful. He is ambitious. He is a very good coach. He plans. He will have the skillset to redefine the identity that is needed. The results would suggest the players are buying into it. They want to be back in Europe as soon as possible. They want to win something again. I think they will do well.’

That’s what’s next for Leicester, what next for Pearson? He is keen to return to management and is understood to have recently been interviewed for the QPR job.

‘Do I want to do it again? Of course I do. But it is got to be an opportunity that suits and stimulates me.’

If and when Pearson gets back under the spotlight, it will be then when we see how much he has really changed.

[Dr The Singh]

[Brainy]

QPR would be a good match for him. Also Ipswich if they were to get rid of Lambert but I can't see that

[Matt]

  

 

 

 

[Aus Fox]

Bloody love the bloke, I know it’s not popular, but of all the ex managers we’ve had over the years, he’s the only one I would love to see back here one day. Think he’d do well to pick up an ambitious team who are struggling, but willing to be patient maybe a Birmingham City type team or even Portsmouth I’d they fail to come up this season.

[volpeazzurro]

I think well of NP and he is a vital part of our past. I genuinely wish him well and hope he gets another good job soon but ... I just can't see him succeeding without his two sidekicks around him or at least Shakespeare. It would be nice to see the latter rejoin him and doing what he does best, coaching and not managing.

[StanSP]

Goes down in Leicester folklore for being in charge of the Great Escape (despite also putting us in that position ). 

 

I love his no-nonsense attitude and he is obviously a very well disciplined and determined person. Obviously a shame how it ended with us but (the very shiny) silver lining being that we hired Ranieri and what happened next everyone knows about. 

 

I'm surprised he wasn't asked more about the events of Vichai's death and how he felt about it. The only bit mentioned is sitting next to Ranieri for the Burnley game. 

 

Some good encouraging words said about Rodgers though. 

[Foxhateram]

10 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

I think well of NP and he is a vital part of our past. I genuinely wish him well and hope he gets another good job soon but ... I just can't see him succeeding without his two sidekicks around him or at least Shakespeare. It would be nice to see the latter rejoin him and doing what he does best, coaching and not managing.

I think this narrative is over hyped. I think Pearson has more than enough credentials to succeed on his own accord in England. 

 

He's been unlucky at all the club's after us really;

 

Derby was just not the right fit, especially after he had not long left us and Derby fans knew he was our golden man. 

 

He did alright in Belgium, but as we've heard from the fans, it's a very tough and complex league. You don't have the time to develop youth, which is Pearson's style, but also you can't use your English links to get the talent you would like. 

 

At Leicester his links with the England set up were very profitable for us. A lot of the players we took on loan under Pearson have gone on to big things, Kane, Lingard, Spearing (not so much), Keane.... The list goes on. Not mentioning the ones we bought and nurtured into the talent they are today. He is an incredible man manager, he will do anything for his lads, while he demands that they do anything on the pitch for him, utmost respect is earned in his dressing room. 

 

An incredible man, who I have had pleasure to meet and talk to on several occasions. I still believe the theatrics at the end of that season were to take the pressure away from the players. The euphoria created an us against them attitude within the squad, a war against the rest, and boy did it work and it created the momentum and belief for the following season. 

[foxfanazer]

1 hour ago, Aus Fox said:

Bloody love the bloke, I know it’s not popular, but of all the ex managers we’ve had over the years, he’s the only one I would love to see back here one day. Think he’d do well to pick up an ambitious team who are struggling, but willing to be patient maybe a Birmingham City type team or even Portsmouth I’d they fail to come up this season.

Watching that Sunderland documentary on Netflix and all I kept thinking was Nige would sort them out. As much as I love the premier League and obviously winning the title was once in a lifetime, those Championship years with Pearson in charge were some of my favourites as a Leicester fan

[Guest worth_the_wait]

"I have been asked a few times if I had still been there would you have still won the title. My honest answer is that it probably wouldn’t have happened. I think we would have done really well but…I don’t know. I think Ranieri managed particularly well that year. It was a perfect storm of circumstances coming together. Does it really matter?"

 

Fair play for him saying that, and not dodging the question.

 

I always thought we would've done very well in 2015-16 if we'd kept Pearson.  But I have no doubt we wouldn't have won the league.

 

[foxfanazer]

1 minute ago, worth_the_wait said:

"I have been asked a few times if I had still been there would you have still won the title. My honest answer is that it probably wouldn’t have happened. I think we would have done really well but…I don’t know. I think Ranieri managed particularly well that year. It was a perfect storm of circumstances coming together. Does it really matter?"

 

Fair play for him saying that, and not dodging the question.

 

I always thought we would've done very well in 2015-16 if we'd kept Pearson.  But I have no doubt we wouldn't have won the league.

 

Sounds like something Stringer would ask him

[Guest Danny Clender]

How much would Nigel have to change to be considered a DOF for us?

Or would he be better managing the development squad?

