Sport
WERE LEICESTER RIGHT TO RELIEVE NIGEL PEARSON OF HIS DUTIES?
Were Leicester Right To Relieve Nigel Pearson Of His Duties?
Nigel Pearson has endured a tumultuous few months it has to be said.
Even if we put aside his infamous ostrich comment for now, there have clearly been “issues” for the manager to deal with across this season, whether he chooses to admit the same or not.
Telling supporters to “f%£k off and die” and then pinning down Crystal Palace’s James McArthur in a mock fight isn’t the preserve of someone with a sound mind.
And nor is the particularly brusque, surly and evasive manner in which he approached many of the final few press conferences of the season. Rambling at times, Pearson appeared to have let the pressure get to him.
Fortunately for his bosses at the King Power stadium, against that back drop Pearson still managed to drag an underperforming team from the brink of the abyss of the Championship to Premier League survival.
For many, it was the greatest escape in EPL history.
With the final week of the season safely negotiated, Pearson would’ve surely been looking forward to the comforts of a nice break, perhaps even a holiday away somewhere secluded after an end of season tour arranged by the clubs’ Thai owners.
That was until his son James and team mates Adam Smith and Tom Hopper decided to engage in a orgy with 10 Thai girls whilst on Leicester’s “goodwill” tour of the region.
Regardless of the nature of what was said and done, the embarrassment was immediate and far reaching. Leicester were worldwide news…but for all of the wrong reasons.
It surely can’t have come as any surprise to Pearson Snr. that his flesh and blood would be sacked in due course because there simply isn’t any defence for Pearson Jnr’s. actions.
Apparently an apology wasn’t forthcoming from the manager which appears to have been viewed by the hierarchy as an endorsement of his son’s actions and to that end, Pearson Snr. was also eventually sacked.
Yet the backlash from the same has been extensive.
Ex-Leicester striker and BBC Sport front man Gary Lineker was extremely vocal in his support of the manager, and scathing in his criticism of the clubs owners.
A manager who had, for all intents and purposes, achieved the impossible yet paid the price of his sons misdemeanours.
Lineker and others suggested that it shouldn’t be within the clubs’ remit to administer the ultimate sanction. Moreover, it seemed clear, to Lineker at least, that Pearson was the right man for the job.
What the crisp-eating celebrity fails to understand however is that, as the manager, Pearson remains ultimately responsible for his staff whilst they are away on club business.
That he should take umbrage at his employers decision to terminate the contracts of the three players shows, once again, the internal struggles that Pearson Snr. is undergoing.
He simply wouldn’t have coped with the barrage of questions at his next press conferences, which would have massively overshadowed other good work at the football club.
So whether Lineker agrees with it or not, it was exactly the right decision.
