Nigel Pearson - Sacked

He's earned it

 

I'd say sacking Pearson was the stupidest decision of the Pozzo era.

And I'm generally grateful for their ownership.

 

Not even close, let's not revise history here; we always get bummed by City, it's in our current squad's DNA, and one of the reason's is cos we kept on doing exactly what Pearson had been doing.

Rehiring Quique is a far worse decision for an immediate start, and if we hadn't we would be very unlikely to be in the position we find ourselves in (this season).

On top of that, the prolonged decision not to adequately replace/improve either central defence or central attack have both proven to be tangibly disastrous.

In the grand scheme of things, whether it's Pearson or Mullins standing on the touchline watching Giraldi's team of sickening rats ball their way into ignominious relegation is barely here nor there.

 

Can't agree.

Why would players have confidence in Mullins over Pearson?

One has saved multiple teams from relegation.

The other has been in charge for 2 games previously in his whole career and won neither.

The QSF second stint is my next worst. At least there was some logic to it.

 

Has there been a point since lockdown where the players showed any confidence in Pearson? Second half against Newcastle aside, when the opposition checked out and even then it took 2 pens to get past them, we've been completely crap. The time to show confidence in him was in the period before we got down to the last two games of the season which we all knew when we saw the fixture list we needed to be safe before.

 

Come on mate, why would they have confidence in Pearson?! They very clearly didn't; we saw it in action in every match post-resumption. The last example of that was on Friday night, when we only conceded one less goal against a relegation rival directly above us in the table. It's pretty generous to say Pearson has saved 'multiple teams from relegation', too, to be honest.

 

Why would anyone choose a rookie over Pearson?

Bizarre.

Maybe not the thing that puts us down.

But still bonkers with two games to go.

 

Par against full strength city is 5-0, based on his record since restart I can’t see any situation where Pearson gets a result against City. Even our two wins were highly unconvincing. The logic that he would’ve got a result against a full strength city with individual players going for league records is deeply flawed when he couldn’t get results against Southampton, Burnley and West Ham. We didn’t lay a glove on any of those teams, yet it would’ve been different against City? Pure fantasy.

 

No one, least of all me, is saying that's not bonkers, totally fairplay, I just don't at all think we were in a position that it could have that much effect on either way. They very clearly to almost a man weren't playing for Pearson, whether through choice or incompetence.

 

The one thing you can say now is that we can’t have any excuses to not beat Arsenal. They can’t get Europe through the league, they didn’t care last night and they’ll care even less with the cup final coming up after our game. If Villa can beat them there isn’t any reason we can’t, but when we don’t we’ll only have ourselves to blame.

 

It seems confidence is largely a taboo word on here. Lots of people seem happy to throw around all sorts of explanations and descriptions of the team but I've seen little recognition that they quite clearly zero confidence in themselves too. It's a massive factor in how they're playing.

 

Pearson would have made no difference last night, he might have even led us to an even heavier defeat with his bizzare substitutions.

 

It's totally about confidence. Our defensive shape isn't too bad, certainly a lot better than it was at the end of Gracia's reign.

But, I've watched these players a lot, and almost to a man, they are a shadow of themselves. There is no energy or urgency. No one harasses the opposition, or presses them into mistakes. No one seems comfortable on the ball, every touch is a miss-control. The passing is not progressive and often intercepted easily. There is no pattern of play. We are not creating dangerous situations from which we can score from. We're not picking up markers tightly enough from the oppositions set plays......the list is pretty endless.

But, I know they have it in them, if seldom seen this season. They need a break. They need something positive to go for them in the next match. We've had very little go our way this season, so maybe we're due a bit of fortune.

Now we're really at the last chance saloon, looking down the barrel of a gun. They know this is really it. They have to perform or they all become Championship players overnight. I'm hoping that finally that message gets through. They run through brick walls in order to save their status as Premier League players. We'll see if they can do it.

Traditionally, Arsenal do not like the in your face approach. This should be our strength. We've got to bully them from the very start. If we manage to take the lead or if Villa go a goal down and that message gets through during the drinks break, I'm hoping that would give them confidence to see the job through.

