Stuart Pearce

Stuart Pearce (born 24 April 1962) is an English professional football manager and former player, who was most recently a first-team coach for Premier League club West Ham United.

He was nicknamed "Psycho" for his unforgiving style of play.

As a player, Pearce played as a defender and appeared for Wealdstone, Coventry City, Nottingham Forest, Newcastle United, West Ham United and Manchester City in a career that spanned twenty-two years.

He is best known for his twelve-year spell at Forest, where he regularly captained the team and became the club's most capped international, making 76 of his 78 appearances for England while with the club and captaining the national side on nine occasions.

In 1983, Wealdstone received an unexpected offer of £30,000 (then a very large sum for a semi-professional player) for Pearce from top-flight club Coventry City.

Sky Blues manager Bobby Gould had been to watch Wealdstone and was impressed by Pearce's determination and combative attitude.

Pearce agreed to the step-up in clubs reluctantly – making his professional debut for Coventry immediately.

He established himself as an uncompromising left-back who played in a hard but fair manner.

Two years later in 1985, Pearce was brought to Nottingham Forest by manager Brian Clough in a combined deal which also saw Coventry centre-back Ian Butterworth move to Forest.

Despite the transfer, Pearce was still unsure of his prospects in the professional game and even advertised his services as an electrician in Forest's match-day programme.

Pearce spent twelve years at Forest, most of it as club captain.

Ray was formerly a referee, and in September 1986, was a linesman in a League Cup match involving his brother.

Pearce first attended Fryent Primary School in Kingsbury, North West London, before attending Claremont High School in Kenton.

Pearce failed a trial at Queens Park Rangers and then rejected an offer from Hull City, instead settling into a career in the non-league game with his local side, Wealdstone, while training and working as an electrician.

For almost five years, he was the first-choice full-back for the team, then amongst the biggest names of non-league football in the Alliance Premier League.

During his playing career, he won two League Cups and the Full Members Cup, while also scoring from a free-kick in the 1991 FA Cup final, when Forest were beaten by Tottenham Hotspur.

In his time at the City Ground, Pearce was one of the Forest players who had to cope with the horrors of the Hillsborough disaster during the opening minutes of their FA Cup semi-final against Liverpool.

Pearce played in the rescheduled match at Old Trafford, which Liverpool won 3–1.

He helped them finish third in the league that year (as they had done a year earlier), and also contributed to their victories in the League Cup and Full Members Cup.

He helped them retain the League Cup a year later and in 1991 he had his first crack at the FA Cup, and despite giving Forest an early lead against Tottenham in a match most remembered for the knee injury suffered by Pearce's opponent Paul Gascoigne, Pearce ended up on the losing side as Spurs came back to win 2–1.

He missed out on a Wembley appearance the following season as Forest lost 1–0 to Manchester United in the 1992 League Cup final.

In 1993, Forest were relegated from the Premier League and Brian Clough resigned after 18 years as manager, but Pearce opted to stay at the City Ground and captained Forest to an instant return to the top flight as Division One runners-up.

He helped Forest finish third in the Premier League in 1995 and reach the UEFA Cup quarter-finals in 1996.

Pearce's managerial career began at Nottingham Forest in a caretaker role, from December 1996 to May 1997.

In 1996–97 season, Forest struggled in the league and manager Frank Clark resigned in December, which saw 34-year-old Pearce appointed caretaker player-manager of Forest in December 1996.

His first match in charge was at home to Arsenal in the league.

In November 2000, he was assistant coach to Peter Taylor in Taylor's only match in charge of England.

Following his retirement in 2002, he remained with Manchester City as a coach under Kevin Keegan.

In 2005, he was named caretaker manager and was given the job permanently that summer.

In 2007, he was named caretaker manager of the England national under-21 team, guiding them to the semi-finals of the 2007 UEFA Under-21 Championship.

After being sacked by City in May 2007, he was given the England U21 job permanently a month later.

Under Pearce, the team finished as runners-up in the 2009 UEFA Under-21 Championship, but failed to make it out of the group stage in the 2013 UEFA Under-21 Championship.

Dennis was once a member of the far right British National Party and was third on the BNP list for London for the 2009 European Parliament election.

In addition, Pearce was an assistant coach under Fabio Capello, managed the Great Britain Olympic football team at the 2012 Summer Olympics, and was caretaker manager of England for one game in February 2012.

In 2013, he left the U21s, as his contract was not extended by the Football Association.

He returned to Nottingham Forest as manager in July 2014, and initially began the season well, but after a run of poor form, he was sacked in February 2015.

He has since coached at Portsmouth and at West Ham United.

Born in Shepherd's Bush, Hammersmith, London, Pearce is the youngest of four children.

He has two brothers, Dennis and Ray, and a sister, Pamela.

In 2016, he briefly came out of retirement, signing a one-match deal with Longford, from a town in Gloucestershire, a team dubbed "the worst in Great Britain", in order to support the grassroots game.