Manchester City should let Pearce go
Last season, when Stuart Pearce was being mentioned in the same breath as Martin O’Neill and Felipe Scolari, I was one of the unwitting few who thought Psycho would have actually made a good coach. He was English, he had a long and successful international career, he was not a big name boss but did have experience in coaching and management and he was the underdog.
He wasn’t the safe and boring choice though, nor did Manchester City’s results keep up with the first half of the season. City floundered, so did Pearce’s chances and the FA picked McClaren over O’Neill (and everything for England went downhill after that).
Now though, Pearce is getting involved at the right level - the Under-21 tournament in the summer will give him an excellent shot at making a name for himself, and if I’m not mistaken, it’s a stepping stone for picking up the Under-21 tab permanently in the future.
Plenty of people have worried that the manager won’t be able to concentrate fully on Man City’s league challenge. Richard Williams is worried about England’s youth development suffering with the part-time appointment symptomatic of an apathetic attitude towards young talent. Both concerns are justified.
Ideally, Pearce should be (like Peter Taylor should have been) appointed as the Under-21 manager fulltime. Nothing against Manchester City, but I’m an England fan too and I’d like to see the current crop of young England players developing into a team that can realistically challenge for honours in 2010 and beyond.
That won’t happen unless the English FA makes the appointment full-time and gets serious about youth development in England (yes, I know that this is a bandwagon everyone likes to hop on when bashing the management, but excuse me just this once 
)
Manchester City? They should start looking for a new manager.
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Please don’t think that Pearce will a panacea to England’s ills. I have been a City fan for many years and it pains me to say that the football we now play under Pearce’s stewardship remains some of the worst that I’ve ever seen and that includes the years when we slipped to the 3rd grade of English Football.
I was always a Pearce fan when he was a player but I’m afraid the skills he displayed on the pitch have not accompanied him into management.
I was desperate for him to succeed at City and I was overjoyed when he was made manager in May 2005. Since then, and after an initial spell that had everyone excited enough to be considering him to lead the national team, I’m afraid that the wheels have come off big style.
Every single match that we’ve been involved in this season, with the notable exception of a couple, have been described in the media as “turgid” affairs. It’s true, I’ve been to most of them (it’s no coincidence that our attendances are falling rapidly) and if anyone thinks that Pearce can spot potential early in a player’s career, then take a look at Giorgios Samaras. £6M for one of the worst players ever to don a blue shirt (and we’ve had a few donkeys over the years.)
Yes, I agree that City should be looking for a new manager but not, I’m afraid, because our currenrt one is joining the England set up. I think you’ll find that there are plenty of City season ticket holders who agree with me.
Wonder why the board is so bothered with keeping Pearce if he’s that bad.
I admit that I haven’t watched every match Man City have played, but I’d place the ‘blame’ on the quality of the players as much as the manager - you can only manage what you have, and Man City have limited talent (Barton and Richards aside).
I agree that you can only manage what you have but all our ‘best’ players were here prior to Pearce’s reign. Look at the buys he’s made ; Samaras - rank, Corradi - terrible, Dabo - hopeless, Beasley - average, Vassell - works hard but doesn’t score enough, Dickov - should never have come back, Hamman - terrible in the games he’s played. Need I go on?
I hope that we ‘limp’ through until summer and then get rid. But, as an England fan also, that doesn’t fill me with optimism.
Read this:
Pearce to return to Man City after summer tournament
Now I understand why Man City agreed to it, but why did Pearce agree to this? He apparently thinks he can manage things on a part-time basis - next we’ll have someone managing England’s senior squad part-time.
The FA - no comments about them rats.