It's not really in our hands anymore, but we can make it as tough as possible for Villa. We cannot give them an easy passage to staying up. The players owe that to themselves and to their tormented fans.

 

I think it's more motivation than confidence.

Players not getting bonuses, players thinking they'd be a bigger team now, same old dressing room with the same old characters, 4 different coaches in a season yet each playing the same system, no real belief in the system being played or the club, younger players sitting around knowing they'll never be used, reserve players sitting around knowing they'll never be used, oldest team in the PL, losing game after game, knowing that even if they are relegated they'll be finding moves back to the PL or abroad.

People like Foster can chuck out the usual football cliches of 'confidence' and 'its a funny old game innit Saint' but the truth is they've not look motivated at any point this season and I would argue from the Cup Semi-Final onwards.

I'm hopeful that it'll be a summer of revelations coming out the dressing room about what the truth actually is.

 

Isn't that part of the problem? They won't all be.

On the question of confidence, the players should have been brimming with it after beating Liverpool. They lost at Palace, which was unfortunate but I suppose can happen, the came the shutdown. First game back all teams were uncertain and a draw v Leicester was fine. The problem then came in the next game at an injury-hit Burnley. That was where the attitude for some reason was all wrong and it's never been right since.

 

I think one of the problems is that, instead of taking confidence from that Liverpool victory, they took reputation, as in 'YEAH, THIS IS WHO WE ARE, LOOK AT US, HUUUUURRRGGGHHH'. Instantly thought they were back to their old selves and more, and allowed it to go to their heads thinking they wouldn't have to put in the work to build from that foundation, but would be magically elevated to it instead. Then Palace disabused them of that notion the very next week.

So much of what has gone wrong, this season and in a broader sense, seems to be largely attributable to an insane, totally baseless arrogance that appears to pervade the club, from players to owner up. I have no idea where it comes from, but Hubris seems more appropriate a concept to apply to us than almost any other team I can think of.

 

They will all be. They are all under contract, apart from Gomes and Holebas. Every single player under contract will become Championship players overnight.

Now of course some will demand a transfer, some the club will want to move on anyway, but the vast majority will probably stay. I can even see a case where Geri stays with us. He'll almost certainly be with us during the early part of next season before the window shuts. He needs to prove himself that he's got over his ACL before someone comes in for him and we wont be selling players like him on the cheap, so it's not a formality we'll lose him.

 

As a Watford fan, I have had enough of this club, or more accurately the owners.
Their hire and fire mentality has just gone too far this time and we are now just a laughing stock for the whole football world. I did think at last that we had found a good coaching team in Pearson and Shakespeare, but no. They get the sack also.
The contempt with which they treat their fans is beyond belief, the club statement about the sacking of Pearson told us nothing of the reasoning behind it, then ends with "There will be no further club comment"
Well WFC. I will make a comment, I will not be renewing my season ticket until the Pozzos' are out of this club, so now I am giving THEM the sack. .

 

Even the LMA have had a say on the Pearson dismissal now.

https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/s...ford-give-coaches-time-nigel-pearson-sacking/

I really think the club has to give an indicator why he was dismissed with just two games to go. They cannot stay quiet on this matter, the pressure is building as to outline why this decision was made. Was it for footballing reasons, was it because an irrevocable break down of trust, was it for gross misconduct. They don't have to go into great detail, just an outline will do.

The terse nature of the official announcement looks so poor on the club. You could say that you can read something more into it, or you could say the club just don't give a t0ss.

This all really needs to be cleared up. We are heading for the Championship and the fans need answers. If they refuse to do this, then fans will disconnect and leave the club in droves.

 

This really feels like when the Portsmouth and Hull wheels started falling off.

 

And Sunderland.

 

I would quite clearly say that the owners don't give a toss for the fans.
They are business people and they bought the club to line their own pockets, why should they care about us.

 

I think that's a little unfair. This season has not been typical of how things have been in the past.

Before this season that have made great strides. Maybe some of it superficial, but a lot of things have been very positive. They held regular fan's forums, they named stands after our legends, a GT statue and regular pre-season matches in his honour. Full consultation over the new badge design. The good work for the NHS and The Sensory room. This all shows they care about the fans.....but for some reason, this season it's gone the opposite way.