Could he still have a role at the club?

Am I being sentimental?

[Corky]

49 minutes ago, worth_the_wait said:

"I have been asked a few times if I had still been there would you have still won the title. My honest answer is that it probably wouldn’t have happened. I think we would have done really well but…I don’t know. I think Ranieri managed particularly well that year. It was a perfect storm of circumstances coming together. Does it really matter?"

 

Fair play for him saying that, and not dodging the question.

 

I always thought we would've done very well in 2015-16 if we'd kept Pearson.  But I have no doubt we wouldn't have won the league.

 

Maybe we, as a forum, can take his view on board and stop trying to put Ranieri down in the process? 

 

Pearson did an excellent job over two spells and left a great foundation in place. That is his legacy. We're a better club for his influence now.

[volpeazzurro]

1 hour ago, Foxhateram said:

I think this narrative is over hyped. I think Pearson has more than enough credentials to succeed on his own accord in England. 

 

He's been unlucky at all the club's after us really;

 

Derby was just not the right fit, especially after he had not long left us and Derby fans knew he was our golden man. 

 

He did alright in Belgium, but as we've heard from the fans, it's a very tough and complex league. You don't have the time to develop youth, which is Pearson's style, but also you can't use your English links to get the talent you would like. 

 

At Leicester his links with the England set up were very profitable for us. A lot of the players we took on loan under Pearson have gone on to big things, Kane, Lingard, Spearing (not so much), Keane.... The list goes on. Not mentioning the ones we bought and nurtured into the talent they are today. He is an incredible man manager, he will do anything for his lads, while he demands that they do anything on the pitch for him, utmost respect is earned in his dressing room. 

 

An incredible man, who I have had pleasure to meet and talk to on several occasions. I still believe the theatrics at the end of that season were to take the pressure away from the players. The euphoria created an us against them attitude within the squad, a war against the rest, and boy did it work and it created the momentum and belief for the following season. 

A decent bloke he might be but it's a huge leap of the imagination to put a positive spin on his solo career. He was crap at Derby, luck doesn't come into it and he certainly didn't do alright in Belgium accordingly to their supporters on here. So the Belgian lower league is tough and complex eh? More complex than somewhere like QPR or Ipswich? Or was he relying on luck again? I respect him for what he did but he's impotent as a manager without his team round him and possibly,  just possibly,  he was the weakest link of the three. As for players on loan let's not kid ourselves, they would have been like everything else a joint decision. Nevertheless, I admire your loyalty as he was instrumental in two fantastic promotions but ... he couldn't have done it on his own.

[rn9013]

Nigel Pearson is about to join Chris Kamara and Ben Shephard on ‘Goals on Sunday’ for those with Sky. 

[Arriba Los Zorros]

Nigel : By far our most influential manager of the last few decades, if you look at the impact his time here has had on the club. And the only one I'd have back in a heartbeat.

[foxfanazer]

11 minutes ago, rn9013 said:

Nigel Pearson is about to join Chris Kamara and Ben Shephard on ‘Goals on Sunday’ for those with Sky. 

Thanks. Spoke beautifully about Vichai

[Collymore]

He's a right media whore at the moment!

 

I wonder if he'd take our development squad... Would that be too small for him? If we paid him well and promised not to interfere and trusted him then I could imagine him enjoying quietly getting on and producing some gems over the years. 

[Sublime_Coatsworth]

I have a horrible feeling in 4 weeks he’s going to take over at Florest.....

[StanSP]

 

 

[volpeazzurro]

1 hour ago, Arriba Los Zorros said:

Nigel : By far our most influential manager of the last few decades, if you look at the impact his time here has had on the club. And the only one I'd have back in a heartbeat.

Let's just hope we're never in a position to call him back because it will mean we need rescuing from the Division One again! He was excellent at that time but every dog has its day and he's had his. I doubt we'll ever see him as a Premiership manager again as he was out of his depth the last time he was there with us. People quite rightly remember the great escape and conveniently forget whose poor tactics and management got us there in the first place and there's more than one rumour that has him as not being responsible for that escape. Whatever the truth, football is a multimillion pound business and unlike supporters, clubs pick managers on their record not nostalgia and Pearsons since he's been on his own stinks. He may or may not be able to do a good job at somewhere like Ipswich but a lot would depend on who he has as  backup staff. It would be great if he and Shakey were reunited and together I think they may even achieve something again at a lower level. I wish him the very best either way. 

[smudger63]

4 hours ago, Foxhateram said:

I think this narrative is over hyped. I think Pearson has more than enough credentials to succeed on his own accord in England. 

 

He's been unlucky at all the club's after us really;

 

Derby was just not the right fit, especially after he had not long left us and Derby fans knew he was our golden man. 

 

He did alright in Belgium, but as we've heard from the fans, it's a very tough and complex league. You don't have the time to develop youth, which is Pearson's style, but also you can't use your English links to get the talent you would like. 

