Pearson does one

"To my dear friends and colleagues at the training ground, and stadium on matchdays; thanks for your support, professionalism and humour, especially during difficult times... I’ve always hated workplaces where there are pecking orders, so to be with so many people who just get how important fun and support is, to obtaining meaningful output, has been simply brilliant. Sorry I’ll never make a Christmas do.

"To the players, thank you for the journey. Some have been present throughout, some for a short time, some no longer at the club, but all have played their roles. To the senior players; you are why many of the emerging stars will be so special. Always remember this...

"Thank you, I will see you in the Mendips, on the levels, and occasionally in a pub or two. My family and I have been so touched by your support. Take care, and good luck. Cheers, Nige. X"

 

He did quite an interesting interview a bit after he left...

“It was something I couldn’t turn down, it was as simple as that,” admitted Pearson.

“It’s difficult for people to understand and I don’t expect Hull fans to either forgive me or understand it, but it was just something that I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to.

“At least I was honest about it, I didn’t play one off the other, and I just said I can’t turn the opportunity down and I was never anything other than brutally honest about it sometimes, honesty unnerves people because it is not what they want to hear.

“If it had been another Championship club come in and do the same thing, I don’t think I would’ve gone. I was not unhappy there and this is what people don’t really get about is, it wouldn’t have just happened because I had the chance to go to another club, it wasn’t that at all, it was because it was Leicester.

“It was an emotional attachment, Adam [Pearson]’s face was a bit shocked when I told him, but it is what it is.”

“People don’t necessarily understand this or believe it, but I really enjoyed my time there, there was quite a few of us, staff wise and the five of us who went, we really, really enjoyed it,” Pearson explained.

“It was a chance to do things a bit differently, we had a difficult set of circumstances because we inherited a squad that was not going anywhere and it was top heavy with players who had probably done enough there.

“We had to offload a number of players, bring the wage bill down, so it was a challenge and we didn’t have a brilliant first third of the season, but by the end of the season, I think we were functioning pretty well as a team.

“There was an element of dealing with a really tough situation, not being particularly popular as a manager, which seems to be the case wherever I go; it was an interesting time for us.

“The second season, we started pretty well and the Leicester thing came out of the blue, so it wasn’t something that I was particularly looking for.

“I would like to think that I left the club in a much better, healthier position than I found it, not just through what I had done, but through the work of the football club and it was a team effort to try and stabilise a very difficult situation.

“I just felt that when we went there and when the job started, it was very complex, but by the time we left, the players that we had bought in, there was some value to the squad, which there really wasn’t when we inherited it. Even though players had cost a lot of money, there was not a lot of value to the squad.”

“As a group of staff, with Adam Pearson’s guidance as well, we had turned the ship around and I look back at that time and say I had learnt a lot, but also, enjoyed the process of trying to achieve some sort of level of success under difficult circumstances,” Nigel explained.

“It’s not easy to work with embargoes over you where you can just give into it, or you can be creative and we were.

“We had to offload players and were able to do that, we were clever with how we bought players into the club and there was some really good times there.

“I went along and spoke with Adam and it just felt like a fresh start, a good opportunity. It was something that came out of nothing and it was enjoyable for all of us as staff, we all got a lot out of it.

“I really enjoyed working with Adam Pearson, I thought he was excellent, really, really good and he introduced me to almost working with a director of football; he was really good to work with.

“He [Adkins] is someone I like a lot anyway and it’s dealing with expectation.

“All I’d say is, I think there is a lot of value in being transparent with the fan base and saying look, these are the realistic expectations, they might not be what they want to hear, but actually, you can’t pull the wool over people’s eyes by trying to paint a picture that everything is great when it’s not.

“Likewise, if you are too aggressive, you can’t afford to lose your players. If it’s a period of transition, you have still got to utilise the players that you have got.

“I can’t know what [City fans] are experiencing because I don’t have finger on the pulse there, but what I will say is, I like Nigel, he’s got integrity, he’s got plenty of games experience and like any manager, they need support and time and whether they get it or not is another thing.”