Stuart Pearce (born 24 April 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player, who was most recently a first-team coach for Premier League club West Ham United. He was nicknamed "Psycho" for his unforgiving style of play. In addition, he is one of the few players to have made over 1,000 career appearances.
As a player, Pearce played as a defender and appeared for Wealdstone, Coventry City, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Manchester City in a career that spanned twenty-two years. He is best known for his twelve-year spell at Forest, where he regularly captained the team and became the club's most capped international, making 76 of his 78 appearances for England while with the club and captaining the national side on nine occasions. In 2016, he briefly came out of retirement, signing a one-match deal with Longford, from a town in Gloucestershire, a team dubbed "the worst in Great Britain", in order to support the grassroots game.
Pearce's managerial career began at Nottingham Forest in a caretaker role, from December 1996 to May 1997. In November 2000, he was assistant coach to Peter Taylor in Taylor's only match in charge of England. Following his retirement in 2002, he remained with Manchester City as a coach under Kevin Keegan. In 2005, he was named caretaker manager and was given the job permanently that summer. In 2007, he was named caretaker manager of the England national under-21 team, guiding them to the semi-finals of the 2007 UEFA Under-21 Championship. After being dismissed by City in May 2007, he was given the England U21 job permanently a month later. Under Pearce, the team finished as runners-up in the 2009 UEFA Under-21 Championship, but failed to make it out of the group stage in the 2013 UEFA Under-21 Championship. In addition, Pearce was an assistant coach under Fabio Capello, managed the Great Britain Olympic football team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and was caretaker manager of England for one game in February 2012. In 2013, he left the U21s, as his contract was not extended by the Football Association. He returned to Nottingham Forest as manager in July 2014, and initially began the season well, but after a run of poor form, he was dismissed in February 2015. He has since coached at Portsmouth and at West Ham United.
Early life Born in Shepherd's Bush, London, Pearce is the youngest of four children. He has two brothers, Dennis and Ray, and a sister, Pamela. Dennis was once a member of the far-right British National Party and was third on the BNP list for London for the 2009 European Parliament election. Ray was formerly a referee, and in September 1986, was a linesman in a League Cup match involving his brother. Pearce first attended Fryent Primary School in Kingsbury, North West London, before attending Claremont High School in Kenton, a locality contiguous to Kingsbury.
Club career
Early career Pearce failed a trial at Queens Park Rangers and then rejected an offer from Hull City, instead settling into a career in the non-league game with his local side, Wealdstone, while training and working as an electrician. For almost five years, he was the first-choice full-back for the team, then amongst the biggest names of non-league football in the Alliance Premier League.
Coventry City In 1983, Wealdstone received an unexpected offer of £30,000 (then a very large sum for a semi-professional player) for Pearce from top-flight club Coventry City. Sky Blues manager Bobby Gould had been to watch Wealdstone and was impressed by Pearce's determination and combative attitude. Pearce agreed to the step-up in clubs reluctantly – making his professional debut for Coventry immediately. He established himself as an uncompromising left-back who played in a hard but fair manner.
Nottingham Forest Two years later in 1985, Pearce was brought to Nottingham Forest by manager Brian Clough in a combined deal which also saw Coventry centre-back Ian Butterworth move to Forest. Despite the transfer, Pearce was still unsure of his prospects in the professional game and even advertised his services as an electrician in Forest's match-day programme.
Pearce spent twelve years at Forest, with the majority of the time as club captain. During his playing career, he won two League Cups and the Full Members Cup, while also scoring from a free-kick in the 1991 FA Cup final, when Forest were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur. In his time at the City Ground, Pearce was one of the Forest players who had to cope with the horrors of the Hillsborough disaster during the opening minutes of their FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool. Pearce played in the rescheduled match at Old Trafford, which Liverpool won 3–1. He helped Forest finish third in the league that year, and also contributed to their victories in the League Cup and Full Members Cup. He helped them retain the League Cup a year later and in 1991 the club reached the FA Cup final. Despite giving Forest an early lead in the final against Tottenham, Pearce ended up on the losing side as Spurs came back to win 2–1. He missed out on a Wembley appearance the following season as Forest lost 1–0 to Manchester United in the 1992 League Cup final.
In 1993, Forest were relegated from the Premier League and Brian Clough resigned after 18 years as manager, but Pearce opted to stay at the City Ground and captained Forest to an instant return to the top flight as Division One runners-up. In 1994, Pearce was accused of directing a racial slur at Paul Ince during a Nottingham Forest–Manchester United match. It was alleged Pearce called Ince an "arrogant black cunt". Pearce stated he apologised at the time to Ince and later in 2012 said of the racial slur: "It wasn't right or appropriate at the time, or at any time." Pearce helped Forest finish third in the Premier League in 1995 and reach the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in 1996.
