Who Else Doubted Pearson When He Was Hired?

[Profondo Rosso]

I wanted Paul Ince and was underwhelmed with the Pearson appointment. :icon_redf

Never been more happy to be proven wrong tbh. What a man!

 

[LCFCmonkey]

Never doubted, but was unsure at first. He did enough to get us out of League 1, this season has been beyond all expectations.

Also, has anyone noticed how Milan's "Three Year Plan" still could happen? Two years ago, we never would have believed it.

 

[glyn]

I was underwhelmed, but mainly as I didn't know enough about him to either be for or against the appointment

 

[David Gwilliam]

I wanted Ian Holloway to stay on since I regarded him as an excellent manager who had taken over a club in trauma. Now I was partly right and partly wrong. Given a pre-season at Blackpool he has proved to be an excellent manager. However, I was wrong to want him to stay on. Milan was correct in realising that a section of the crowd blamed him for the relegation (perhaps the same people who cheered Martin Allen when he came with Cheltenham).
There was also every reason to think that we could not get a manager as good as Ian Holloway to come to a League One club.
I was going to say that "luckily Milan chose brilliantlyl" but I doubt if luck has much to do with the choice of Nigel Pearson - I gather it was partly down to Lee Hoos in which case well done Lee Hoos.
The real tragedy was Milan's error of judgement in picking Martin Allen. We can only guess what would have happened if Holloway or Pearson had been given those resources and the pre-season. I doubt if Steve Walsh Senior would have recommended Jimmy Neilson or Jonny Hayes.

 

[Filthy Rich]

I also wanted Paul Ince at the time but was honestly very pleased when Nigel was appointed.

I'd always remembered how well he came across when briefly in charge of Newcastle and thought that he would be a very good manager.

 

[Boy Genius]

I was not bothered either way when he came. I was still in a state of comatose with all the managers we had got through. It was a case of how long will this one last.
But I have to give the bloke credit, promotion at first attempt, and now play offs at the first attempt. I hope he carries this into the play off and wins it at first attempt ( of which I have no doubts as I have said all along )

 

[PFKAKTF FOX]

Have to admit when we got him I wasn't convinced he was the man to take us forward and I honestly thought he would be out within 6 months but at the time anything was better than the John Gregory / Steve Walsh dream team!!!

Pearson has achieved the almost impossible of turning the club around immediately to convincingly secure the league one title and then perform a minor miracle in leading the club into the play offs and give us a real chance of securing back to back to promotions.

Most definitely it has been a great choice and a great partnership for both parties. What has really impressed me is the way Pearson reacts to blips or dips in form and gets the club back to winning ways. Great man manager, you can see all the players love playing for him, DJ aside :icon_bigg

 

[slyfox]

When his name came up,and that Southampton were not giving him a contract...he was the man for me...he always reminded me of Walshy when he was a player..and he was just the man we needed for the job.

A no-nonsense guy,who was bound to ruffle a few feathers.

Though has Lee Hoos got to get a lot of credit for his appointment?

 

[tedfoxxx]

I can only say the same as BG really, I was utterly numb with it all but what an excellent appointment he has turned out to be.

 

[The Major]

I was devastated when Pearson got the job. I thought he would just be Mandaric's yes man. And anyway I wanted Grayson for the job.

I don't know if any one could have done as good but nobody could have done better. Thanks a lot Nige.

 

[Wombat]

How sick must Southampton be feeling, everytime we have won and cemented our place in the top 6?

Someone in the saints boardroom must be a little red faced, in decided Pearson wasn't worth a contract to

 

[KLFox]

I thought we could have done better a man who had little experience as the main man just a caretaker or assistant.

More than happy to eat humble pie :icon_wink

 

[Miles Away]

I was really hoping Grayson would be the appointment. And I still believe Larry is a decent boss.

But Pearson...wow, his achievement is remarkable, and to lose him would be a devastating blow to the club.

Pay the man!

 

[Dour]

Someone in the saints boardroom must be a little red faced, in decided Pearson wasn't worth a contract to

I think the red-faced twat in Southampton's boardroom who decided Pearson wasn't worth a contract has since left the building.

 

[beaumontfox]

I was just glad to see Holloway get the boot.

People defending him seem to forget he took over about 3 months into the season......and our play steadily got worse and worse and owrse under his tenure. I didn't want him in charge anyhoo, by Christmas I was dreading the end of the season because the very real fear of relegation was there, and I could see that with all Holloway's bravado and jokey post-match comments he didn't have a fecking clue( as well as only playing Fryatt for about 10 minutes a game and playing him out wide, and despite playing Hume out wide more than up front, and the dropping him to the bench for the Sheff Weds game when he had scored in the previous two matches)

The man was NOT right for this club, and unfortunately for us, that proved to be the case.

