BACK AT FULL THROTTLE
Pearson laughs off reports he was axed over McArthur tussle
Nigel PEARSON revealed he had spent Sunday afternoon in Sheffield’s greystones pub watching a Canadian folk band — which he did not enjoy.
He also admitted he could be a hard man to reach — deliberately. He changes his mobile phone number twice a year and is not the sort to engage in idle chat over the garden fence. Nor is he on Twitter.
‘i’m a miserable b****r, you know,’ said 51-year- old Pearson. ‘i don’t speak to my neighbours.’
What about a phone call? ‘My cat was sitting on my knee all afternoon. i was like Blofeld. i’m not someone who is particularly gregarious. let’s put it like that.’
But during yesterday’s media briefing at the King Power Stadium Pearson did not reveal what actually happened to him on Sunday. instead, he remained defiant while citing company confidentiality and his own principles of loyalty, especially at a time when he should be preparing for tonight’s game at Arsenal.nal.
Pearson also took a swipe at BBC’s Match h
of the Day, branding host gary lineker and pundits Danny Murphy and Jermaine Jenas the ‘three fountains of knowledge’ while accusing them off stirring trouble.
He insisted they hadad made ‘a mountain out of a molehill’ by dwelling on his touchline tussle with Crystal Palace’s James McArthur during leicester’s 1-0 home defeat on Saturday and a post-match interview when the manager promised he could ‘look after himself’.
‘ i thought they were slightly disruptive. i don’t care what they think of me,’ said Pearson, adding cryptically: ‘i pay my tax bill.’
His remarks provoked a swift reaction from lineker. The leicester-born club legend, and now
MOTD frontman, is familiar with the workings of Twitter and he responded: ‘ Ah Nigel Pearson is blaming MOTD for making a mountain out of a molehill. We’d best be careful in future, the fella can look after himself.’
Asked if he was a ‘fountain of knowledge’, lineker added: ‘if i was i’d tell you that he was sacked by one of the owners’ family and reinstated by another, but then i’m not.’
it seemed to confirm a chain of events in which chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha, who was at the Palace game, had taken the decision to change the manager — and implemented it — only to be talked out of it later by his son, Aiyawatt ‘Top’ Srivaddhanaprabha, leicester’s vice-chairman, who was in Thailand on business.
Four hours passed on Sunday after news of the story started to leak out — again, lineker was among those circulating the ‘news’ to his 3.5million Twitter followers — and before the club statement insisting Pearson remained in charge. ‘The timescale was a lot different for meme, put it like that,’ said Pearson,Pea who noticed no expressionsex of shock amongam the players when he appeared for training yesterday morning. ‘i didn’t see anybody withw their jaw on the floor. ‘ everybody in their generationg is socialmediame savvy these days. i’m certainly not, and i don’t watch 24-hour sports channels.hl i’m not that sort of an animal. So don’t make assumptions about that, either. i was aware of it but i didn’t see it.
‘We have meetings on a Monday morning. Not specifically about that. it was just a general chat about turning positive performances into results. i may or may not have spoken about the weekend in its entirety. i had an interesting Sunday.’
Was it his strangest day? ‘i’ve had some very strange days in football, let me tell you,’ he said. ‘i spent the day at home. i might have gone to the pub.
‘There was a Canadian folk band. They weren’t very good. it was a different type of a day.
‘Sundays when you lose are not always easy to deal with. i had a few chats with friends. My lad came over. We had a chat. i’m in a job where you’re going to be scrutinised and when it comes your way you might not like it and i might not deal with it as others would choose me to deal with it but i am myself. i don’t pretend to be anybody else.’
Pearson stood firm and refused to apologise earlier in the season when he told a leicester fan who was shouting abuse at him during a game to ‘F*** off and die’. He was fined by the FA and banned from the touchline for one game.
‘Some people criticise me for not being animated enough, for sitting in stands and not showing any passion,’ he said. ‘i come down, get involved in a couple of situations and all of a sudden, it’s a slightly different angle.
‘i’m a human being and i will make mistakes from time to time but any mistakes i make are very honest ones. And i don’t have any regrets.’
Pearson has faced the music and is still standing. He is not planning to retreat to the stands at the emirates Stadium. ‘i think i’ll be on the touchline, in the hinterland of the technical area,’ he said. ‘i don’t know yet. i might go and sit with the owners.’