Nigel Pearson

Discussion in 'The Hornets' Nest - Watford Chat' started by Jim_AFCB, Feb 7, 2021.

  1. USAHornet

    USAHornet Academy Graduate

    It's worth reading some of the stories about his personal COVID case, which sounded quite problematic - never warranting hospitalisation when isolating in March but left him with symptoms that carried on for months and made it difficult for him to resume work normally in June. That clearly had an impact. Good piece in The Times here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/...yers-knew-i-was-sacked-before-i-did-pxf0ptp7z

    We'll never know exactly what happened at West Ham. Best guess is that he had an incident/argument with Gino Pozzo that probably was the culmination of months of our leadership's desire to insert itself in coaching matters and a dreadful performance that night. No way to reconcile after that, presumably.

    Along the way, Watford lost its best player in Deulofeu right before lockdown, it's clear leadership was lacking from Deeney, and the players returned with a sense of complacency on the pitch.

    Without knowing Bournemouth's personalities, hard to say if he's the right fit. In a normal year, I think he'd have kept us up. I think he'd have been better for us this year than Ivic or Xisco are proving. And I think regardless our "model" and Deeney's power make it hard to judge any head coach based on their time here, because it's such a weird environment.
     
  2. Steve Leo Beleck

    Steve Leo Beleck Squad Player

    Think we would have stayed up and we didn't know until later that he was quite badly affected by Covid during the lockdown when the season was paused and the players were left to their own devices. It meant we weren't prepared at all for the restart and that cost us. I'd rather he was still our head coach to be fair.
     
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  3. Hogg-DEENEY!!!

    Hogg-DEENEY!!! Squad Player

    I think he'd have kept us up in a normal season (remember Villa wouldn't have had a chance to regroup and Bournemouth wouldn't have had Brooks back), but this club is toxic, I don't see the end result being any different from Ivic. FWIW, I thought Bournemouth showed a lot of fight towards the end of last season despite looking hopeless for much of it, they did well in the Leicester game (albeit they were handed the win a bit) had some very close VAR calls go against them against Tottenham and Southampton, and won on the final day when it was all but lost, I don't know if they still have that kind of fight in them now that Howe and the core of that team have left
     
  4. BigRossLittleRoss

    BigRossLittleRoss First Team

    He wouldnt go down well at Bournemouth because he is an honest bloke with integrity, and would baulk at the culture of diving, cheating and harassing the referees that was clearly a fundamental part of the manifesto under Howe/Tindall.
     
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  5. lowerrous

    lowerrous First Team

    Would Pearson be as effective without Craig Shakespeare (who is now at Villa)?
     
  6. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

    Nigel Pearson claims Watford are creating an 'unhealthy culture' for head coaches | Watford Observer

    Some positive words from Pearson today. Not sure I agree with him about giving Munoz time as he shouldn't have been appointed in the first place, but I agree with in general Watford should give a coach a bit more time. However, with us it's always all or nothing. A new coach invariably starts well but then just nosedives without any hope of rectifying the issues.

    Personally I believe Pearson should have stayed with Shakespeare. They'd have given us a far better chance of promotion than the two we've had since.

    There's not been many dismissals I've not agreed with, but Pearson was one. Dyche and Joka (non renewal of contract) were the other two.
     
  7. a19tgg

    a19tgg First Team

    I agree Pearson would’ve been prefect for this division. Although the football was dull, in hindsight I would’ve also given Ivic this season and a some say in transfers. I think long term he could’ve archived something.

    Instead the owners decided they wanted an offensive coach who would given in to the players, what we’ve ended up with is worse football, less goals and worse stats all over the pitch.
     
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  8. luke_golden

    luke_golden Space Cadet

    Had us going early on, but there’s no doubt that he was a completely different man post-lockdown.

    Obviously COVID, and his personal issues knocked him for six.

    Fair play for giving us a fighting chance, but accommodating Deeney when he was clearly unfit/ineffective, and completely failing to set us up, or motivate the players for the West Ham game were unforgivable errors.
     
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  9. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    On the many dismissals: you have to consider not only the dismissal itself but also the replacement. Did he do the job? Would Dyche have got us as close to promotion as Zola that season? And would Jokanovic have avoided relegation from the PL as comfortably as QSF did? I think the results of those two changes justified them, even though they seemed harsh at the time.
     