So when Pearson was announced as manager my first thoughts were- 'someone who doesn't spout a load of bollocks after matches'!!
All I knew about Pearson as a manager was that he kept Southampton up and that made him a far better person than the previous bloke in charge.
His first interviews impressed me as well. No-nonsense talking, straight to the point and an obvious desire to do the very best he could.He isn't one to make excuses and very rarely tries to may the blame on anyone. He deals with problems quietly and imo he can be quite ruthless when he has to be in some situations, but he is willing to give people second chances, but they don't get another one, as DJ surely knows.

I don't know how long we will be lucky to hold onto him, but sooner or later a more established Premiership club is bound to come in for him, and if we aren't up there, no one could blame him for seriously thinking about things. Pearson has a winners attitude and imo he expects no less from his players.

Ben didn't want him, and tbh he would be happy he he got the sack cos he hates him, he is VERY quick to jump on Pearson back when things are going wrong, as are a fair few others. But when you don't like someone, you won't change their minds even if they win you the biggest prize of all!

 

[Profondo Rosso]

The real question is. If we get to Wembley. What will Pearson look like in a suit and tie? I just can't picture it myself.

 

[Macky]

I was just glad to see Holloway get the boot.

People defending him seem to forget he took over about 3 months into the season......and our play steadily got worse and worse and owrse under his tenure. I didn't want him in charge anyhoo, by Christmas I was dreading the end of the season because the very real fear of relegation was there, and I could see that with all Holloway's bravado and jokey post-match comments he didn't have a fecking clue( as well as only playing Fryatt for about 10 minutes a game and playing him out wide, and despite playing Hume out wide more than up front, and the dropping him to the bench for the Sheff Weds game when he had scored in the previous two matches)

The man was NOT right for this club, and unfortunately for us, that proved to be the case.

So when Pearson was announced as manager my first thoughts were- 'someone who doesn't spout a load of bollocks after matches'!!
All I knew about Pearson as a manager was that he kept Southampton up and that made him a far better person than the previous bloke in charge.
His first interviews impressed me as well. No-nonsense talking, straight to the point and an obvious desire to do the very best he could.He isn't one to make excuses and very rarely tries to may the blame on anyone. He deals with problems quietly and imo he can be quite ruthless when he has to be in some situations, but he is willing to give people second chances, but they don't get another one, as DJ surely knows.

I don't know how long we will be lucky to hold onto him, but sooner or later a more established Premiership club is bound to come in for him, and if we aren't up there, no one could blame him for seriously thinking about things. Pearson has a winners attitude and imo he expects no less from his players.

Ben didn't want him, and tbh he would be happy he he got the sack cos he hates him, he is VERY quick to jump on Pearson back when things are going wrong, as are a fair few others. But when you don't like someone, you won't change their minds even if they win you the biggest prize of all!

I was lookin for the 'like' button, but I couldn't find it



That'll have to do

 

[beaumontfox]

I can only go by the gut feeling I had when he came in and i didn't like him then, didn't like him after the first couple of weeks, was certain he wasn't good enough by Christmas and hated his stupid, blind ineptness by the end of the season.

Whatever we may blame on Allen and Megson, Holloway had MORE than enough time to do summat with the squad he inherited, yet all he did with his baffling team formations and tactics was to make them even worse than they had been before.

Maybe Leicester was too big a club for him, no disrespect to Blackpool, and he looked like a man drowning from very early on in his short time at the club.

Of course, refusing to accept any sort of attachment of blame for our relegation doesn't help me think any better of him. Yes it's the players out there who don't do enough to keep a team up, but ultimately blame lies with the man who is in charge, and his decisions in the last couple of weeks in that season contributed to our fall, thankfully though Milan DID do the right thing and got rid of him, shame it wasn't the day after he got us relegated though!

 

[Profondo Rosso]

I agree with you BF in that I can never understand the Holloway defenders. He was a clown. Yes he's been successful elsewehere and yes Allen spent shitloads on utter shit, but we really weren't in danger of relegation when Holloway came in at all and he had the vast majority of that season as manager.

It would have had to take a major cock up to get us relegated and that's what Holloway did. I can't go along with the "took over a sinking ship" viewpoint. Holloway for me will have to go down as one of the worst manager's in the club's history.

I absolutely cannot stand the **** and nothing would give me greater pleasure than doing him at Wembley.

 

[Samir Nasri]

Holloway is a decent manager. I feel totally indifferent about him. I don't like him. And I don't hate him either. I do, however, believe that he has learned a lot from his disastrous spell here and if another similar sized club to ours came in for him [i.e. Sheff Utd, Coventry etc] he would do reasonably well with them.

If Holloway was appointed instead of Martin Allen, and had the entire summer to wheel & deal, then I firmly believe we'd not have gone down. Holloway arrived at a club who was in complete turmoil, some of his loan signings were shit, others were alright. 2 of his 3 permanent signings have turned out to be good players who have served us well [Oakley & Howard] and Big Barry Hayles was just here for comical reasons.

There are a lot of people to blame for our demise, and Holloway is part of the blame, but he is not the sole reason we went down. Mad Mandy, Martin Allen, Holloway, the players etc. all share the blame equally.