There's all sorts of rumours about what he was on, massive increases based on appearances etc, but they're probably all rubbish. He's been injured a lot, he played in a cup game when Barmby took over and he was terrible, I suspect that's why he didn't get much of a look in. We're now playing a system that suits him and just like Simpson(other than on Sunday), he looks a different player.
Must admit it does get annoying having players frozen out of the squad- the one thing that really annoys me about Pearson. Sure, there's probably some stuff going on behind the scenes, but it just seems such a waste having these players sitting doing nothing. First there was DJ Campbell, then Matt Mills and now Beckford and Danns. Hasn't really seemed to happen under any of our other managers, I remember you being in a similar position under his helm?
Pearson doesn't like players with bad attitudes. Sven bought a lot of these in - big money, big egos (however DJ was still the worst). I think Pearson thinks putting these kind of players to train with the youth team will show if they are interested in getting their heads down and working hard to get back into contention or whether they are quitters and need to be shipped out. St. Ledger is proof that there is a way back from being frozen out, but most won't have the character to get through it.
St. Ledger only got another chance because we ran out of defenders. Tunchev was injured and Sol Bamba was at the ACON. Leaving us with just Matt Mills
NP would have started a youth team player rather then one that he didn't like - SSL worked hard and got his reward with a place in the side. Mills didn't and was chucked out.
Seems legit however, when he was in charge of us, he bought Jay Simpson, and when he started to find form and score, he dropped him... And judging by his new found form I doubt he ever had a negative attitude to the team. Watching training sessions, he was probably one of (if not) the hardest working of them all. Obviously he signed Fryatt and McLean, but still, he didn't seem to have the will to drop McLean who never really scored... Especially when you look at Bruce who signed Proschwitz for £2.6m and starts him on the bench. I think Pearson is a bit strange when it comes to leaving players in limbo.
I can imagine that some players do not like Pearson's somewhat forceful approach. Raising objections may result in being frozen out. Perhaps Simpson complained to Pearson, but had the character to fight for a place and waited for an opportunity which is obviously paying off now. I think Pearson is probably unpopular with a lot of players, hence Steve Howard's comments when he left. But Pearson's is there to whip players into shape. I'd rather have a Brian Clough type dictator than a friend-to-all type like Sven or Steve ("Stevie G") McClaren.
Fair enough, he does have a sort of military style approach to everything, when he left to return to you and Barmby took over, the players were saying how they enjoyed playing a more free role, had fun at training and didn't have 'strict positioning'. At the end of the day we ended up not finishing in the play offs but it is no lie that Pearson's approach sometimes ends up making the players want to turn against him.