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  10. Carpster

    Carpster Squad Player

    It's impossible to comment on because it never happened! In all fairness both Dyche and Jokanovic could of achieved more than Zola and QSF. purely guesswork.
     
  11. Since63

    Since63 Squad Player

    Or Mapps' top class equaliser at Brighton...
     
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  12. Vic

    Vic First Year Pro

    Well Jim from Bournemouth, if you’re still here, I’m gonna say what we all know: that Pearson would be a perfect fit for the Cherries. He’ll get a tune out of them and they will win automatic, with or without the Bard. Even without 10,000 fans baying for red after 11 seconds, there’s enough nastiness in that team to ruthlessly tear up this league. He doesn’t have to be the master tactician. He’s clever enough to know what to do for the short term: He will start by recounting tales to the squad of how he fought with wolves in the Himalayas and ripped the head off a grizzly, all the while assessing his new pack for the fighters and slackers. He’ll appoint Captain Jack Wilshere, and the pirates will board any ship that purports to be HMS PISSTHELEAGUE and they will take no prisoners. It might start to wear a bit thin by the end of March but they’ll be strong by then, and will have other teams quaking, after one or two particularly important, eye catching and televised victories. Pearson will provide plenty of measured and thoughtful responses to media questions, while he takes several deep breaths in order to stop himself from punching a journalist. And he will laugh off the incident when he gets to wrestle Troy Deeney to the ground on the touch line during the return fixture later this month. (A fixture in which Bournemouth triumph handsomely, by the way.) The Deeney incident will retrospectively count against Pearson at the end of the campaign. But he will have done what he set out to do: Bournemouth will be back in the promised land, and Nige will have another promotion on his CV. He’ll be jobless again in the summer months and that will give him time to get out into the wilderness and hunt, gather and ponder. There’ll be more question marks surrounding his sanity, and chairmen of other clubs will fall out with board members over suggestions of his suitability for their outfit.

    Postscript:

    Bournemouth will reappoint the rehabilitated Eddie Howe. It will be a difficult season as Eddie attempts to establish a new culture of honesty and endeavour, having spent 6 months in a Buddhist monastery. Bournemouth are relegated again on 12 points, having not done well out of VAR. Many fans are relieved not to have broken an unwanted record.

    Pearson will grow a beard and go to Scandinavia to manage a club newly acquired by his old friends, King Power. After every match day, he’ll spend Saturday - Monday in a cabin he’s built in the forest. He’ll be happy, and last 2 seasons without much incident.

    Meanwhile, Watford are playing to crowds of 8,000 in a stunning new 30,000 capacity stadium in Bushey, in league 1, with Gareth Ainsworth as manager/head coach/WTF. He took over from Maurice Pochettino (cousin of the ex Spurs manager and 2nd cousin to the son, who is still a Watford player, but is on loan somewhere in Spain). Ainsworth is the 29th appointment of the Pozzo era.

    It’s only 2023, and Troy Deeney is still younger than the 2021 Glenn Murray, so he’s just signed a contract extension and now has his own radio station.
     
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  13. lutonh8a

    lutonh8a Squad Player

    I don't think Dyche's style would have suited us at all with the players we signed in that first season under The Pozzos. He had done a good job previously but the football was rancid.
     
  14. WillisWasTheWorst

    WillisWasTheWorst Its making less grammar mistake's thats important

    Sorry, that wasn’t quite the point I was trying to make. I think most would agree that the outcome resulting from both of those changes exceeded expectations and so they were justified.
     
  15. Arakel

    Arakel First Team

    Pearson is a limited but quite likeable manager. The obvious criticism would be how he clearly let the squad drift during the Covid break and we came back in a shocking state. It seems obvious in hindsight that the first team management expected the season to be voided and didn't make plans for anything else.

    Pearson's departure was sudden and the announcement on the club site was very, very terse. While the former part isn't really news for us of late, the latter part is extremely unusual and spoke volumes. While we don't know exactly what, something definitely happened behind the scenes that caused him to be suddenly fired and it wasn't our results. Rumours at the time were that he had a bust up with a player and/or used some kind of slur, but those are entirely unsubstantiated.
     