 

At Leicester his links with the England set up were very profitable for us. A lot of the players we took on loan under Pearson have gone on to big things, Kane, Lingard, Spearing (not so much), Keane.... The list goes on. Not mentioning the ones we bought and nurtured into the talent they are today. He is an incredible man manager, he will do anything for his lads, while he demands that they do anything on the pitch for him, utmost respect is earned in his dressing room. 

 

An incredible man, who I have had pleasure to meet and talk to on several occasions. I still believe the theatrics at the end of that season were to take the pressure away from the players. The euphoria created an us against them attitude within the squad, a war against the rest, and boy did it work and it created the momentum and belief for the following season. 

Right, first of all there is no doubt that with his trusted sidekicks Shaky and Walsh, he done alot for our football club, and we owe him and them alot.

I still believe that fantastic as it turned out, in the great escape season, we should never have been in that position in the first place.

Pearsons insistance on staying in games rather than going into games with the attacking intent of the previous season, in my opinion, was what led us to be bottom of the league for three quarters of the season.

It was only when it got to shit or bust time and we had to win games to stay up, that he let the players off the leash, helped by a change of system too.

It was interesting that he chose the 5-3 game against Man Utd that he wanted showing on Goals on Sunday today, because it was while i was walking to that game, that they had a pre match interview with Shaky on Radio Leicester, where he said that the players had gone to see the management in the lead up to the game, and asked if they could really give it a go against United, against the managements initial intentions.

As for his appointment at Derby, their fans were excited when he took over, and had high hopes, but basically he was hopeless there, and i believe alot of that was because he didn`t have Shaky and Walsh along side him.

In Belgium he has been found wanting again, and i have seen from their fans on here how frustrated they were with him, and he quite rightly was sacked from their club.

In regards to signings, Pearson had Steve Walsh along side him to deal with that side,and Pearson trusted his judgement completely, he wasn`t the one scouting those players, thats what he had Walsh for .

You talk about the players that were brought in that have gone onto great things, but Harry Kane was played on the wing at times, Jesse Lingard hardly got onto the pitch to prove himself, and even Vardy was mainly used out wide by Pearson.

Of course we have all seen the picture of the Play off defeat at Watford haven`t we, with Vardy, Kane and Drinkwater sat on the bench, seems crazy doesn`t it..

I honestly believe that if Pearson gets another job in the championship or league one, and he is able to get Shaky and possibly Walsh back with him, then he can still have a sucessfull career in management, without them, if i was the owner of a club, i wouldnt go near him.

 

 

 

 

 

[Foxhateram]

5 hours ago, smudger63 said:

Right, first of all there is no doubt that with his trusted sidekicks Shaky and Walsh, he done alot for our football club, and we owe him and them alot.

I still believe that fantastic as it turned out, in the great escape season, we should never have been in that position in the first place.

Pearsons insistance on staying in games rather than going into games with the attacking intent of the previous season, in my opinion, was what led us to be bottom of the league for three quarters of the season.

It was only when it got to shit or bust time and we had to win games to stay up, that he let the players off the leash, helped by a change of system too.

It was interesting that he chose the 5-3 game against Man Utd that he wanted showing on Goals on Sunday today, because it was while i was walking to that game, that they had a pre match interview with Shaky on Radio Leicester, where he said that the players had gone to see the management in the lead up to the game, and asked if they could really give it a go against United, against the managements initial intentions.

As for his appointment at Derby, their fans were excited when he took over, and had high hopes, but basically he was hopeless there, and i believe alot of that was because he didn`t have Shaky and Walsh along side him.

In Belgium he has been found wanting again, and i have seen from their fans on here how frustrated they were with him, and he quite rightly was sacked from their club.

In regards to signings, Pearson had Steve Walsh along side him to deal with that side,and Pearson trusted his judgement completely, he wasn`t the one scouting those players, thats what he had Walsh for .

You talk about the players that were brought in that have gone onto great things, but Harry Kane was played on the wing at times, Jesse Lingard hardly got onto the pitch to prove himself, and even Vardy was mainly used out wide by Pearson.

Of course we have all seen the picture of the Play off defeat at Watford haven`t we, with Vardy, Kane and Drinkwater sat on the bench, seems crazy doesn`t it..

I honestly believe that if Pearson gets another job in the championship or league one, and he is able to get Shaky and possibly Walsh back with him, then he can still have a sucessfull career in management, without them, if i was the owner of a club, i wouldnt go near him.

 

 

 

 

 

Because they weren't ready then. And it is well documented that Pearson's links with United and the England set up helped us to gain those players. 

 

I admit Walsh found Knocky, Mahrez ,Vardy, Kante etc but those Loans previously mentioned were very much linked with Pearson's tenure with the u21 sides. I have that on very good knowledge. 

[The Horse's Mouth]

love this man give him a statue 

[Spudulike]

He's welcome to come for tea round my house anytime he likes.

 

Thanks Nige.