Pearson for Life?

[StanSP]

http://www.thebluearmy.co.uk/news/Leiceste...il/article.html

Nigel Pearson has a job for life at Leicester City.

Since taking over as manager in June last year, Pearson has transformed the club.

City bounced straight back into the Championship after relegation nine months earlier and today occupy a place in the play-off places.

Pearson has also been a big hit with the fans, who would love him to extend his contract, which was reported to be for three years.

City chief executive Lee Hoos is a great admirer. "I hope Nigel stays here forever," he said. "He's doing a fantastic job, so why would you not want him to stay?

"He's brought success and a new attitude to the club. He's a great guy and a fantastic manager.

"I'm not going to comment on the kind of contract Nigel has. Reports in the media are way off the mark.

"There is talk that it ends next year, but that is completely wide of the mark in the way the contract is structured. It is a very personal thing between Nigel and the club. I don't think he would be discussing it right now, either."

The pair previously worked at Southampton together and Hoos knew Pearson was the right man to fill the City hot-seat in the wake of relegation to League One.

"Expectations were high last year," said Hoos. "To achieve promotion at the first time of asking was the goal and he met it.

"Now we're in the top six, but I don't want to get too carried away because a lot of people at the beginning of the season were looking for consolidation, looking for mid-table.

"But Nigel said he thought City would surprise a lot of people, and I think we have.

"We need to carry on the impetus we have established over the last 21 games and make sure it continues for the rest of the season.

"There are 12 or 13 teams in the play-off mix and we need to be there or thereabouts."

Pearson has gone on record as saying he will have to wheel and deal if he wants to strengthen the squad in the January transfer window.

"In terms of finance, it depends how things go,'' said Hoos. "Milan (Mandaric) has pumped a ton of money into this club. Some people might say we got some guys in on free transfers or that we only paid this and that for others. But these guys don't work for free. Operating expenses at this place are pretty significant. When you get into a new stadium the costs escalate tremendously.

"That's not a problem in the Premiership but, at this level, you need grounds to be 80 to 85 per cent full for matches, otherwise the numbers don't stack up.

"Like any other business we have to manage our budget, we can't keep relying on the chairman to constantly pump in money.

"Nigel has said that he doesn't expect to have a lot of money available to him, but that situation is no different at 95 per cent of the other clubs in this division."

[davieG]

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