  16. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    I'm absolutely sick of hearing Nigel Pearson talk about Watford. He deserved to get sacked as the team had been in their worst form of the season at the time we needed performances the most.

    I never had him down as the victim playing, media wh*re type either.
     
  17. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    They probably ask him about it tbf .

    And Pearson speaks his mind .
     
    a19tgg likes this.
  18. Manatleisure

    Manatleisure Squad Player

    But did Pearson have total control of this? Was this just Deeney being Deeney?
     
  19. wfc4ever

    wfc4ever Administrator Staff Member

    Deeney probably told Pearson he was fit to play and Nige wanted to pick him ahead of Welbeck.
     
  20. luke_golden

    luke_golden Space Cadet

    Yeah, fair comment, but even if he was under pressure to play Deeney, if he wasn’t big enough to withstand and do what we obviously needed by playing Welbeck instead, then Pearson is still culpable.
     
    Chumlax likes this.
  21. Manatleisure

    Manatleisure Squad Player

    He probably was big enough. Why do you think he got sacked? What were some of the frank discussions about that got him the sack? I wouldn't be surprised if Pearson was saying to his bosses "Let me pick the team, not you" and that was the end of that.
     
  22. luke_golden

    luke_golden Space Cadet

    No. He was sacked 2 games before the end of the season. It was blindingly obvious from the moment football resumed after lockdown that Deeney wasn’t fit. Pearson played him repeatedly. So yeah, he was probably sacked for finally stepping up, but at 3-0 down at HT away at West Ham, with 2 games left, it was much too late.
     
    Chumlax likes this.
  23. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

    Yeah we were relegated after that game. We could have had a managerial team of Napoleon and the Road Runner and we wouldn't have stayed up.
     
  24. hornetboy1

    hornetboy1 First Team Captain

  25. wfcmoog

    wfcmoog Tinpot

  26. Burnsy

    Burnsy First Team

  27. UEA_Hornet

    UEA_Hornet First Team Captain

    Chumlax likes this.
  28. GoingDown

    GoingDown "The Stability"

  29. Watfordftw

    Watfordftw Reservist

    Suppose you forgot about the QSF 2 era? Even Pearson's worst spell was better.
     
  30. Chumlax

    Chumlax Squad Player

    It's a pretty close run thing and I'm not entirely sure the stats bear that interpretation out, to be honest:

    upload_2021-2-11_13-25-16.png

    (Pearson post-lockdown):

    upload_2021-2-11_13-25-53.png
     
  31. Dorset-Orn

    Dorset-Orn First Year Pro

    Personally I always felt the first nail in the coffin was the first game after lock down away at Burnley. A highly winnable game, they had loads of injuries, want away sulkers dropped, and looked like a great chance to restart our points gathering.
    In reality their second string walked all over us and gave a lesson in teamwork and energy.... It set the tone, our lot were shocked, knocked backwards, and never really had the heart for the battle. I think a loss just after to Southampton (??) reinforced that doubt and the "winnable games" shrank big time and confidence was shot (along with general lack of player fitness at that time).

    NP could have done well but the lack of fitness and team solidarity gave him no chance once he tried to exert control...
     
  32. Chumlax

    Chumlax Squad Player

    It's literally in the comment directly above yours, mate ;)
     
    Dorset-Orn likes this.
  33. pleaseenterthenamebywh

    pleaseenterthenamebywh Academy Graduate

    Not having that. QSF's team showed more fight and were closer to getting results than we were in the run in with Pearson. Absolutely pathetic the way we ended that season.
     
    WatfordÉire likes this.
  34. Watfordftw

    Watfordftw Reservist

    Pearson wasn't manager for the Man city & Arsenal game, so you can take those off. How much fight did we put up against Man city when we were 5-0 down after 15 minutes under QSF?

    I like both managers, but Pearson's worst was still better than QSF's second spell at the club. It was a horrendous appointment.
     
  35. Watfordftw

    Watfordftw Reservist

    Pearson won 2/3 of his final games as manager, it may have been ugly and we'll never know how it would have gone with him in charge for the final 2 games, but he won the crucial 2 games (Norwich/Newcastle) to give us a fighting chance of salvaging the mess caused by QSF.

    West Ham was poor, but they were in a false position, as seen by this season.
     

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