In 1996–97 season, Forest struggled in the league and manager Frank Clark resigned in December, which saw 34-year-old Pearce appointed caretaker player-manager of Forest in December 1996. His first match in charge was at home to Arsenal in the league. He admitted in an interview with Match of the Day that, in his first attempt at picking a starting XI, he did not realise until it was pointed out to him by his wife that he had omitted goalkeeper Mark Crossley. Forest, however, won the match 2–1, coming from behind after an Ian Wright goal with two goals from Alf-Inge Haaland. Despite winning Manager of the Month award in January 1997, he would later share the caretaker role with Dave Bassett, and Forest were relegated, finishing in bottom place.
Pearce opted to leave the club on a free transfer at the end of the 1996–97 season after 12 years at the City Ground.
Later career Pearce joined Newcastle United along with fellow veterans John Barnes and Ian Rush in the 1997–98 season under Kenny Dalglish, and played in the 1998 FA Cup final, though again he emerged on the defeated side. He scored once during his spell at Newcastle, in a UEFA Champions League tie against Dynamo Kyiv. Eventually, Pearce was isolated, along with other players including Barnes and Rob Lee, after Ruud Gullit succeeded Dalglish. A number of players were treated coldly by Gullit, and Pearce along with Barnes and Lee were made to train with the reserves despite cumulatively having over 150 England caps between them. As result Pearce didn't make any first team appearances for Newcastle after December 1998. Both Pearce and Barnes assert in their autobiographies Gullit felt threatened by the senior players in the squad, and they felt they were being sidelined to prevent them challenging him for the manager's position should it arise. Pearce claims also that he once kicked Gullit up in the air during a training session, and a number of other players sniggered at this due to Gullit's poor relationship with them.
Pearce went on to play for West Ham United, a year after falling out of favour with Gullit. He made his debut on 7 August 1999 in a 1–0 home win against Tottenham Hotspur. His first goal came on 21 October 2000 in a 2–1 home defeat to Arsenal. He made 50 appearances in all competitions, scoring three goals and in 2001 he was named Hammer of the Year.
In the summer of 2001, he was Kevin Keegan's first signing for Manchester City for what would be the final season in his career. He captained the club to the First Division championship and scored direct from a free-kick on his debut, against Watford. In the final game of his career, against Portsmouth, he had the chance to reach 100 career goals. He took a penalty kick for City four minutes into injury time, but missed it along with the chance to reach his target.
Amateur football On 28 January 2016, at the age of 53 and more than thirteen years after retiring, Pearce signed as a player for non-league side Longford, a club from Longford, Gloucestershire. The club was dubbed as "the worst in the UK" as they lost all their games at that date with a single goal scored and 179 conceded and lying at the bottom of the Gloucestershire Northern Senior League Division Two, the 13th tier of English football. On 12 March, Pearce made his debut for Longford as a second-half substitute in a 1–0 loss against Wotton Rovers.
Style of play Throughout his career, Pearce was given the nickname of "Psycho" for his unforgiving style of play. This was initially a tag afforded to him only by Forest fans, though later it was adopted by England supporters as well. Of the nickname, Pearce later commented:
Roy Keane, who played with Pearce from 1990 to 1993, is quoted as saying that Pearce was "a man amongst boys" at Forest. Former England teammate Matt Le Tissier has since described him as his scariest opponent in his autobiography, Taking Le Tiss.
Pearce was also well known for his prowess from set pieces, being a designated penalty-taker for club and country. As a specialist at direct free kicks, renowned for his powerful left foot, Pearce scored from several of the free kicks that he took, famously including the first goal in the 1991 FA Cup final against Tottenham. He was also a notable attacking threat going forward and a good crosser of the ball.
International career Pearce made his debut for England against Brazil in a 1–1 friendly draw at Wembley on 19 May 1987 at age 25. Replacing Kenny Sansom as the first choice left-back for his country, injury prevented him from playing in the 1988 UEFA European Championship. Following the tournament, he was consistently picked as left-back and scored his first England goal in his 21st senior appearance for England on 25 April 1990, scoring in a 4–2 friendly win over Czechoslovakia at Wembley.
Pearce played at the 1990 FIFA World Cup, setting up a goal for David Platt in the quarter-final win against Cameroon and operating as a more attacking left-back than normal as England deployed a sweeper system. England progressed to the semi-finals, and Pearce was one of two players (the other being Chris Waddle) to miss a penalty in the shoot-out against West Germany after the match had ended in a 1–1 draw. Pearce left the field in tears.
The following summer, on 8 June 1991, Pearce scored his second England goal in a 2–0 win over New Zealand during the England side's tour of Oceania. This game was his 40th appearance for England.