I would like to know the reason for this. Are they just so embarrassed by the mess they've made of things, are they scared to front the fans, don't they really not give a sh1t anymore? These are all valid concerns, but I think they've done enough good things in the past to have plenty of credit in the bank, although it is certainly eroding by their continued silence.

 

It's not "generous", it's the objective truth, whether you like Pearson or not. Carlisle, Southampton, West Brom (as assistant manager) and Leicester, three of those occasions when they were in the relegation zone going into the final game (hmm, look where we are now? And you never know, yesterday Pearson might have masterminded the 2-0 defeat we needed at least as our home form under him was very good).

Pearson went on a bad run for a fifth of the season (I'll discount the form between Spurs and Liverpool because Sarr was out and we were still playing sporadically well and we'd only conceded the first goal twice up to that point) - that is not enough to justify the sacking of a manager, whatever the circumstances or level of performances, especially when you've already sacked two managers twice in the same season (I'll make an exception for Flores as he should never have been appointed in the first place). Howie, Dyche, Hodgson and Hasenhuttl have gone on longer runs of bad form with teams of similar or better quality and have still kept their jobs.

And maybe I'm imagining it, but it's funny how after the almost universal and justified outpouring of disgust on Sunday, more people seem to be saying (or at least implying) that sacking Pearson was the right thing to do.

 

I think that is fair comment.
I have just been letting it get to me a bit to much, the nature and belligerence of the club comment, and the fact that they have not given Nigel and Craig enough time before letting their trigger happy nature get the better of them.

 

Just to jump in here, I think the majority of fans, from what I can gather, and from my own viewpoint, are more mystified over the timing of the dismissal rather than the sacking itself.

Personally, I wouldn't have minded if he stayed, regardless of which division we were in, just to see if he could create something similar as to what he did at Leicester. But I get it, if the club saw him as a firefighter and not the progressive coach they would like longer term, I don't see that as a major problem, as long as they do have someone better lined up.

However, just to sack the guy a week before his contract expires, with two highly significant matches still to play, leaving in charge a couple of rookies, to try and keep us up, without explanation really defies logic. Is has to be explained and explained quickly so the fans can understand, move on and at least it might get a few back on board.

 

Also "There will be no further club comment", is clearly sticking two fingers up at the supporters and I for one, up with it, will not put.

 

Yeah, so none of those other than Leicester were in the Prem, and they were all varying degrees of a very long time ago, except for Leicester, and if you're drawing parallels between that situation and this one, then you're in fantasy land.

Saying our home form under him was very good, and that as a result he might have masterminded a 2-0 win over a team we've never beaten in our time in the Prem, suggests you might already be there. He hadn't masterminded anything post-resumption, and 'very good' is another example of generosity.

Pearson was not about to save us more than anyone else, especially given that fact that we ended up doing essentially the exact same things he was with no effect whatsoever last night. You hint at revisionism and a change in sentiment in your final sentence, but it's anyone who's suddenly pretending like he was the tactical messiah, of whom only he could have possibly saved us over these last two game, who is being revisionist. Again, look at the West Ham game. One of the worst performances for us this century; utterly contrary to everything it needed to be to give us any chance. And now Foster is coming out saying they have no confidence whatsoever. Well who, if anyone, has the job of influencing and counteracting that? Oh yes, the Head Coach. Nigel Pearson. And he didn't. Not one bit.

 

Perhaps, because the owners knew that it was very unlikely that we would win the last two games, but yet, at the time we might well still stay up.
Perhaps they felt they could get out of paying any bonus due for keeping us up.

 

The bonus thing has been dispelled. He will get around £1m if we stay up apparently, which is the correct thing to happen.

They may have thought we'd lose the last two, but sacking him when they did without any hint of explanation, apart from a clear two-fingers short official announcement is always going to be critically scrutinised.

How would Mullins do a better job than an experience manager like Pearson? How would Stack be more tactically astute than Shakespeare? It just doesn't make any sense, and has opened up the club to ridicule and criticism. Its has also alienated a lot of fans.

 

I doubt Pearson would take a instructional note handed to him by a fitness coach.

 

He may have done if he was caught short. Little bits of paper like that are handy especially during the early part of Covid.